Contact EPA Pacific Southwest Water Division
Pacific Southwest, Region 9
Serving: Arizona, California, Hawaii, Nevada, Pacific Islands, Tribal Nations
Oceans, Coasts, and Estuaries
- Protecting Coral Reefs
Coral Reef Resources
- What are Coral Reefs?
- Coral Reef Indicators
- Coral Reef Ecosystem Division – NOAA
- U.S. Coral Reef Task Force
- National and International Coral reef initiatives
- Potential Impacts on Coral Reefs (PDF) (153 pp, 5.0M) About PDF
- Aquatic Invasive Species
- Threats to Coral Reefs (PPT) (9 pp, 4.0M)
- Corals and Reefs: Featured Documents
- Grants for Coral Reef Protection
- CNMI Coral Reef Initiative
Grants for Coral Protection
- BEACH Act Grants
- Environmental Education
- Env. Justice Collaborative Problem-Solving Grants
- EPA STAR Grants
- Food Quality Protection Act
- OSWER Innovation Initiative
- Pesticide Environmental Stewardship Program
- Pollution Prevention Grants for States
- Nonpoint Source Water Pollution Control
- Resource Conservation Funds
- Targeted Watershed Initiative
- Wetlands Protection Grants
Coral reefs are valued for their diversity and beauty, but are increasingly threatened worldwide by natural and human-caused stressors. To address threats such as land-based pollution and coastal development, EPA, Pacific Southwest’s office is applying a range of regulatory and non-regulatory environmental programs to monitor and protect coral reefs.
Coral Reef Strategy
Coral reefs are threatened globally by the impacts of climate change and local stress such as land-based and marine pollution. Scientists tell us that 90 percent of all coral will be threatened by 2030 if we do nothing. The best opportunity we have to protect coral for future generations, other than reducing greenhouse gas emissions worldwide, is to limit the amount of local stress on the coral by maintaining coral ecosystems with healthy food webs and clean, clear water.
EPA’s Pacific Southwest coral reef strategy (PDF) (5 pp, 700K) improves EPA’s focus on coral reef protection. The strategy builds upon what is known about the threats to coral reefs to direct existing tools and resources in the most efficient and beneficial way possible. EPA intends to implement the strategy in partnership with state, territorial, non-governmental, and other federal agencies.
Damselfish swim among vast beds of "Acropora" spp. corals in Palau. Photo by Jim Maragos, FWS.
Sediment from erosion in coastal watersheds and construction sites threaten coral reefs in Hawai'i. Photo by Kathy Chaston
Stony corals exhibit a diversity of forms including the solitary mushroom coral Fungia fungites, surrounded by a colony of Porites rus. Photo by Jim Maragos, FWS
Coral reefs support a diversity of marine organisms such as crinoids attached to a sea fan in Palau. Photo by Jim Maragos, FWS.
Coastal wetland taro fields in Hanalei Watershed on the island of Kaua'i, Hawai'i.