The Caribbean’s billion dollar dive industry is under serious threat from coastal and marine pollution, latest reports from the United Nations Environment Programme have revealed.
In its Caribbean Environment Outlook 2005 report, UNEP said that the continuing destruction of healthy coral reefs, the main attraction of the region’s dive tourism, will have a direct impact on the region’s tourism revenue
UNEP estimated that the Caribbean currently attracts approximately 5.7 million of the world’s 10 million suba divers.
Studies have shown that marine tourism generates revenue in excess of $385 billion worldwide and is credited with earning nearly half of the Caribbean’s gross national product.
The UNEP organisation has now expressed concern that this branch of tourism could be threatened if the respective Caribbean nations do not make reef conservation a high priority and let reefs be destroyed through coral bleaching and other man-made damaging factors.
Although the Bahamas is still considered to have one of the healthier coral reef eco-systems in the region, marine biologists warn that action must be taken soon to avoid conditions such as in Jamaica where destruction has led to erosion of the beaches.
Source: Karin Herig, The Tribune
