Danny DeMartini, Chief Scientific Officer and Co-Founder of Kuleana coral restoration, a nonprofit in Hawaii, said multiple stressors are overloading the corals. “There is an ecological balance in which coral growth rates can withstand some natural pressure from waves, storms and runoff,” he said. But, he added, the accumulation of human-made environmental stressors – including pollution, changes in sedimentation from development, rising sea temperatures from global warming, and destruction from trampling and anchoring on the reef – has disrupted the equilibrium. “It’s getting harder and harder for coral growth to keep pace.”
