Mexican Caribbean coral cover declines by over 70%

The Mexican Caribbean has lost more than 70% of its live coral cover since the 1980s, according to Lorenzo Álvarez Filip, a researcher from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM).

Speaking at a colloquium on climate variability, Álvarez Filip explained that this ecological collapse is the result of four decades of cumulative anthropogenic pressures. The deterioration began with rapid, unregulated coastal urbanization in Quintana Roo during the 1970s and 1980s, which led to continuous discharges of untreated wastewater, sedimentation, and nutrient overloading in marine areas.

While historical land-based pollution weakened the reef structures, global climate change has significantly intensified the crisis. Extreme marine heatwaves between 2023 and 2024 caused severe bleaching episodes and mass mortality in coral colonies that were already under physiological stress, further reducing the functional biological mass of the reefs.