ST. THOMAS - Arizona-based nonprofit, The Center for Biological Diversity, has initiated the process to have 83 species of corals - eight of which are found in the Virgin Islands - listed under the federal Endangered Species Act.

The group has petitioned the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to have the corals listed and protected under federal law.

The petition includes 83 corals that live in U.S. waters - ranging from Florida and Hawaii to U.S. territories in the Caribbean and Pacific.

"We selected corals that have declined at least 30 percent over a 30-year period," Miyoko Sakashita, oceans director of the Center for Biological Diversity, said.

Of the 83 corals on the petition list, eight are found in the territory's waters:

- Agaricia lamarcki (Lamarck's sheet coral)

- Montastraea annularis (boulder star coral)

- Montastraea faveolata (mountainous star coral)

-Β Montastraea franksi (star coral)

- Dendrogyra cylindrus (pillar coral)

- Dichocoenia stokesii (elliptical star coral or pineapple coral)

- Mycetophyllia ferox (rough cactus coral)

- Oculina varicosa (large ivory coral, ivory bush coral, ivory tree coral)

The petition states that the eight Caribbean corals face multiple threats to their continued existence - bleaching, disease, stronger hurricanes and storms, pollution and sedimentation as a result of coastal development and chronic overfishing. In addition, all corals face a growing threat of extinction because of rising ocean temperatures caused by global warming and the related threat of ocean acidification.

Climate change can lead to warmer ocean temperatures, which can result in mass coral bleaching - which occurred in the territory in 2005. That year, bleaching and a possibly related disease wiped out more than 60 percent of the coral population in the Virgin Islands.

Bleaching is when the colorful, living polyps on corals turn white after the warm water forces the coral to expel the symbiotic algae that they depend on for energy. While the coral can stay alive during the bleaching, it is unhealthy and often dies or succumbs to disease.

Higher levels of carbon dioxide in the air can lead to ocean acidification, which limits the amount of calcium the coral can draw out of the water to build their skeletons.

According to the Center for Biological Diversity, scientists have warned that coral reefs are likely to be the first worldwide ecosystem to collapse because of global warming and predict that all the world's reefs could be destroyed by 2050.

Sakashita said mass bleaching events have become much more frequent and severe as ocean temperatures have risen in recent decades. She said scientists predict that most of the world's corals will be subjected to mass bleaching events at steady frequencies within 20 years if the nation and the world stay on its current emissions path.

"We need a rapid reduction in carbon dioxide pollution to save the corals," Sakashita said.

In 2006, elkhorn and staghorn corals became the first, and so far only, coral species protected under the Endangered Species Act. The listing of staghorn and elkhorn corals as threatened also came in response to a petition from the Center for Biological Diversity.

Protection under the Endangered Species Act would lead to more coral reef conservation as fishing, dumping, dredging and offshore oil development would be subject to greater regulation. Also, the federal protection would require federal agencies to ensure that that their actions do not harm the coral species - which could result in reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

NOAA must respond to the Center for Biological Diversity's petition to list the 83 coral species within 90 days and determine whether or not listing is warranted for each of the coral species within one year.

"This is just the very initial step to asking them to list an endangered or threatened species," Sakashita said.

For more information, go to www.biologicaldiversity.org.