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A new report has found climate change is the biggest threat to US coral reefs
Image source, Getty Images
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has published its first ever status report on the conditions of coral reefs in the USA and has found that climate change is the main threat to them.
Both the Pacific and Atlantic Ocean coral reefs in the US were given a "fair" score on the status reports.
But there were also warnings that both reefs are in a state of decline and are vulnerable to further degradation.
The NOAA made the report with the University of Maryland Centre for Environmental Science, collecting data from 2012-2018.
Image source, Getty Images
Each category that the coral was ranked on ranged from "very good" for positive aspects and "impaired" or "critical" for struggling reefs.
It found that the coral reefs which are closer to bigger human populations are in a worse condition because of things like pollution and damage from fishing.
Climate change was named as the main threat to coral reefs, because warmer and more acidic sea water is damaging them all over the world.
The report says the reefs off the coast of Florida are the most degraded in the USA, with perhaps as little as 2% remaining.
Coral reefs are really important in Florida, which is a region prone to hurricanes, because they provide natural barriers to storm surges.
Those reefs are the most at-risk because the region is one of the most densely-populated in the USA with over nine million people living along the coast where the reefs are found.
Coral reefs are home to 25% of the world's marine species - they're like the Amazon rainforest of the seas. Some of them also provide a home to species that can't be found anywhere else on Earth.