Coral sand

Coral sand is sand of particles originating in tropical and sub-tropical marine environments from bioerosion of limestone skeletal material of marine organisms. One example of this process is that of parrot fishes which bite off pieces of coral, digest the living tissue, and excrete the inorganic component as silt and sand. However, the term "coral" in coral sand is used loosely in this sense to mean limestone of recent biological origin; corals are not the dominant contributors of sand particles to most such deposits. Rather, remnant skeletal fragments of foraminifera, calcareous algae, molluscs, and crustaceans can predominate. Because it is composed of limestone, coral sand is acid-soluble. Patterns in the sand Sand is an example of a class of materials called granular matter. ... Bioerosion describes the erosion of hard ocean substrates by living organisms by a number of mechanisms. ... Limey shale overlaid by limestone. ... Genera Bolbometopon Calotomus Cetoscarus Chlorurus Cryptotomus Hipposcarus Leptoscarus Nicholsina Scarus Sparisoma Parrotfish are mostly tropical, perciform marine fish of the family Scaridae. ... Orders see Anthozoa zsnobordinkid505@aol. ... Orders Allogromiida Carterinida Fusulinida - extinct Globigerinida Involutinida Lagenida Miliolida Robertinida Rotaliida Silicolocunida Spirillinida Textulariida The Foraminifera, or forams for short, are a large group of amoeboid protists with reticulating pseudopods, fine strands that branch and merge to form a dynamic net. ... Classes Caudofoveata Aplacophora Polyplacophora - Chitons Monoplacophora Bivalvia - Bivalves Scaphopoda - Tusk shells Gastropoda - Snails and Slugs Cephalopoda - Squids, Octopuses, etc. ... Classes Remipedia Cephalocarida Branchiopoda Ostracoda Maxillopoda Malacostraca The crustaceans (Crustacea) are a large group of arthropods (55,000 species), usually treated as a subphylum. ...

Environmental issues

Coral sand mining is a significant industry in some areas, and can have damaging environmental effects. Over 500,000 tons of coral sand are mined annually from Mauritius. Many Comoros beaches have been scarred by sand mining. Over 250 tons of shells and corals were exported from Tanzania in 1974. Exploitive collection has moved from the depleted areas off Tanzania and Kenya to the islands of Zanzibar and Mafia. The Republic of Mauritius is an island country in the southwest Indian Ocean, about 900 km east of Madagascar. ... The Union of Comoros (until 2002 the Islamic Federal Republic of the Comoros) is principally a three-island country in southern Africa, situated at the northern end of the Mozambique Channel in the Indian Ocean, between northern Madagascar and northern Mozambique. ... The United Republic of (Jamhuri ya Muungano wa Tanzania in Swahili) is a country on the east coast of central Africa. ... Kenya (pronounced as KEN-ya) is a country of East Africa, bordering Ethiopia, Somalia, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda and the Indian Ocean. ... Map of Zanzibars main island Zanzibar, Tanzania, comprises a pair of islands off the east coast of Africa called Zanzibar (Unguja) (1994 est. ... This article is about the organized crime groups. ...

Such extensive mining can be very harmful to reef ecosystems and beaches. In ecology, an ecosystem is a community of organisms (plant, animal and other living organisms - also referred as biocenose) together with their environment (or biotope), functioning as a unit. ...

In an effort to prevent damage from reef sand minding, the Convention on international trade in endangered species urged parties to the convention to work for the conservation and sustainable use of coral reef ecosystems.

External links

• Convention on international trade in endangered species resolution on Trade in stony corals (http://www.cites.org/eng/res/11/11-10.shtml)