Los corales del golfo

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Large-scale dredging and land reclamation, the process of creating new land from what was once the sea, are major factors, he said.

Others are nutrient-rich discharges from sewage treatment plants, thermal pollution from desalination plants and industry, and overfishing, which can remove herbivore fish that control algae. If algae is allowed to grow unchecked, it can overwhelm coral.

"Usually it is a combination of different factors in varying degrees," Prof Sheppard said.

The problem is that once reefs are destroyed, full recovery is impossible.

"Unfortunately, things are not in our favour," he said. "Even if the problems – sewage, overfishing, landfilling – are solved, when the damage is done, very little can recover."

Efforts to transplant coral from areas about to be affected to safer areas have more of a "feel-good" effect on people, rather than real significance for the marine environment, he said.

"It is better to try to plant them rather than just to bury them and let them die," he said. "But it is a matter of scale."

A translocation scheme can cover one per cent in the best case. In addition, a scheme cannot re-create the coral reef habitat.

"Nobody can transplant a coral reef. What you can do is to try to transplant a few of the corals," he said. "You are making a kind of zoo.

"It is so much better to try to avoid damaging them anyway."