This is how tourists are destroying coral reefs in Hawaii
The millions of tourists who flock to the shores of Hawaii every year are wreaking havoc on its natural environment -- especially on the coral reefs. The millions of tourists who flock to the shores of Hawaii every year are wreaking havoc on its natural environment -- especially the coral reefs, which are at risk all over the world, a new study said. The most popular coral reefs on the Hawaiian islands are likely being degraded by the very visitors they attract, according to a study published Monday in Nature Sustainability. MORE: World Oceans Day 2022: How climate change and warming waters are affecting the health of the oceans Researchers from Princeton University combed through more than 250,000 geotagged Instagram posts from 2018 to 2021 by tourists visiting Hawaiian reefs and compared them with flyover maps of live coral cover. They then used artificial intelligence to analyze reef map images at about a 2-meter resolution, or about 6.5 feet, and 16-meter, or 52.5-feet, depth, acco...