Dynamite fishing, coral mining, and farm runoff take a toll

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Reefs off this remote British Indian Ocean Territory are well-developed and the closest thing to untouched in the region, but the Chagos Bank reef area is being overfished under the very nose of the Royal Navy. Scientists from a research expedition that visited in 1996 report that Sri Lankan pirate fishing boats were easily dodging the lone patrol boat the navy could spare to canvass the area; her Majesty's laxity allows the pirates to make off with huge numbers of reef sharks and other large fish, virtually eliminating whole predator populations. Charles Sheppard, an expert on corals at the University of Warwick and the expedition's leader, warns that the elimination of predators would "cause the collapse of the reef ecosystem."

Since the Brits leased the southernmost island in the archipelago, Diego Garcia, to the U.S. in the 1960s, the massive U.S. Navy base there has caused reef damage through large-scale dredging and construction.