Coral sand
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Coral sand is a form of
crustaceans
. Because it is composed of limestone, coral sand is acid-soluble.
Environmental issues
Coral
damaging environmental effects. Over 500,000 tons of coral sand were mined annually from Mauritius until being banned in October 2001. Many Comoros beaches have been scarred by sand mining. Over 250 tons of shells and corals were exported from Tanzania in 1974[citation needed]. Exploitive collection has moved from the depleted areas off Tanzania and Kenya to the islands of Zanzibar and Mafia
.
Such extensive mining can be very harmful to reef ecosystems and beaches. It is estimated that, at the current rate of consumption, the supply of living coral rock from inner atoll ‘faros’ in North Malé will be exhausted within 30 years.[3]
