"None of our partners want to see the disappearance of precious coral industries," Dawn M. Martin, president of SeaWeb, said at the coral conference in New York.
The society's report states that previous dredging, such as at Hay Point in 2006, damaged corals, contrary to industry claims.
A small mining industry quarries coral and sand.
Naples and its suburbs have a flourishing artisan industry working coral, pearls, tortoiseshell, leather, and lace.
Despite tropical beaches and beautiful coral reefs, the tourism industry here is much smaller than that of neighbours Fiji and Vanuatu.
Earlier this month the Gambling Commission, the industry regulator, fined Coral bookmakers £90,000 in profits it made from one drug dealer who had laundered almost £1m in its shops.
"We've got a lot of fish turning up dead, and that's hurting our fishing industry, and our coral reef is dying and that has effects on the tourist market," Ms. Williams said.
Di Natale, Waters and their entourage eventually found a berth with Marine Encounters owner John Rumney, who Fontes described as one of the few Cairns operators willing to publicly speak out on what coral bleaching means to the industry.
Liverpool, home to the widely acclaimed The Coral, now boasts a flourishing rock industry that is being compared to its zenith in the Sixties.
But in good news for tourists and the tourism industry, only 5% of coral has died on reefs south of Cairns.
