 |  | _________ |  Megatourism, intensive fishing, and sewage, sewage, sewage
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 To help save the reefs of Texas (U.S.), get active with these groups: Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund
| | _________ |  A little piece of Texas out in the Gulf of Mexico, the federally protected Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary is generally in fine shape: It has undergone no significant change in coral cover, population levels, or diversity in the past 20 years, thanks in part to the installation of mooring buoys which make it unnecessary for ships to drop coral-damaging anchors. But protected status is no guard against the widespread coral bleaching which broke out here in 1995, afflicting up to 10 percent of the reef's corals. The sanctuary's manager, Steve Giddings, told NPR then that "It almost looked like an anchor had dragged across certain parts of the reef and left these white scars," but in actuality the stressed corals were expelling the tiny plants (zooxanthellae) that live on them. Caused in part by warmer water temperatures, coral bleaching is expected to worsen with global warming. No doubt aware of this prospect, the Shell Oil Company Foundation announced in April 1998 that it will give $5 million to the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation to help protect and conserve the Gulf of Mexico's marine ecosystems. The funds, to be paid out over five years like some petrochemical lottery, represent a generous 0.0039% of parent Royal Dutch/Shell's sales for 1996—or rather less than 1/256th. Do people care? A tiny, tiny bit.
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