True or False: Coral protection

(CNN) -- True or False: Coral reefs can save coastal communities from tsunamis

The answer is: FALSE

Despite some scientists and organizations saying that coastal mangroves and coral reefs can reduce the damage of tsunamis to coastal communities, according to the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies in Australia, they couldn't be more wrong.

According to the Centre, "Future tsunamis may have a higher death toll than necessary as a consequence of dangerous myths being circulated about the effectiveness of "green belts" and buffer zones as protective barriers" during the Asia Tsunami in December 2004 that took the lives of a quarter of a million people.

In an article, ARC research fellow James Baird adds that during the 2004 tsunami, based on published data from 50 different sites, "coastal vegetation had no mitigating effect on the distance the tsunami penetrated, and that this distance was actually greater in areas fronted by coral reefs"

(The Jakarta Post) E-mail to a friend