I agree with a lot of this HOWEVER, as for damage by hobbyists, maybe not. I was in Granada about 2 years after the hurricane went through and pummeled the island. I went snorkeling and saw devastation of the reefs and many pieces of broken coral strewn all over the ocean floor. Here's the catch tho, they were all still growing and alive. Mother Nature's own fragging. Depending on where you saw this piece of damaged coral, Humphead Parrotfish eat coral at an amazing rate and are responsible for about 25% of the soft sand found around many Pacific Islands. Couldn't it have been a fish that took that chunk out of the coral head? Many smaller reef type sharks aggressively feed on the reef. Couldn't one of them have broken the piece off? These are just possibilities. Obviously, I wasn't there so I don;t know for sure that it wasn't a hobbyist either. Just saying. Pollution: I've seen it here in Florida and what it does. The reefs south of the Everglades Watershed in the upper keys have been devastated by pollution from the farmers. Phosphates out the Whazoo were poured into the bay cause the old timers didn't know any better. When we had a shortage of Long Spine urchins many years ago, the blame for all the algae was put on the aquarium biz for taking them from the reef. It was later figured out that the pollution caused the algae and it also killed the urchins. Once again, blame misplaced. There is no doubt that we need to be better stewards of the oceans. Jacques Cousteau was preaching this back in the early 1970s. Did we listen? I both do and don't think so. We've found ways to enjoy ocean life without taking it all from the ocean yet we still have commercial fish netters catching entire schools of fish leaving nothing to regenerate the population not to mention the bycatch. But we still have staving people in the world in areas that are highly dependent on the oceans for their food. Does this make wiping out fish stocks now, to eat now, justified? These people will be just as starving tomorrow or next week only this time, there will be no fish to eat because of last week's activity. When did we, as a people, lose common sense? The oceans were once thought of as an infinite place but we now know better yet many don't act differently. It gives me pause and sometimes makes me think Mankind isn't really worth saving. Just my views
I relinquish this soapbox to you
