 |  | _________ |  Megatourism, intensive fishing, and sewage, sewage, sewage
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 To help save the reefs of Belize, get active with these groups: Aquarium for Wildlife Conservation, Osborn Laboratories for Marine Science
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Belize's Barrier Reef Complex has the biggest, most varied, and most pristine reefs in the western Atlantic, and some of the most gushed-about diving and snorkeling in the world. But even here, fish and coral populations have suffered from recreational spearfishing and overfishing, sewage discharge is a lingering problem, and deforestation is sending tons of silt onto near-shore corals. The country's coral reefs had mysteriously been unaffected by bleaching—until late summer in 1995, when they bleached seriously for the first time, apparently due to above-normal water temperatures. The government is taking at least some steps to combat reef problems: In June 1997 it joined Honduras, Guatemala, and Mexico in a pact calling for protecting the countries' Pacific coral reefs.
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