Damage is reported widely, including off the East African coast and the Chagos archipelago.

ECONOMIST: Pink coral into grey rubble

Tanzania and the Seychelles look like falling out over an area near Aldabra, and Mauritius has claimed an area round Rodrigues island that includes the Chagos archipelago.

ECONOMIST: The scramble for the seabed

The British government trumped him by creating the world's biggest single marine reserve round the Chagos islands in the Indian Ocean - all 545, 000 sq km of it.

BBC: Shortages: Fish on the slide

Families were exiled from Diego Garcia, in the Chagos Islands, in the 1960s and 70s to make way for a US Indian Ocean airbase, and had to leave for Mauritius.

BBC: Protest outside council buildings in Sussex

In December of 2010 Great Britain announced the largest marine protected reserve in the world, 55 islands scattered remotely in the British Indian Ocean Territory, and called the Chagos Archipelago.

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The protest group, the Chagos Island Community Association, said conditions had deteriorated over Christmas because of the cold and because the social services building where the group use facilities had been closed.

BBC: Protest outside council buildings in Sussex