Comment on Gazi et al. (2020): Detecting Coral Reef Degradation on St. Martin’s Island, Bangladesh?

St. Martin’s Island is a small sedimentary island situated at the southernmost part of Bangladesh (20°37.6′ N and 92°19.3′ E). The surrounded by rocky reefs composed Neogene bedrock consisting moderately hard soft sandstones conglomerates belonging to Tipam Sandstone (Islam in J Univ Sheffield Geol Soc 7:269–275, 1980). are covered fields conglomerate boulders calcareous concretions that provide suitable substrate for coral settlement establishment communities. Before 1997 it was reported (Ahmed Environ Sci 1:67–73, 1995; Anwar National workshop on coastal area resource development management, Part II. CARDMA, BRAC Printers Bangladesh, Dhaka, pp 36–66, 1988; UNEP/IUCN Indian Ocean, Red Sea Gulf. UNEP regional seas bibliographies. IUCN, Gland, 1988). However, first underwater survey conducted did not find any evidence (Tomascik Management plan resources Narikel Jinjira (St. Martin's Island). Conservation Strategy Implementation Project-1, Ministry Environment Forest, Government People’s Republic p 125, 1997). has become an important tourism destination concerns have been raised about impact local its Recently paper published degradation (Gazi et al. Ocean 55(3):419–431, 2020) makes many factually incorrect assertions. surround misclassified Gazi (2020) as “coral reefs”. Here, we discuss examine if results conclusions factual spatiotemporal reef degradation.