Will you still be able to see the beauty that is the coral reef?
This has been a question for years and years. The coral reefs will all soon be gone, but why are they dissappearing? Everybody knows of something that is affecting the coral reefs, but not everything is so clear, somethings we need to find out about.
Interestingly the Caribbean contains just over 20% of the world’s coral reef and there is a huge amount of damage being done to it. In Honduras they grow several plantains; pineapple, sugar cane and bananas, they use large amounts of fertilizer. The nutrients released by this fertilizer damage coral and can kill fish in the ocean. Fertilizer, pesticides and erosion do the most damage to the coral reef and the surrounding inhabitants. But the main thing we don’t really realise is that fish are massively important to the coral reefs. The fish in the sea like to eat the bacteria that live an the coral and keep it trim to help promote growth, they also consume the seaweed that is floating around to stop the oxygen being depleted.
Apparently fish have dropped in population rates by around 70-95%, a massive fall. Over-fishing isn’t only destroying our food source; it is damaging the coral reef as well.
Another problem is an obvious one, Global Warming. This is the “Biggy”, global warming rises acid levels in the sea and reduces the levels of Aragonite in the ocean. Aragonite is a carbonate mineral that increases the production of coral. In 40 years the acid levels in the sea will reach such high levels, the coral wont be able to survive the conditions.
However there are few things that we can do to try and help. There are ventures to help the coral that we can take part in and have a good time while we do it. If you do go on luxury holidays or Caribbean holidays you could have the option to go and volunteer for a coral clean up operation, where you can help clean coral underwater or on the shore. This isn’t just rewarding, you can have a good time while you do it too.
Also if you go fishing around coral, try not to drop anchor, you will tear the coral apart and damage anything living around it
So if your thinking about going abroad or maybe somewhere tropical, maybe some of you want to have weddings abroad, it might be a good idea to get there as soon as you can. And if you want to help you could take part with some professional divers for an afternoon and clean the coral, it wont be long before its all gone.