Coral Reef Destruction

 Coral Reef Destruction. This is happening to 75% of reefs in the world. This has been going on since 1911, when the first recorded bleaching occurred. This bleaching affected Bird Key Reef in the Florida Keys during a time of hot weather, causing 5-10% of the reef to be lost. Since 1911, there have been several more large bleaching’s, with one of the worst occurring in 1997-98. Progressively getting worse for the years to come. The largest area that is mostly affected is in the region are the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn also nearest to the Equator. As well as…

• Pacific Ocean
• Indian Ocean
• Caribbean Sea 
• Red Sea
• Persian Gulf
• Coast off of Florida and southern Japan.

  Not only has the bleaching been a big part of destroying the reefs there are many other reasons as well, such as pollution, overfishing, destructive fishing jobs (using dynamite or cyanide), collecting live corals for the aquarium market, mining coral for building materials, and climate/ global warming. All of these things have affected so many living creatures, even us humans. Some marine bio life that have been majorly affected are Sea turtles (Hawksbill), Fish, Crabs, Shrimp, Jellyfish, Sea birds (seagulls), Starfish, Etc. Coral reefs provide shelter and protection from predators for the marine bio life. For us humans though the loss of coral reefs would amount to an economic disaster.  Such as…

• Fishermen losing their income
• Forcing people to find more expensive forms of protein (coral has very good nutrients so some people eat it)
• Coastal areas would be losing a large amount of income due to tourists no longer visiting

  Coral Reef destruction is a big deal. To give you an idea how much damage or impact this could cause here are some reasons…

• Ecosystem- Losing corals would cause the area to struggle and then once it’s gone it would take decades to come back so we would be losing lots of marine bio life and some even going extinct. 

• Health- There are certain factors that will cause a decline in the ecosystem such as a rise in temperature, acidity. The marine bio life will die because of those factors killing the corals.

• Habitats- If the coral dies then the animals won’t be able to live there anymore because they won’t have food, shelter, places to reproduce or raise their young. 

• Food Web- Coral reefs die, the plants die, the marine bio life starves, the animals that eat the smaller marine bio life die too because of lack of their resources to get food.

My Solution:

 A plan I have to help end or decrease Coral Reef destruction is to use more organic fertilizers rather than ones with chemicals and pesticides (these play a part in the coral reef bleaching’s). By getting more people to use organic fertilizers for their yards, crops, and gardens, or don’t use fertilizers at all, could then help prevent those harmful  chemicals the earth would be soaking up that then goes into streams, rivers, and  to the ocean killing the coral because it’s just trying to get it’s nutrients it needs to survive when it’s really just absorbing toxins/poisons.

  For this plan to work I would need to get some help from fertilizing companies and big farming areas to promote and produce more fertilizers without the pesticides and chemicals in them. Then we would have to have customers actually pay for the organic one which is more expensive, but better for the environment. I would also have to get in touch with local marine bio life zoos/ aquariums in my area and figure out in depth ways the coral thrives and how it could die too. Also getting in touch with Lawn services that provide those harmful chemicals in their fertilizers and ask them to look into fertilizing companies with healthier environmentally friendly ones. As well as getting in touch with farmers would help too because fertilizing crops is a big part of farming and agricultural purposes.

  It’s very important for people to follow my idea because the coral reef bleaching’s keep getting worse and worse as the years to come. So it would be a huge favor to at least try and make a difference and save this beautiful plant in the ocean so that not only other marine bio life can survive but that they are safe too from predators and that us humans will be safe because in those coastal areas coral reefs help a lot with floods, and erosions preventing those from happening. This is the best plan to use because there have been so many bleaching’s and they will continue if we still have all these chemicals everywhere.

 . “Home.” Coral Reef Alliance, 0AD, coral.org/coral-reefs-101/coral-reef-ecology/geography/. 

“Everything You Need to Know about Coral Bleaching-And How We Can Stop It.” WWF, World Wildlife Fund, www.worldwildlife.org/pages/everything-you-need-to-know-about-coral-bleaching-and-how-we-can-stop-it. 

“Coral Reef Ecosystems.” Coral Reef Ecosystems | National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, www.noaa.gov/education/resource-collections/marine-life/coral-reef-ecosystems. 

Written by Kevin Loria, Writer. “What Happens If All the Coral Reefs Die?” World Economic Forum, www.weforum.org/agenda/2018/04/what-happens-if-all-the-coral-reefs-die. 

“Coral Reef Crisis Guide- Facts & Figures.” SLO Active, 25 Aug. 2020, sloactive.com/coral-reef-crisis-guide/. 

Dennis, Brady. “Why the Death of Coral Reefs Could Be Devastating for Millions of Humans.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 29 Apr. 2019, www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2016/11/09/why-the-death-of-coral-reefs-could-be-devastating-for-millions-of-humans/.