Most people like to travel to different parts of the world for a vacation. Being at beautiful beaches under the hot sun and relaxing sounds like a perfect vacation, does not it? Tourists usually enjoy the clear, blue ocean with fishes and different under water living organisms visible. These picture perfect vacations would not last if people were not being cautious of their everyday acts. The ocean consists of plentiful colorful coral reefs. Some coral reefs today are endangered and it needs to be taking care of for their sake and ours. Protecting and guarding these endangered coral reefs will provide the whole world with long lasting benefits.
There are many benefits that coral reefs provide. Reefs support extraordinary biodiversity and are home to a multitude of different types of fish, invertebrates and sea animals. Healthy coral reefs provide habitat, income, food, protection and medicine. “There are strong mutual dependencies between the reef-building corals and reef-inhabiting fishes, with many fish species depending on corals for food and habitat, while corals depend on the grazing by certain fishes for reproductive success.” (2) They supply the benefit and necessity of food to many people. Since many people rely on fish for food, limiting stress on them is important. “Protected areas…benefits…to improved food security for people who rely on the ocean for their daily sustenance and livelihoods.” (3) When coral reefs are interacted with multiple stressors, it is hard for the reefs to restore their original state.
In developing countries, most are dependent to some extent on coral reefs for food and livelihood. “Over half (55%) of the 49 islands countries considered are exploiting their coral reef fisheries in an unsustainable way.” (4) According to NOAA National Marine Fisheries Service, the annual commercial value of United States’ fisheries from coral reef is over $100 million (5). In Southeast Asia alone, sustainable coral reef fisheries are valued at $2.4 billion per year (6). While the economy’s number is high, the coral reef tourist industry is decreasing in numbers where coral reefs are affected.
Coral reefs not only have diversity, they also protect shorelines from waves as well as reduce erosion and flooding. “Up to 90% of the energy from wind-generated waves is absorbed by reef. (5) Healthy living coral reefs works as a defense from tsunami waves, therefore awareness of danger in reefs should be raised because they contribute to providing protection to everyone. Not having healthy reefs will cause shoreline erosion to increase due to lack of their skeletal growth. People should be aware that without reefs to protect the shorelines, it might lead to destruction.
Another benefit humans get from coral reefs are diversity that are found in coral ecosystems. These diversities are beneficial to humans through the development of medicine. Studies have shown “new medicines being developed to induce and ease labor; treat cancer, arthritis, asthma, ulcers, human bacterial infections, heart disease, viruses, and other diseases (7). Many people agree that most medicines today help ease the pain and sickness. So, why not protect reefs for human’s sake and marine life? Today, marine protected areas are providing so much for people and nature. If we keep protecting what is under the sea, envision the future with all the medical benefits people are going to get from it.
Dynamite fishing and overusing resources lead to damaging coral reef ecosystems. In many countries, it is illegal to practice dynamite fishing but it continues to be practiced today. Government should be well aware of what is going over seas and be stricter with their law. Creatures in the water should also be protected like humans do on land. Pollution and coral bleaching are also a big threat to coral reef ecosystems. “The destruction of…corals by pollution leads to the eventual demise of many reef species dependent on living corals for food, shelter…” (8). Pollution disturbs the daily living of coral reefs and impacts them significantly. Coral reef bleaching is when reefs turn into white, resulting the loss of “photosynthetic pigment concentrations in zooxanthellae” (1). Over decades, coral bleaching dramatically increased. Even though bleached corals can still survive for a few weeks, or months, if they are lucky. Bleached corals eventually die because their growth stops and reproductive output decreases.
In addition, carbon emissions and climate change also damage coral reefs. Burning fossil fuels result in carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, which is not good. Ocean acidifies with “increased absorption of carbon dioxide, by seawater, [reduce] the capacity of coral reefs to grow and maintain their structure and function.” (11) When coral reefs absorbs carbon dioxide, their pH level changes. Management systems must take actions and be informative with the limitations to the people. Different managements agencies can get together and think of a possible solution and a systematic plan on how they can help lessen carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Not only this will help coral reefs maintain their structure, but also people can benefit from the decrease of global warming. If carbon dioxide emissions continue to increase, ocean acidification will also rice and threaten coral reefs.
An additional threat to coral reefs is climate change. “Projections for most IPCC scenarios predict a rise in sea surface temperatures (SST) of predict at least 2°C in the twenty-first century.” (11) With this statistic, temperature changes affects coral reefs to bleaching, “reducing their ability to recover from such events.” (11) There might not be any solution to stop the climate from changing, but there are many other solutions to prevent coral reefs to be unhealthy. “Almost 30% of warm-water corals have disappeared since the beginning of the 1980s.” Coral reefs tend to not survive the warm temperature and it will cause them to die. Experiencing constant temperatures makes their structure stable and maintain their being. With sudden climate changes, coral reefs will remain depleted and rare on areas such as the tropical and subtropical reefs if the level of carbon dioxide level increases. “One third of coral-feeding fishes feed almost exclusively on corals, with more than 80% of their diet based on coral.” (12) Most corallivores fishes eat on corals. If coral reefs are bleached and unhealthy, how are they supposed to live? This will lead to a decrease amount in corallivores population. When this happens, fishes will lower in numbers; therefore, there will be less fishes consume by humans.
Pollution in the ocean like oil pollution is another factor of coral growth and recovery. “In previous works, Loya noted that no colonization of corals occurred on the reef flats of the nature reserve of Eilat which is chronically polluted by oil, while a pollution-free control reef was flourishing with high diversity of newly settled corals.” (14) As the population of humans increased by any coastal areas, the chance of pollution increases. Changes in developments like landscaping in coastal areas can get carried away to the ocean and can threaten the coral reef population. Usually sewage discharges runoffs to the water and this can greatly affect the health of coral reefs. It is possible that coral reefs will pick up germs when coral reefs are exposed to these types of runoffs. Studies have shown that some of the pathogens that coral reefs obtain can be toxic and lead to corals to disappear (13). Although some corals survive coral bleaching from pollution, some or most corals die from it. The ones that recover from it may have survived it but they do not regain their tough, active self. Again, management agencies can help decrease the problem. Improving sewage treatments can reduce the runoff from any development areas in land go to the ocean water.
Overfishing certain species of fish near coral reefs can affect the biodiversity in the water. “In 2003, 24% of coral reef habitats were included in ‘no-fishing zones’ which is about 4% of the total park area” (15). There is a domino effect and food chain in the coral reef ecosystems. Different organisms in the ecosystems depend on other organisms for nutrients. Since ecosystems need balance, the fishes in the coral reef ecosystems carry oxygen and salt that coral needs. Both plants and animal benefit each other. When fishes decrease in population, coral reefs will also decrease.
Many coral reefs around the world suffer from marine or oil pollution, dynamite fishing, overfishing, and climate changes, which lead for them to bleach. There are many solutions to this problem that everyone should participate in because it will benefit human population and also the whole world. With the management systems coastline areas have, humans can start by conserving fossil fuels. Cutting up on gas carbon dioxide in the atmosphere not only will benefit coral reefs but also lesson global warming and decrease threat to humans. Cutback on using vehicles from point A to point B. Carpooling is a solution to this. For example, if you and your friends are going to the same place, do not use your own car and just use one single car. By doing so, you save gas and you produce less pollution. Taking the bus, walking or biking can also help decline the percentage of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
Conserving energy can with global warming. House owners can use solar energy as an alternative. People need to start conserving water. After using the faucet at home, they should immediately turn it off. Conserving water at our homes help lower the amount of energy used. Another way to conserve energy is to reduce waste in the right place. Humans can start recycling any items that can be used again like plastic cups, glasses and papers. Decomposing waste produces carbon dioxide and will contribute to global warming. This, again, will affect coral reefs. Doing so makes the ocean water clearer, our surroundings better and make the world greener. Stop cutting down trees and start to plan more. Trees in take carbon dioxide and releases oxygen to the surroundings. Therefore, this will help stop global warming.
Governments around the world and companies should join together and help with conserving the health of coral reefs. For example, governments can be stricter with coastline areas and how they should treat the ocean water. Governments can start doing more research about the marine life and how else they could help with keeping coral reef ecosystems to stop declining in numbers. Most people might be familiar with overfishing and marine pollution but not many knows about coral reefs being affected by these. It should be a topic that people should start getting educated about because in the long run, they are going to benefit from it. Companies and businesses can help out by donating some money to ocean environmentalists. The ocean water is big and it needs a good financial foundation. Better managements would definitely help out the marine life and organisms that live under it. Having well managed marine life will decline ocean acidification and oxygen levels.
If humans do not start taking actions, who will? While the coral reef ecosystems, the human population also suffers. The economy will deteriorate; people will have less food, decline in fishing jobs, and a decline in tourism. People do not want to see bleached coral reefs while scuba diving. They would want to see coral reefs to be colorful and alive. Society must incorporate their daily actions to help coral reefs from declining. Each and everyone should help out each other to spread the word about coral reefs. Changing our lifestyles a little bit would not be burden; it is for the better for the entire world. It may be difficult for others, but in the long run helping coral reefs ecosystems will help maintain their structure and healthy lifestyle will benefit us for also having a healthy and fresh lifestyle.