The Ways of Saving Coral Reefs from Bleaching

You won’t see beautiful coral reefs, if they bleach out. Under global warming and some anthropogenic factors, over about 60% of the Red Sea’s reefs have been damaged (Waghorn, 2007), up to 90% of corals had been killed in Australia in the summers of 1998 and 2002, and a similar situation happened in Maldives, Sri Lanka, Kenya and Tanzania and in the Seychelles (Coral Bleaching, 2007). Global warming made the temperature higher in the air and under the sea, and almost all of the coral reefs were threatened and died. Tender and liveing in a limited range temperate, coral reefs are hurt easily by heat waves. Colorful corals and their zooxanthellae live harmoniously and have many other species around them. Enjoying the sight underwater is a wonderful trip for human beings. However, this kind of tour is limited by global warming. According to Science Daily (2007), local action can help to re-build the reefs and promote their recovery. In order to maintain coral reefs and other underwater species, and to have a beautiful undersea life, building artificial reefs (Waghorn, 2007), banning overfishing (Barclay, 2007) and pushing the USA to sign the Kyoto protocol to the United Nations framework convention on climate change are good solutions.

First, putting artificial reefs underwater will provide food, shelter protection and spawning area for hundreds of species of the fish and other marine organisms. They also provide alternate areas for divers and anglers to use, and can reduce pressure of natural reefs. In some countries, they have put artificial reefs to build a new environment for species related to coral reefs. This solution to save coral reefs takes 25 years less than natural processing, which requires over one hundred years. Global warming threatens our environment actuely. If we don’t take action immediately to protect the flimsy corals, underwater bio-chains will be broken and some species will extinct in a short time. Another benefit of building artificial reefs is for people to know more about underwater animals and have trips underwater. To build a new environment for undersea species is not only good for the ecosystem, but also for our sustainable environment.

Second, to enforce the laws against overfishing, and to regulate the international trades of live fish are the important strategies to ban overfishing. Some countries have laws; however, they don’t enforce them. In some developing countries, people have to fight for their lives to take adventures in illegal fishing or to work for the international trade. Moreover, they couldn’t care less about how the ecosystem is changed by them. Local governments and national institutes should stretch out to help the people to find alternate ways of survival, and give them other opportunities for existence. The action requires local and national awareness and the education of fishermen on alternative fishing methods. At the international level, to work together to regulate the trade of fish, and to find the balanced approaches in a sustainable manner are critical.

Man-made reefs could save the underwater ecosystem, and could be destroyed by humans yet. As we know the Red Sea coast has had artificial reefs for several years; nevertheless, the ecosystem of coral reefs, fish, and other zooxanthellae were still damaged. The local governments’ standpoints are important in the building of artificial reefs, for instance, sightseeing, studying, or preserving. These purposes could either be ways or effects. For studying and preserving, the artificial reefs would attract a lot of related species to live, would have new kinds of zooxanthellae, and would allow people to know more about the growing trend of underwater species. In this kind of situation, the man-made ecosystem provides a living chance under global warming. For tourism, the artificial reefs may be destroyed, because sightseeing people could not control their behaviors to stand on reefs or touch corals and too many people going for tourism are pressured into contact with some animals. We can make tons of artificial reefs, and they should be protected and be valued, or they will die out.

Building artificial reefs and banning overfishing are good ways for maintaining our ecosystem and barely preserving coral reefs. However, this is not enough. People should keep the perspectives of ways of saving coral reefs and holding operations to have a sustainable ecosystem.

References

Barclay, E. (2007, Oct. 31). African fishermen find way of conservation in the Koran. Christian Science Monitor. Retrieved on November 01, 2007, from http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/1031/p01s04-woaf.html.

Coral Bleaching. (2007, Oct. 17). Coral bleaching.Wikipedia. Retrieved on October 23, 2007, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siki/Coral_bleaching.

Oceans Alive. (n. d.). Solutions: what we can do. Oceans Alive. Retrieved on November 01, 2007, from http://www.oceansalive.org/explore.cfm?subnav=article&contentID=4710.

Science Daily (2007, Oct. 22). Coral reefs on brink of disaster, scientists urge action now. ScienceDaily. Retrieved on October 23, 2007, from http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/10/071021225256.htm.

Waghorn, D. (2007, Oct. 25). Race to save coral reefs from scuba divers. CDNN Global News Network. Retrieved on November 01, 2007, from http://www.cdnn.info/news/eco/e071025.html.