I have always been one to try new things and enjoy spending time outside so when I had to pick a topic for this project I choose coral reef destruction. Everyone always talks about global warming and the ice burgers are melting but you never hear much about the coral reefs. I became certified in scuba diving five years ago and I would like to travel more to scuba dive but with the current coral reef destruction they could not be possible.

            About coral reefs, they cover more than 280,000km and support over a thousand different species. They can be found all over the world and can be found in water as deep as 450 ft. They are described as the rainforest of the sea. Not only do are coral reefs pretty to look at but the also protect shores from the impact of waves and storms, provide benefits to humans in the form of food and medicine, and provide economic benefits to local communities from tourism. They bring in more than $30 billion in annually in global goods and services. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) says the economic value that they bring in is even higher closer to $375 billion each year this is from jobs, food, and tourism. Not only from an economic stand point but also ecological way coral reefs are the key factors to the well being of the oceans, as we know them. What has happened to the coral reefs so far; 20% of the worlds coral reefs have been effectively destroyed and show in immediate prospects of recovery, 24% of the worlds reefs are under imminent risk of collapse from human pressures and 26% are under a long term threat of collapse so far it isn’t looking to good for the coral reefs.

   What is causing coral reef destruction? There are three main categories that are causing this. Global change, direct human pressures, and the human dimension governance, awareness and political will.  To start global change threats has to do with coral bleaching which is caused by elevated sea surface temperatures due to global climate change that is also, linked to the rising levels of CO2. Both of these causes can be from global warming. Oceans absorb about 525 billion tons of CO2 from the atmosphere this helps reduce green house gases but does not help with oceans well being. Another global change is diseases, plagues and invasive from human disturbances in the environment. Causes from human pressures are over fishing that can be linked to global market pressures. Sediments being released into the waters from poor land use, deforestation, and nutrients and chemical pollution. The last human pressure is the development of costal areas on land and also mining of coral reef rock and sand underneath the reefs. Governance and awareness is from the poor capacity of management and lack of resources and also the lack of political will.

            We don’t have to loss coral reefs forever. Stopping coral reef destruction is just like preventing global warming. Things to help protect coral reefs would be conserve water, reduce pollution, use eco friendly fertilizers, practice safe and responsible diving and snorkeling, and reef clean up.  The NOAA is also doing things to help prevent this such as restrictions on divers and fishing on reefs, removing coral predators from the area, and remove obvious coral disease to prevent it from spreading.

            From my presentation I was thinking of shows pictures of reefs before and after destruction. Show a video on how to prevent reef destruction and if I can find any maybe some pieces of coral to pass around the class.