Research Project Exploration

About half of the remaining coral reefs are at best "fair" and at worst near death, reports a new government assessment. Coral are an important part of the lives of both humans and aquamarine life. They are used as building materials, nutritional value, medicinal treatments, and housing for marine life. These great reefs protect shores from huge ocean swells, storms, and erosion. Many communities get a great amount of their nutrition from coral. Without it, these communities may die. Coral are very sensitive to temperature changes. Global warming has caused a great amount of damage to the reefs. For example, in 1998, El Nino destroyed 90% of the Indian Ocean's reefs with only a two degree temperature change. Reefs are becoming more and more rare. They are being destroyed faster than scientists can collect and analyze data.

I am interested in this topic mainly because I have seen the reefs and they are so magnificent. To see them go is horrible. There needs to be a higher awareness of the down slope of reefs. It is a huge problem that needs to be fixed. Without reefs, people will die, cities will fall, and marine life will dwindle away. This to me is cause enough to spend the semester finding answers! I believe that we need to get more involved with the coral reefs and find a way to rescue them. Humans are hurting the reefs as well. This must be stopped! Humans over fish, poison, and disturb the reefs with tourism. People wonder why the reefs are disappearing?!?!? Hello! Be more responsible and stop the overfishing, the polluting, and the irresponsible tourism.

The people against this would be the fishermen, the companies and cities who dump waste into the ocean, and the tourists who just have to have that special piece of coral to sit at home in a dusty box. The industrial fishing fleets are at fault as well just by the ongoing overfishing. The coral depend on the marine life that overfishing takes away from it. These neglectful people need to see the light! We must act quickly and protect the reefs while we still have the chance.

The reefs are 200 million years old. We cannot allow these great wonders become extinct as the dinosaurs did. We can stop pollutants such as oil, trash, and other human wastes that are just tossed out to sea. Although you may not think you are affecting anything with your small piece of trash, you are actually just adding to the pile of already built up debris that is killing the coral reefs. If everyone picked up one piece of trash or other various debris from the ocean, just think of how much cleaner and well-maintained our world's oceans would be! All it takes is a little effort from everyone and maybe some elbow grease here and there, but it will be worth it in the end, saving lives of both humans and marine life.

Works Cited

"Coral." Conservative Science Institute. CSI. 29 Sept. 2008 http://www.conservationinstitute.org/coral.htm.

"Endangered Coral Reefs Could Face Extinction." Island Business. 2007. 30 Sept. 2008 http://www.islandsbusiness.com/news/index_dynamic/containernametoreplace=middlemiddle/focusmoduleid=130/focuscontentid=13462/tablename=mediarelease/overideskinname=newsarticle-full.tpl.

Kirby, Alex. "Rare and Endangered: Coral Reefs." CDNN. 29 Sept. 2008 .