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An underwater world with no shelter
By
Jeffrey Lin
Would you care if one day all of the coral reefs in the sea die? Probably not, and you probably won’t know
why coral reefs are important to your daily life. It may not directly relate to you, but as soon as all the coral
reefs in the world disappear, you will slowly realize that there are less fish on the planet as there were
before.
As humans, we live in houses, they are our shelter. As fish, 25% of them live in coral reefs; coral reefs are
their shelter. Coral reefs have a big impact on all of the life living in oceans, but due to reasons such as
water pollution and over fishing, every year coral reefs are dying. With more coral reefs dying, the home
for the fish living in the ocean is gone, and without a place to live, the fish can't reproduce.
What are coral reefs?
Coral reefs
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There are typically three types of coral reefs, fringing reefs, barrier reefs and atolls. They
are mostly located in the Indo-Pacific, the Wider Caribbean and the Red Sea. (NOAA)
Coral reefs are one of the most diverse ecosystems in the world, they are complex and old
creatures; they cover about 231,660 square miles (600,000 km2) worldwide. (National)
They are 5000-10000 years old, the corals that we can normally find nowadays. They
have existed for 200-400 million years. (Queensland)
Human impact on coral reefs
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Global warming:
In order for Coral Reefs to survive in an environment, temperature is one of the most
important factors of coral reefs dying in the world.
With global warming, the seawater is getting warmer and warmer which makes it
difficult for the coral reefs to survive in conditions that they are not used to. Coral reefs
aren’t really good at adapting to new environments; they need to live in the environment
that they are used to being in. (“NOAA”)
With the seawater temperature rising, it is almost a death sentence to most coral reefs.
When the climate changes, coral reefs go through a process called bleaching. (“NOAA”)
Bleaching is basically a process where the coral reef slowly paling and as the condition
gets more and more serious, the coral reef slowly dies. At not so severe cases, the process
can be reversed and the coral reef can heal itself within weeks to a few months.
(“Odyssey”)
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Over fishing:
Over fishing is a big issue in the modern day society, it is not caused by people over
eating fish and the world needs more fish to feed the population, it is caused by greedy
companies that want to make big profits by selling more fish to the market and by faming
more and more fish. (“Lallanilla”)
Over fishing raises the concerns for coral reef destruction because in order to get the fish
out of their “houses” the coral reefs fast and effectively, fishers use dragnets or
explosives to get the fish out of the coral reefs to get the fish. (“NOAA”)
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By using explosives to destroy the coral reefs not only damage them for the fish that are
living in there currently, it also kills the coral reef almost entirely; leaving it unable to be
lived in again for other fish. With more and more fish but less coral reefs in the world,
there are going to be more and more problems surfacing regarding the protection of coral
reefs. (“National”)
Careless tourism and government systems:
Surprisingly, tourists have a big impact on the coral reef destruction too. As tourists go to
areas like the Caribbean, there are all kinds of activities that tourists can do in the ocean,
and some of them don’t harm the environment for the coral reefs, but some do.
(“Odyssey”)
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Scuba diving in general is the main problem of coral reef destruction caused by tourism.
When tourists go scuba diving, they take pictures and they touch the coral reefs, and also
they might litter on the coral reefs. Such things can harm the coral reefs and it can kill the
coral reefs. (“UNEP, Alevizon”)
The government of the country cannot prohibit scuba diving in the ocean areas or else
there would be no point in going to those countries and the economy would significantly
drop; although there are signs that say do not litter on the coral reefs, people still do it and
there is no one to verify if the person actually littered or not. (“UNEP”)
Solutions
Government:
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A government is the most powerful voice in a country; the problem of coral reef
destruction in countries can’t be solved if the government doesn’t step in. The
government is slowly realizing, that tourists are having impact on the coral reefs in their
country, they also realize that coral reef destruction is a bad thing for the whole world
and they have set up rules.
Since the signs did not work and they cannot prohibit scuba diving entirely in a country,
the Caribbean government for example, have set up rules such as there can only be 5,000
to 6,000 dives each year in the Caribbean sea. (“National”)
By setting rules such as limiting the dives each year is a very smart idea, it would actually
give the government time between each year to take care of the coral reefs so that they
are healthy and they are ready for the tourists next year to come and dive in. (“UNEP”)
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Conclusion
With coral reefs dying around the world, the life in the ocean for the fish is completely
changing. The way they reproduce and survive will completely change once all the coral
reefs on the planet are gone; and soon, the fish will all die because of over fishing and the
lack of coral reefs. Think about a world without houses, where we are hunter and
gatherers again, how hard it will be to survive and how often will we need to move; in
order to take care of the fish on our planet, action will have to be made to save the
fish’s “houses”. (“NOAA”)
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Works cited
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N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Oct. 2014.
Alevizon, William . "Where Are Coral Reefs Located?." : Global Coral Reef
Distribution. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Oct. 2014.
Climate Commission. "Climate Commission." Bleaching on the Great Barrier Reef -.
N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Oct. 2014.
"Coral Reef." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 11 Jan. 2014. Web. 4 Nov. 2014.
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2013. Web. 27 Oct. 2014.
Lytle, Claire . "Plastic Pollution." Coastal Issues / Coastal Care. N.p., n.d. Web. 28
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NOAA. "NOAA's Coral Reef Information System (CoRIS) - What are Coral
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National Ocean Service. "What are the three main types of coral reefs?." What are the
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Odyssey Expeditions. "Coral Reef Bleaching." Coral Reef Bleaching. N.p., n.d. Web.
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O'Neill, Michael. "Coral Reef in Komodo National Park, Indonesia, destroyed by
dynamite or blast fishing, a practice in which fishermen use fertilizer-based
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reef habitat. | Michael Patrick O'Neill."Coral Reef in Komodo National Park,
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Indonesia, destroyed by dynamite or blast fishing, a practice in which fishermen use
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New Normal (part 22): The Great Barrier Reef Is Dying." Watching the Deniers.
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2014.
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