Mindzle

This has been a question for years and years. How long will we have all the coral reefs over the world and what’s causing them to vanish? There are some reasons that everybody knows as to why the coral reefs are dying and some that aren’t so obvious.

Interestingly the Caribbean contains just over 20% of the world’s coral reef and there is a huge amount of damage being done to it. In Honduras they grow several plantains; pineapple, sugar cane and bananas, they use large amounts of fertilizer. The nutrients released by this fertilizer damage coral and can kill fish in the ocean. Fertilizer and erosion are the two biggest culprits for damage to the coral reef in this area and they are both caused by farming, tree felling and building of new properties. But the main thing we don’t really realise is that fish are massively important to the coral reefs. Fish provide coral with the necessary grooming that it needs, this takes off bacteria that damage the coral and keep it clean, they also eat seaweed, and seaweed suffocates coral and any other plants around it by drawing in all the oxygen.

Apparently fish have dropped in population rates by around 70-95%, a massive fall. Over-fishing isn’t only destroying our food source; it is damaging the coral reef as well.

Another problem is an obvious one, Global Warming. This is the “Biggy”, global warming rises acid levels in the sea and reduces the levels of Aragonite in the ocean. Aragonite is a carbonate mineral that increases the production of coral. In 40 years the acid levels in the sea will reach such high levels, the coral wont be able to survive the conditions.

However there are few things that we can do to try and help. We can take part in some activities abroad, that allow us to get stuck in with the cleaning of the coral and enjoy ourselves as well. If you do go on luxury holidays or Caribbean holidays you could have the option to go and volunteer for a coral clean up operation, where you can help clean coral underwater or on the shore. This isn’t just rewarding, you can have a good time while you do it too.

Also if you go fishing around coral, try not to drop anchor, you will tear the coral apart and damage anything living around it

So if your thinking about going abroad or maybe somewhere tropical, maybe some of you want to have weddings abroad, it might be a good idea to get there as soon as you can. You can always give the professionals a hand with cleaning the coral, it might not be around in 40 years.