This has been a question for years and years. We need to find out why the coral reef is shrinking and what can be done to help? Everybody knows of something that is affecting the coral reefs, but not everything is so clear, somethings we need to find out about.
Interestingly the Caribbean contains just over 20% of the worlds 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 fertilizer has nutrients that prevent coral growth and are deadly to fish. 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 dont really realise is that fish are massively important to the coral reefs. The fish in the sea like to eat the bacteria that live an the coral and keep it trim to help promote growth, they also consume the seaweed that is floating around to stop the oxygen being depleted.
Apparently fish have dropped in population rates by around 70-95%, a massive fall. Fishing too much isn’t just detremental to our food supply; it is decreasing the corals chance to survive.
Another problem is an obvious one, Global Warming. This is the deadliest one though, global warming helped along the way by everyone and depletes the amount or 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. There are some proactive schemes around that allow us to get are hands dirty and have a good time. 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 would have to be some of the best volunteer work you could, diving with the fish and doing your bit.
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.