We need to take care of the coral reef becuase soon it wont be around!

This issue has been around for decades. We need to find out why the coral reef is shrinking and what can be done to help? We dont always know all the reasons for why things happen but we do know some of them, and some we need to address.

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 fertilizer has nutrients that prevent coral growth and are deadly to fish. The farms in this area leak pesticides and fertilizer into the ocean, this damages the coral reef sometimes beyond repair. 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. 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. You dont have to think of this as work, you will be on holiday diving with fish, you will just be helping out.

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. If you want you could chip in with the divers and help the coral survive, you never know how much longer it will be around.