How long will the Caribbean coral reef be around?

Since the world started to realise the damage being done to the planet, this question has been around. The coral reefs will all soon be gone, but why are they dissappearing? 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. It is important to realise that the fertilizer used contains nutrients that are damaging to fish and coral. 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. 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. This is a carbonate mineral that coral requires to stay alive and even begin growth. The acid levels in the sea are rising so fast that in about 40 years they will be so high the coral wont be able to survive.

However there are few things that we can do to try and help. There are ventures to help the coral that we can take part in and have a good time while we do it. 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 can do your part to save the coral reef and you can enjoy yourself as well.

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.

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