Human activity and pollution are contributing to coral reefs dying. Most coral reefs occur in shallow water off-shore. As a result, they are particularly vulnerable to the effects of human activities and pollution. This occurs both through direct exploitation of reef resources and through indirect impacts from adjacent human activities on land and in the coastal zone.
On a local level, coastal development and building activity, as well as dredging and unintended recreational misuse, also cause destruction to off-shore coral reefs.
Another threat harming or killing the reefs is pollution that finds its way into the ocean. Some threats include sediment from development, storm water runoff, pollutants from poor farming practices, sewage, and animal waste. Trash, plastics and micro-substances, heavy metals, and toxic substances also contribute to the dying of coral reefs.
There are also global threats to coral reefs. We now have to contend with changing ocean temperatures and chemistry such as acidification. Ocean acidification is a change in the pH which occurs in response to pollution and acid rain that comes from the burning of fossil fuels. If ocean acidification becomes severe enough some species of coral’s skeletons can actually dissolve.
Chemical pollution causes the loss microscopic algae which provide food for the coral to grow. The loss of the algae reveals the whitish color of the reefs. This effect is called coral bleaching. Severe or prolonged bleaching can leave the reefs more vulnerable to infectious diseases that lead to eventual death.
Since 2016, coral bleaching events have killed half of the Great Barrier Reef, the largest and most extensive reef system in the world. Major contributors of this have been from massive amounts of agriculture chemical run-off from the sugar industry and the dredging of a deep water harbor from the mining industry.
Tourism is another contributor because of the chemicals from sunscreen lotions that millions of swimmers and divers use. Plus, all the RoundUp/glyphosate used in resorts and on council land that ends up in the waterways and ocean. Florida’s destructive red tide destruction is a good example of this.
Polluting industries, which are having a devastating the Great Barrier Reef, are also killing other coral reefs around the globe. Without coral reefs there could be an ecosystem collapse in the oceans with unintended devastating effects on our planet.
We must not let our coral reefs die!
When a Coral Reef Dies
by Ruth Westreich
Artist, Activist, Philanthropist