Saving The Reef

Hey everyone, Well I am doing a research project to propose a way to help save the coral reefs. I am going to talk about such things as sectioning no fish zones and such. If anyone has any info they would like to share, such as if they know of anywhere where there are steps being taken already i would love if you let me know. Thanks everyone.

 

FiGHT THE POWER!

 

Pollution is a big problem. Unless we curb our carelessness with regards to oil spills, chemical waste dumped into our oceans etc. we or should I say our aquatic wildlife is destined for a dramatic loss. Moreover, global warming due in part to holes in the ozone layer, is increasing the temperature of our waters, causing widespread bleaching of our coral reefs. And of course their is John Doe who drops his anchor onto a gigantic Brain coral which had been growing for a hundred years or so, killing a big part of it. Then Sally Mae decides to go snorkeling and steps on a huge elkhorn Acropora coral so that her boyfriend can get a picture of her in front of their hotel on the island of Bonaire in the Caribbean. I guess I should also mention Tim who decided to sneak a piece of coral by breaking it off of a reef in St. Lucia to try and sell it.
Well those are some examples to incorporate into your research project Bruce. Good luck and we need more people to get involved with saving our reefs, oceans and wildlife!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Man...I am really getting scared that there is too much bad stuff going on with corals reefs to do much...there is 1) Over fishing 2) Pollution 3) Stupid people stepping on them 4) Global Warming 5) Massive Silt 6) They r pissed....ugh. I think that we can lock up all the stupid people. So thats one down, then overfishing we can fix....easier? Ugh....I say we make a 100000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 Million gallon tank and move everything there.

 

I think alot of the problems happening with our environment is people are careless and have the "well I can't change it myself" attitude or "well nothing bad will happen to our environment in my life time". If we make people AWARE of how bad things really are or will become in the near future if things don't change drastically, maybe, just maybe we have a slim chance of altering the events that are facing us now!

 

Yes, i agree. And believe me I do every day at my schoo...but if people are as ignorant as they are at my school...well lol the reef is doomed.

 

Can't we try to build new reefs? Why not take some corals and basically seed our ocean. Not all will take but some will thrive and over years start to grow. The way things are going now, in the next few hundred years the only corals that will be around is the ones that we have threw captive grown. But why not try?

 

i agree fellow reefers, something needs to be done soon. coral reefs are taking a huge hits and it has been showing for a while now, bleaching is up and producticity is down on many reefs. i also believe captive grown is the way to go reef lover. i have decided to go for my masters in marine biology(going to take a while, but its my passion) since i dont see myself in an office and the reefs have fascinated me since a child. i also hope to have an aquaculture facility up and running in the next year. i hope replanting our reefs is an option. much research needs to be done to see if this is possible and i cant wait to get my feet wet.

 

Another issue regarding the reefs and its dimise is the aquarium hobbyist trade. Think about the natives around the area with reefs and how much american dollars mean to them. Of coarse pollution and over fishing, but I think the aquarium trade is a biiger and silent killer. The effects fo the aquarium trade is what I did my research on. I am now working on something new, The effects of xenoestrogens on Eastern painted turtles in my area. But good luch with your research project.

 

Other risk factor are a bigger issue then reef trade. There're are laws to protect our reefs especially the Great Reef. The laws have recently become alot more harder on people who don't respect the reefs. I do agree with you giopimentel, but we can start today, to help the earth heal itself by correcting the main problem which is us as people. All of us are guilty. We CAN learn to take better care of the earth.