Saving The Reef

I think that although the aquarium trade might be hurting the reef a bit, it is nothing compared to the other factors...infact i think that if nothing else it helps educate the public when the see such a beautiful tank and realize it might be lost forever.

 

wE HAVE BEEN CREATING OR ATLEAST TRYING TO CREATE BEW REEFS BU SINKING SHIPS/PLANES ETC. IN HOPES, THAT CORAL WILL ADHERE AND GROW. THE THING IS, CREATING NEW REEFS ISN'T THE REAL PROBLEM, CORRECTING ENVIRONMENTAL PORBLEMS ARE(GLOBAL WARMING, POLLUTION AND CARELESSNESS) AS I MENTIONED BEFORE...

 

Yup, in fact just recently a ship was sunk in hopes a new reef could be formed. I agree with you, creating new reefs will not help. We need to stop overfishing at least...in Fiji from 1995-2000 there were no fish zones and in that time larger groupers came back (erm...small ones lived long enough to grow big) and Giant clams started to become more evident. Although the main opposition to limit fishing are fishing companies...even most of them realize that something needs to be done.

 

Ah, Bruce, you have tripped onto only part of a reason I want to become a marine biologist!!!! Hey, I am already used to little to no money--dh is a public school teacher!!

Anyway, I am afraid it would take a whole series of papers or a big long thesis paper. There are just too many threats and too many reasons why they are threats. I guess what we can do is try and list the threats and the reasons as well as ideas to counter them. We could also give ideas for preventive measures and how they could be put into practice.

Hope this helps.

Anne

 

1) Over fishing

The first thing is to establish and/or enforce no fishing zones. Another step would be to aggresively enforce endangered species act. I would also recommend stricter monitoring of the aquarium industry.

One thing to prevent over fishing would be to continue to study species that are commonly found in an aquarium so that they can be bred in captivity for aquariums.

Any other thoughts???

Anne

 

2) Pollution

About the only thing I can think of is stricter EPA enforcement of enviromental laws combine this with stricter consequences.

Preventative, continue research so that most of our industry can be done in an eco friendly manner.

Any other thoughts???

Anne

 

3) Stupid people stepping on them

Better monitoring of tourist industry. Those leading tourists out on dives enforcing no touch rules.

Preventative--Create no diving areas.

Any other thoughts?????

Anne

 

4) Global Warming

Not sure on this one---anybody have any thoughts?????

Anne

 

5) Massive Silt

This category could probably fit under pollution.

The only thought that comes to mind is to protect and stop the destruction of our wetlands. Those are important ecosystems as they take excess nutrients out of the water before it is dumped into the ocean.

Anybody have any other thoughts????

Anne

 

There are many aspects to global warming. The ice caps slowly melting, that changes salinity and density of water, that disrupts oceans currents, which in turn affects weather patterns ( only aspects people care about). But that is Global Warming in a small nut shell