All in all, we think that saving the reefs is essential and is the whole of human races' mission.
The corals make our world beautiful, even with just the fishes, plants, beaches, ocean, our world is not complete without corals.
So start saving the corals today. Every second counts!
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
Yet another poem...written front the bottom of our hearts
Maybe we think we have been trying too hard
Just maybe we think that we have done our best
Only just maybe we think that our oceans are fine
BUT THE REEFS ARE STILL STRIVING TO STAY ALIVE
Do you think that it is enough
Because now the reefs need our help
Admiring the beautiful view slowly vanish
Or do our part and help SAVE THE REEFS?
The reefs need our help
Now embark on a new mission
Go underwater
And SAVE OUR REEFS!!!
Just maybe we think that we have done our best
Only just maybe we think that our oceans are fine
BUT THE REEFS ARE STILL STRIVING TO STAY ALIVE
Do you think that it is enough
Because now the reefs need our help
Admiring the beautiful view slowly vanish
Or do our part and help SAVE THE REEFS?
The reefs need our help
Now embark on a new mission
Go underwater
And SAVE OUR REEFS!!!
Our Poem...About Reefs
Save Our Reefs
Our reefs are precious
Our corals are precious
They are precious
Just like our lifes
So treasure it
And cherish it
Save it
Just like how you love your lifes
Our reefs are precious
Our corals are precious
They are precious
Just like our lifes
So treasure it
And cherish it
Save it
Just like how you love your lifes
Thursday, September 4, 2008
What we do to the coral reefs.( Cont.)
Here are the other stuff we do to the coral reefs:
Oil and industrial pollution: Petrochemicals and heavy metals are a great threat to all marine life in coral reef zones, especially near urban areas and in the seas of the Middle East.
Sedimentation: When people clearcut forests or bulldoze new housing tracts and parking lots, tons of loose dirt is washed downstream and into near-shore reef areas, where it buries corals under a layer of silt and smothers them.
Tourism: Clumsy or just not aware of, tourists crush, scrape, gouge, and break off fragile corals with their hands, their scuba fins, and their ship anchors. Resort development destroys coastal mangroves, creates new sewage sources, and stirs up more silt that smothers reefs.
Disease: Abuse adds up, and reefs that aren't killed directly by people, it may be getting sick from the accumulated stresses. Recent years have seen epidemics of many coral diseases and the discovery of several new ones previously unknown to science. Coral bleaching, a deadly ailment on the rise, is associated with higher water temperatures—but even that can be attributed to humankind if global warming models are correct. And the diseases seem to be getting meaner: In April, scientists reported in the journal Nature that a new species of coral-bleaching and -killing bacteria was wiping out reefs in two or three days, rather than the weeks or months it took previously.
Climate disruption: Coral bleaching aside, global warming will cause some obvious problems for corals, like decreased ocean salinity and rising mean ocean depth. Then there are the less obvious problems: Australian scientists warned in March 1998 that increasing carbon dioxide in the earth's atmosphere was raising the acidity of surface water in the world's oceans, making it harder for corals to form the (basic) limestone skeletons that make up the reefs.
Coral mining: People excavate coral reefs for their limestone and sand, for use in building materials, resort hotel beaches, tourist souvenirs, even snake-oil medicines: A Swedish company, Ericssons Preventive Medical Group, claims its Alka-Mine Coral Calcium will "naturally detox the body by neutralizing the acidity with which we are all...too apt to pollute our systems." Sweden, of course, has no coral reefs; the product's mineral-rich coral sand is mined off Okinawa.
Mangrove destruction: The familiar tree of swamps from Mississippi to Mozambique, the mangrove provides a crucial service to coral reefs: It filters silt and even pollution out of terrestrial runoff before it can taint the clear water of the reef zones. People chop down mangroves for firewood and clear them for coastal construction.
See? These are the stupid things we do, that not only will harm the coral reefs, but also us, in future.
Source: Action Atlas
Oil and industrial pollution: Petrochemicals and heavy metals are a great threat to all marine life in coral reef zones, especially near urban areas and in the seas of the Middle East.
Sedimentation: When people clearcut forests or bulldoze new housing tracts and parking lots, tons of loose dirt is washed downstream and into near-shore reef areas, where it buries corals under a layer of silt and smothers them.
Tourism: Clumsy or just not aware of, tourists crush, scrape, gouge, and break off fragile corals with their hands, their scuba fins, and their ship anchors. Resort development destroys coastal mangroves, creates new sewage sources, and stirs up more silt that smothers reefs.
Disease: Abuse adds up, and reefs that aren't killed directly by people, it may be getting sick from the accumulated stresses. Recent years have seen epidemics of many coral diseases and the discovery of several new ones previously unknown to science. Coral bleaching, a deadly ailment on the rise, is associated with higher water temperatures—but even that can be attributed to humankind if global warming models are correct. And the diseases seem to be getting meaner: In April, scientists reported in the journal Nature that a new species of coral-bleaching and -killing bacteria was wiping out reefs in two or three days, rather than the weeks or months it took previously.
Climate disruption: Coral bleaching aside, global warming will cause some obvious problems for corals, like decreased ocean salinity and rising mean ocean depth. Then there are the less obvious problems: Australian scientists warned in March 1998 that increasing carbon dioxide in the earth's atmosphere was raising the acidity of surface water in the world's oceans, making it harder for corals to form the (basic) limestone skeletons that make up the reefs.
Coral mining: People excavate coral reefs for their limestone and sand, for use in building materials, resort hotel beaches, tourist souvenirs, even snake-oil medicines: A Swedish company, Ericssons Preventive Medical Group, claims its Alka-Mine Coral Calcium will "naturally detox the body by neutralizing the acidity with which we are all...too apt to pollute our systems." Sweden, of course, has no coral reefs; the product's mineral-rich coral sand is mined off Okinawa.
Mangrove destruction: The familiar tree of swamps from Mississippi to Mozambique, the mangrove provides a crucial service to coral reefs: It filters silt and even pollution out of terrestrial runoff before it can taint the clear water of the reef zones. People chop down mangroves for firewood and clear them for coastal construction.
See? These are the stupid things we do, that not only will harm the coral reefs, but also us, in future.
Source: Action Atlas
What we do to the coral reefs.
Coral reefs give us benefits and we take them for granted. What do we do to them? Let's see...
Overfishing: In areas blessed with an abundant human population, the collapse of the world's fisheries is a familiar story, and tropical regions are just another chapter. Coral reef fisheries are hitting bottom in many regions, especially in South and East Asia, where many overexploited reefs have been scoured of nearly all edible life.
Blast fishing: In depleted fisheries, people resort to desperate tactics to catch the fish that remain—one of those is dynamite. The explosions send dead fish to the surface and destroy living reefs; they can be heard from the Philippines to Kenya to the Caribbean. That's worser.
Cyanide fishing: Restaurants and markets, especially those in East Asia, like to buy live fish; fishermen oblige them by stunning big fish with cyanide sprayed into the water. The fish are caught live, the market momentarily sated, the coral reefs killed-which is not fair to them.
Sewage: Organic wastes from human cities flood to the sea, bringing an overload of nutrients; algae take over the reefs, blotting out the sunlight corals need to live. It's called eutrophication and it's a major problem, especially in the Caribbean and Central America, where just 10 percent of sewage is properly treated before it's dumped in the sea.
Farm runoff: More eutrophication. Carried to the sea by rivers and streams, chemical fertilizers act much like sewage, overloading reef areas with nutrients for algae, choking the corals. Herbicides and pesticides are a toxic bonus. Florida is a prime example, great example.
There are more in the next post.
Source: Action Atlas
Overfishing: In areas blessed with an abundant human population, the collapse of the world's fisheries is a familiar story, and tropical regions are just another chapter. Coral reef fisheries are hitting bottom in many regions, especially in South and East Asia, where many overexploited reefs have been scoured of nearly all edible life.
Blast fishing: In depleted fisheries, people resort to desperate tactics to catch the fish that remain—one of those is dynamite. The explosions send dead fish to the surface and destroy living reefs; they can be heard from the Philippines to Kenya to the Caribbean. That's worser.
Cyanide fishing: Restaurants and markets, especially those in East Asia, like to buy live fish; fishermen oblige them by stunning big fish with cyanide sprayed into the water. The fish are caught live, the market momentarily sated, the coral reefs killed-which is not fair to them.
Sewage: Organic wastes from human cities flood to the sea, bringing an overload of nutrients; algae take over the reefs, blotting out the sunlight corals need to live. It's called eutrophication and it's a major problem, especially in the Caribbean and Central America, where just 10 percent of sewage is properly treated before it's dumped in the sea.
Farm runoff: More eutrophication. Carried to the sea by rivers and streams, chemical fertilizers act much like sewage, overloading reef areas with nutrients for algae, choking the corals. Herbicides and pesticides are a toxic bonus. Florida is a prime example, great example.
There are more in the next post.
Source: Action Atlas
What are coral reefs good for?
Who cares if the corals go the way of the dodo? You should. Science has progressed to the point where we can understand this fact: We can't live without those tiny animals and their coral reefs—at least not all of us. People need the coral reefs. Here are what coral reefs are useful for:
Food. Coral reef zones are home to one quarter of all marine plants and animals: Nearly a million species of fish, crabs, eels, mollusks, sponges, worms, grasses, algae, and other marine animals live on reefs or use them as nurseries to protect their young. Corals also provide natural filtration of seawater for their neighbours. These reef ecosystems support vast fisheries that people, especially in coastal nations, depend upon for much of their protein. Collapse could mean famine. No coral reefs- No food.
Shelter. Natural harbors that take a long time to build, coral reefs provide people with living sea walls against tides, storm surges, and hurricanes. They also act as giant sand factories, creating limestone from dissolved minerals in seawater and leaving it behind as sand to keep shorelines from eroding. They also help provide clownfishes shelter from its predators.
Medicine and other resources. Like the tropical rainforests, coral reefs are a center of extreme biodiversity, a great reservoir of intriguing DNA we've hardly begun to explore and natural compounds we don't yet understand. Australian scientists in Queensland have developed a sunscreen from substances that corals use to protect themselves from ultraviolet light. It has an SPF of 50+. In Menlo Park, Calif., Neurex Corp. has developed an extraordinarily potent pain-killing drug from the poison of reef-dwelling sea snails. The paralytic agent, used by snails of the species Conus magus to render their prey helpless, is hundreds of times more potent than morphine. It is injected directly into a patient's spinal fluid, providing relief for those suffering from cancer and other agonizing conditions. Look how great coral reefs are.
Fun and profit. Coral reefs are one big underwater amusement park for snorkelers and divers, a searingly colorful undersea world of Cousteauian delights—which drives a tourist industry worth tens of billions of dollars, in many cases propping up the economies of entire nations. It makes the Earth beautiful.
Now you know what coral reefs are good for. For many things. But we continue ignoring the fact that coral reefs are facing extinction. And we continue harming them.
Source: Action Atlas
Food. Coral reef zones are home to one quarter of all marine plants and animals: Nearly a million species of fish, crabs, eels, mollusks, sponges, worms, grasses, algae, and other marine animals live on reefs or use them as nurseries to protect their young. Corals also provide natural filtration of seawater for their neighbours. These reef ecosystems support vast fisheries that people, especially in coastal nations, depend upon for much of their protein. Collapse could mean famine. No coral reefs- No food.
Shelter. Natural harbors that take a long time to build, coral reefs provide people with living sea walls against tides, storm surges, and hurricanes. They also act as giant sand factories, creating limestone from dissolved minerals in seawater and leaving it behind as sand to keep shorelines from eroding. They also help provide clownfishes shelter from its predators.
Medicine and other resources. Like the tropical rainforests, coral reefs are a center of extreme biodiversity, a great reservoir of intriguing DNA we've hardly begun to explore and natural compounds we don't yet understand. Australian scientists in Queensland have developed a sunscreen from substances that corals use to protect themselves from ultraviolet light. It has an SPF of 50+. In Menlo Park, Calif., Neurex Corp. has developed an extraordinarily potent pain-killing drug from the poison of reef-dwelling sea snails. The paralytic agent, used by snails of the species Conus magus to render their prey helpless, is hundreds of times more potent than morphine. It is injected directly into a patient's spinal fluid, providing relief for those suffering from cancer and other agonizing conditions. Look how great coral reefs are.
Fun and profit. Coral reefs are one big underwater amusement park for snorkelers and divers, a searingly colorful undersea world of Cousteauian delights—which drives a tourist industry worth tens of billions of dollars, in many cases propping up the economies of entire nations. It makes the Earth beautiful.
Now you know what coral reefs are good for. For many things. But we continue ignoring the fact that coral reefs are facing extinction. And we continue harming them.
Source: Action Atlas
Other places where coral reefs are in GREAT DANGER.
There are other places where the coral reefs are facing great danger. Well, as I have already posted earlier, The Indian Ocean, Madagascar, Sri Lanka and Somalia. But thereare more. Here's like what I can find- the places where coral reefs are facing great danger- and here they are.
Places: Indian Ocean, Madgascar, Somalia, Sri Lanka, India, Kenya, Tanzanina, Seychelles, Republic of Maldives, Reunion (Fr.), Chagos Archipelago (UK), Mozambique, Comoros, Mauritius.
That's what I could find.
Will be posting more.
Source: Action Atlas
Places: Indian Ocean, Madgascar, Somalia, Sri Lanka, India, Kenya, Tanzanina, Seychelles, Republic of Maldives, Reunion (Fr.), Chagos Archipelago (UK), Mozambique, Comoros, Mauritius.
That's what I could find.
Will be posting more.
Source: Action Atlas
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