Threats to Coral Reefs Worldwide

Coral reefs are critical to the health of our oceans; unfortunately they are under threat from a number of different dangers. Coral reefs make up only about a tenth of one percent of the ocean but support about a quarter of its wildlife. Therefore the loss of coral reefs would be devastating. It is important that steps be taken to make sure that we are able to keep the reefs healthy and our oceans full of fish.

The greatest danger to coral reefs is overfishing. Coral reefs are areas of huge biodiversity and they support a large percentage of the world's marine life. Since you have a lot of fish in a small area this makes it a prime place for fishing. Unfortunately the fishing industry has lead to severe damage to the reefs. The coral relies on the fish around it for its food supply; if they aren't there the coral will die. In addition a lot of fishing uses things like nets, poisons or even dynamite, all of which can damage the coral.

Another serious threat to coral reefs is that they are becoming covered with sediment. The reason that this is a problem is that the sediment makes it impossible for the coral to grow properly. The sediment comes from the rivers that flow into the ocean. The combination of deforestation and agriculture has resulted in a lot of sediment running into the rivers. The rivers then carry this sediment to the oceans where the current distributes it. When the sediment runs into a reef however it can't go any further so it ends up being deposited there.

Another way that agriculture is threatening coral reefs is that the fertilizer that gets used also ends up in the rivers and eventually making its way into the ocean. This results in the growth of seaweed which will eventually overgrow the coral. When this happens the coral can't grow properly and the reefs are under threat. In addition to fertilizer when we dump sewage into the ocean we get the same effect. It is important to find more efficient fertilizers and to make sure that sewage is treated properly so that the reefs will not be damaged.

Global warming is causing a lot of damage to oceans and that includes coral reefs. The problem in this case is that as the water temperatures rise the corals get bleached and start to turn white. This is a problem because it reduces the nutrients that the coral has which weakens the coral. There is still a lot of research that needs to be done on how rising temperatures affect coral but it is pretty clear that the impact can be pretty large. There are lots of reasons that we need to deal with climate change and the impact on the coral reefs is just one more.