Care about Corals

Whether you live on an island, near the coast, or in a landlocked area, coral reefs have an impact on your life. In this post I am going to talk about a few ways how, and why you should care.

Believe it or not the ocean produces most of the oxygen on earth, with photosynthetic algae in the oceans producing an incredible 70% of the oxygen in our atmosphere. (Oxygen levels…) Many of these algae can be found living in a symbiotic relationship with corals. As corals grow, these algae begin living within the tissue of the colony, providing them a place to grow safely while providing the corals nutrients, and oxygen for them to survive and grow their skeletal structure. If corals were to die out many of these algae would die along with them drastically shifting the Ph balance of the oceans, and dramatically decreasing the oxygen available in our atmosphere.

Aside from being a key component in ensuring the air we breathe; corals also play a large role in the food we eat. Coral reefs are home to over 25% of all marine life in the world. These densely populated ecosystems are rich with marine life from the smallest plankton all the way up to sharks, and most things in between. With all that life the National Marine Fisheries Service of the United States share that the average value coral reefs provide in terms of US fisheries income is around 100 million dollars! Consider the fish you get from the market, your shrimp, your lobster, your calamari, now think about where they come from. Coral reefs provide most of the seafood that comes through your nearby grocers.

Finally, these beautiful ecosystems are just that, beautiful, and this draws in a lot of attention. Ecotourism is growing rapidly in popularity and when someone wants to go tour the seas, they usually don’t want to just see open ocean and endless blue. No, they want to see the beauty that our oceans hold, and so much of that beauty can be found in and around coral reefs. This makes coral reefs a driving force of coastal economies. Tourism isn’t the only way reef ecosystems are driving the economy though. In fact, Reef ecosystems are estimated to bring in approximately 375 billion dollars a year from tourism, recreation, research and education, fisheries, and natural coastal protection. (Noaagov.2011)

Thank you all for taking the time to read this post. I hope that with the small amount of information I have shared more people can see the importance our coral reefs and are able to take the time to consider how you may be able to change to have a more positive impact of our reefs.