Coral Reefs - What you can do to protect them!
By Cheyenne Carey
If you read my previous blog, you’ve been introduced to the importance of coral reefs and why they deserve our respect, attention, and protection. But now the question is: What can you do to help? Here are some actions you can take to minimize the destruction and pressures that coral reefs face.
1. Eat Sustainably
One pressure that coral reefs face is overfishing. Overfishing of coral reefs has led to a difficulty in finding enough fish to catch, and fishermen are taking their practices to the extreme. Many reefs are fished via dynamite and cyanide fishing. Dynamite fishing is a process in which fishermen deploy dynamite amongst a reef, which stuns fish and causes them to float to the surface for easy capture. The fish too close to the dynamite die on impact, and many long-living corals are destroyed in seconds. When cyanide fishing, fishermen squirt cyanide onto the reefs and, similar to the dynamite, fish float to the surface for easy capture. Many are killed in the process and studies show that reefs subject to continual cyanide have higher rates of bleaching.
Today, businesses are taking notice of consumers’ desire to eat sustainably, and it can be overwhelming to enter a supermarket that is filled with a variety of “sustainable” labels on all types of foods. Even more problematic, there are very few regulations when it comes to labeling foods, and this often leads to greenwashing. Greenwashing refers to businesses claiming to be sustainable and slapping sustainable labels onto their products when they actually do very little to ensure their food is sourced sustainably. But there are ways around this conundrum. To ensure that your seafood is caught sustainably, Monterey Bay Aquarium has created a mobile App called Seafood Watch (http://www.seafoodwatch.org). This simple resource allows you to look up different fish and see which is the most sustainable choice for your dinner.
Of course, in order to be completely certain that your diet is not harming reefs, minimize or avoid seafood consumption all together. If this is a feasible consideration for you, wonderful! If not, do what works for you. But always try to have a sustainable plan when choosing your next meal.
2. Avoid Plastic
Plastic is a problem throughout all marine ecosystems. Prior to the 1970’s, there was no such thing as single-use plastic. Today, we can barely imagine a life without it. Plastic cups, straws, and packaging are used for just minutes before spending the rest of its extremely long life in landfills and our oceans. Over time, these plastics break down and create tiny plastic beads, called microplastics, which are extremely dangerous to marine life. Even the smallest creatures in the sea such as zooplankton are plagued by plastic in their diets. This flows up the food chain in the form of bioaccumulation, and fish of all types can be found with plastic throughout their intestines. Plastic bags are also an extreme danger, and are the poster child for marine plastic pollution. Turtles often eat these bags as they look extremely similar to jellyfish, a natural food source of turtles. The buildup of plastic bags slows their internal systems, reducing fecundity and even leading to poor immune systems, disease, and death.
Researchers suggest that by 2050 there will be more plastic in our ocean than fish. This is a monumental problem. In order to save marine ecosystems, we must minimize our plastic consumption. Use reusable bags at the grocery store. Buy a reusable water bottle. Say NO to the straw! Bring your own containers for take-out or leftovers. Buy local and avoid unnecessary plastic packaging around foods. You can even make a sort of game out of it, joining in on one of the many plastic challenges, such as the Plastic Free Challenge; http://www.plasticfreechallenge.org. Finally, educate your friends and family! Give them these types of simple tips that can help eliminate hundreds of pounds of plastic (per person) from entering our oceans each year.
3. Volunteer or Advocate for a Coral Conservation or Restoration Program
One of the most rewarding things you can do for coral reefs is assist in their physical restoration! While coral restoration programs are few and far in between, there are still many to support and get involved in. Not to mention, as more people become involved, more programs can be started up. One such program is the New Heaven Reef Conservation Program (NHRCP). At NHRCP, we take an ecosystem approach to coral conservation. This means that not only are we restoring the reefs via coral nurseries and artificial reefs production, but we also have a giant clam rearing program and sea turtle head-start program. Just as important, we take comprehensive scientific data regarding the health of the corals, fish populations, sea turtle and shark populations, and surrounding ecosystem. By pooling all of these tools we are able to understand how each aspect of the local marine community is impacting the collective health of the ecosystem. From there we can make decisions about how to best help the ecosystem as time goes on.
Being a part of this type of program is an incredible experience, and you don’t need to have previous knowledge about marine ecosystems to get involved! At NHRCP you will be taught the tools necessary to restore coral reefs. There is nothing more rewarding than seeing your own two hands make positive change for our world, and this is a fabulous program to get involved in! At a time that corals are in such dire need for protection, I urge you to take action by eating sustainably, avoiding plastic, and supporting restoration efforts!
To find out more about what a day in the life of an NHRCP volunteer looks like, check out my next post.
