THE DESTRUCTION OF CORAL REEFS

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All of y'all better keep your feet off every single coral reef out there. I will not say it again. Coral reefs are off limits, and if you make a habit of stepping on coral reefs I will step on you.

"About one-fifth of the worlds coral reefs have already been lost or severely damaged. Another 35% could be lost within 10-40 years. It's happening at twice the rate of rainforest decline."

Global warming is harmful to the coral reefs too, so let's talk about that for a second. The coral reefs from the Great Barrier Reef to the Seychelles off of East Africa is so close to dying out completely unless we can fix our carbon emissions.

"Of the 29 World Heritage Reef Areas, at least 25 of them will experience twice-per-decade bleaching events by 2040- a frequency that will 'rapidly kill most corals present and prevent successful reproduction necessary for the recovery of corals. From 1876-1979 only three bleaching events were recorded, whereas 60 are in record from 1980 until 1993; in 2003 more than 400 events were recorded."

That's insane.

Properly managed coral reefs can yield an average of 15 tons of fish and other seafood per square kilometer each year, and occupying less than one quarter of 1% of the marine environment, coral reefs are home to more than 25% of all known marine fish species.

I don't even have words. People need to start taking all of this into account whenever they're doing things in everyday life. Climate change is real, and it's hurting our society.

As of right now, there are 69% of coral reefs left.

Average coral clovers on Caribbean reefs has declined to 8% when it used to make up 50% in the '70s.

58% of the worlds corals reefs are threatened by human activity. And as humans, we're tearing up these beautiful reefs in many ways too. They're extremely fragile and people stepping on them while scuba diving, dynamite fishing, etc are all factors into why 27% of all monitored reef formations have been lost, and the next 32% are at risk to be lost in the next 40 years.

80% of the worlds shallow reefs are already severely over-fished. There are 109 countries with coral reefs found on them, and significant reef degradation has occurred in 93 of them.

When are we going to say that enough is enough?

"More than 450 million people live within 60 kilometers of coral reefs, with the majority directly or indirectly deriving food and income from them."

When it comes to scuba diving specifically, there are many reasons how they can harm the reefs: for example, the buoyancy controller and fins have been proven to hurt the corals. this typically doesn't happen a lot when it comes to experienced divers, but still enough to make an impact.

Another thing is touching the corals. I don't know why people love to touch things that don't belong to them so much, but one more time for the people in the back; don't touch the freaking coral.

By touching the coral, you can break it off and sometimes it can repair itself, but most of the time it cannot and therefore you are causing irreplaceable and inexcusable damage when you didn't have to.

Also letting your scuba gear hang loose is really bad if it comes into contact with the coral because it has the same exact effect on it as if you yourself hit it, and scuba gear is also very heavy.

And lastly, if I see one more family step on these corals reefs at a beach, I will step on you. don't do it.

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HOW YOU CAN HELP SAVE THE CORALS

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-Local Aquariums!
This isn't true for everyone, but most aquariums have some sort of place where you can donate, and your donation goes straight to a foundation that helps a coral reef!

-Be respectful!
Coral reefs as we have said before, are very very fragile, and you have to respect them! If you're going to visit one anytime soon, please just be careful of your surroundings and try not to bring any more harm to these beautiful things!

-Spread the message!
Let other people know what you know now! You can share this information so others can put it to good use too!

-Buy eco-friendly products!
You may have seen some coral things sold that are made from coral reefs made to be a centerpiece of sorts, and while it may be pretty, it probably was extracted from a real coral reef, and if you care for them at all, it is not good to support a company like this!

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