Mom send me an email yesterday with this link
why-the-great-barrier-reef-could-lose-almost-all-its-coral-in-the-next-decade
In short, Great Barrier Reef has lost almost 50% of its reef in the last 27 years, and it is declining at a faster rate than ever. In the next decade, the coral cover in GBR could be less than 5% if this trend continues.
Another news that is capturing the attention of coral scientists around the world is that coral reefs in Hawaii has just been affected by a mysterious disease, and the disease is spreading at an alarming rate that no one has seen before. Even worse, it is affecting fishes and turtles that feeds on the corals. Thus, the bacteria are spreading from corals to fishes/ turtles, and it may in turn spread to other coral reefs around the region.
Coral-Disease-Outbreak-Spreading-At-Alarming-Rate
Mom asked whether this is a good time to be studying the corals :P... well two things may happen -
1) Everyone is freaking out, and putting in more money for research, and hopefully, I hope to get some of it as well.
2) Everyone is freaking out, and decided to give up! No more money for coral reefs!
I certainly hope it is option #1...
I have this crazy idea which I shared with Hannah sometime ago. I think one day, we will preserve coral reefs like how we do with animals in the zoo.... I call it "Coral Zoo". We will corner off some parts of the reefs, a smaller part which we can easily monitor and manage. We will use all our science knowledge to keep the corals within this area nice and pristine. And we will just have to "give up" the other parts of the reef and let "nature" or human takes its toll on it! We will limit the number of visitors to these nice reefs, and charge them for it...
What do you think? Will this be a reality?
I think it's already happening! That's why there are Marine Protected Areas and underwater "parks" like where we dived the Jesus statue oh-so-long ago.
ReplyDeleteI think it will be hard to completely protect corals without them being in an aquarium, but at least it would preserve them a little bit more for us to enjoy them in our lifetime. Hard to say "give up" the other parts - sad.
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