WHAT HAPPENED TO OUR CORAL REEF
The now productive reef areas of the world was threatened by many destructive fishing technique. Without giving so much importance, it will become an endangered living communities. What are some of this threats?
Many fishermen were using dynamite fishing, cyanide poisoning and overfishing. The general public also had participation in its depletion due to harmful sediments of the sea due to urbanization and deforestation.
The world was started abusing our coral reefs, our natural treasure that instead of protecting it, we are damaging it because of our less concern of its importance. But what is coral reef, anyway? It is the oldest living communities of plants and animals on earth. It provides the earth, the best ecosystem to balance our sea structures. Coral reefs become a haven of the living organisms in the sea, especially the fish to become their shelter. They can easily find foods around the coral reefs as many microorganisms were living there.
The improvements of the supply of fish is the result of the better management of our own coastal ecosystem. This marine life inhabiting our coral reefs increases our fish production. A healthy coral reefs is a good fishing ground that we can rely on.
Other countries started using reefs as the source materials for the production of medicines. The compound in a reef sponge was proven to be effective in the treatment of some disease. An overfishing alone by using a destructive force is the principal causes in damaging the existence of our coral reefs and other marine life around it by reducing their productivity. Destroying small living organisms by the use of poisonous chemicals for the purpose of getting the fish hiding in the coral reefs including the small fish is one of the abusive method that we have to prevent to continue happening.
Good prevention is our only chance to let the fish flourish again in our seas where we are the one that is mostly benefited for our own kind of control. Another threat to our ecosystem is coral mining of the reef itself. Corals becomes the raw materials in the production of consumer products . Without proper control, this will be the beginning of depleting the existence of coral reef in our region. Government participation of strict control is needed to curtail improper action of our fishermen or other persons who had intention to harvest reef for their own personal satisfaction disregarding the effect of it to our environment.
Deforestation also help damage our coral reefs in a threatening condition due to sedimentation in addition to mining and pollution from our industrial region. To put our coral reef to our protection, we have to start to be reasonable that without the presence of coral reef in our seas, our very lives is the one to be threaten for extinction especially if there are already a short supply of fish in our market, at the end, it is us that will suffer.
