Marine Conservation

Marine conservation, also known as marine resources conservation, is the protection and preservation of ecosystems in oceans and seas. Marine conservation focuses on limiting human-caused damage to marine ecosystems, and on restoring damaged marine ecosystems. Marine conservation also focuses on preserving vulnerable marine species. Oceans cover more than 70 percent of the Earth's surface and contain extraordinary levels of biodiversity. All but one of the animal "body plans" on earth are found in the oceans, and 45 percent of them are exclusively marine. Many parts of the oceans and seas are still unexplored and new species are discovered on a regular basis. While it was thought for decades that the resources of the seas were inexhaustible, habitat destruction, overfishing, climate change and pollution now severely threaten marine biodiversity and important fisheries.

Coral Reefs

A coral reef is a complex, shallow water marine environment, found in tropical and subtropical waters warmer than 18 degrees Celcius, that is the second most diverse ecosystem in the world. They are the largest biological structures on earth and can even be seen from space. Worldwide, coral reefs cover an estimated 284,300 square kilometers, (110,000 square miles), and geological record indicates that the ancestors of modern coral reef ecosystems were formed at least 350 million years ago. The coral reefs existing today began growing as early as 50 million years ago. Most established coral reefs today are between 5,000 and 10,000 years old. Today, coral reefs cover less than 0.2% of the ocean floor, but as one of the most complex ecosystems on the planet, they are the seen as “rainforests of the sea,” and are an incredible biodiversity reservoir. They host an extraordinary variety of marine plants and animals including one quarter of all marine fish species Over 6,000 different species of fish, 2,500 species of coral and thousands of other plants and animals have so far been identified and this is thought to be only 10% of the estimated 1 to 2 million species present.

Threats to Coral Reefs

Coral reefs are directly threatened worldwide by commercial overfishing, which is causing further degradation as many subsistence fishing communities are forced to resort to poisoning the reef in the collection of aquaria fishes, dynamite fishing and coral harvesting. Climatic change is also having a severe detrimental effect upon coral reefs. Changing weather patterns are causing fluctuations in the surface dynamics of oceans, in turn causing local rises in sea temperatures and damaging corals. The stress due to the higher temperatures cause corals to loose the symbiotic algae, which give them their colour and which they depend upon to survive. If the temperatures are long term or repeated frequently, the coral will not take up more zooxanthellae and will die. A rise of just 2 degree Celcius is proven to be enough to cause coral bleaching and 4 degrees above maximum tolerable values for just a few days causes the deaths of 90-95% of one group, madrepores. The higher frequency of rains, hurricanes, typhoons in tropical regions leads to increased run off and sedimentation, also lethal to corals and exaggerated by rainforest clearance, and increased wave erosion. Additional pressure is applied by pollution from factories, mines, agriculture and tourist developments, dredging, oil dumping, coral mining, irresponsible boating, diving and other recreational. More than one-third of the world’s coral reefs have already been destroyed or permanently damaged, and just under two thirds are under threat.