Losing Battle for Coral (Research Paper - Final Draft)

Rain forests are being cut and burned, environmental groups are up in arms, and people fight to save these rapidly depleting resources. However, what about the habitat that is commonly referred to as the “…rainforest of the sea…” (“Coral Reef,” 2007)? Where is the media coverage relating to these incredibly bio-diverse marine habitats being threatened and destroyed; why does the public not know of the threats that have come to the coral reefs of the world? Although coral reefs are an important global resource, they are being threatened by human impact because of rising ocean temperatures, nutrient pollution, and aggressive commercial fishing tactics.

In order to understand what is threatening coral reefs, one must first understand how these beautiful structures are formed and why they are important on a global scale. According to The Coral Reef Alliance, coral reefs are very large limestone structures that have been created by the deposition of limestone from other living organisms (2007). However, there is a bit more to it then just that, one must understand that although the living part of a reef is only perhaps a meter thick, the reef itself may be over thirty meters thick; the rest of the thickness being composed of the skeletons of various calcifying marine organisms, including some types of coral, which are shed and pile up to form the infrastructure of the reef. On the outside of the reef there is the living coral and organisms which will eventually shed their own skeletons and over time become part of the infrastructure itself (Freeman, 2003). An astounding number of known marine species are supported by coral reefs, a number that nears twenty-five percent of all species; this fact alone makes coral reefs an absolutely amazing marine habitat worth preserving. However there are even more reasons that these incredibly beautiful and diverse structures deserve our attention. For one, they are important to the economy of many coastal regions since they form a habitat for thousands of species of fish, coral, and other marine plant and animal life, in addition to the fact that coral reefs are also a major attraction in the realm of tourism (The Coral Reef Alliance, 2007).

Even though these amazing habitats of the sea are so important to the marine ecosystem and to humans as well, they are still being threatened in multiple ways by the impact of humans on the environment; one way in which humans are impacting coral reefs is the rising temperature of the earth’s oceans. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) was reported in the magazine Water, Environment, and Technology as saying, “When coral is subjected to environmental stressors, such as warmer water temperatures, it expels the symbiotic micro-algae living within its tissues … these algae - the coral's food source - also provide the coral its color, making it appear bleached when absent. Coral bleaching occurring for more than 1 week can lead to coral death and the subsequent loss of coral reef habitats for a range of marine life…” ("Coral Threatened by Warmer Caribbean Waters," 2006). Scientists are currently studying the rising ocean temperatures and trying to determine the cause, so far there have been a few things discovered; for one, they believe that El Nino is a contributing factor to the current rise in ocean temperatures. According to R. Gutro of The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), El Nino is a naturally occurring event that takes place every four to twelve years when the colder water of the deep ocean off the western coast of South America does not come up toward the surface, causing the natural cooling effect of this colder water to not take place, therefore creating overall warming of ocean temperatures (Gutro, 2004).

In addition to the naturally occurring phenomena of El Nino, scientists also believe that warming ocean temperatures are being caused by the increased levels of carbon dioxide within the atmosphere and humans are believed to be directly responsible for this increase, a situation often referred to as global warming. It is the result of multiple things which include carbon emissions from power plants and automobiles, as well as deforestation. This excess carbon dioxide is doing many things to the atmosphere and to the earth; for one, it is depleting the ozone layer, which in effect is causing the earth’s temperature to rise, which in turn causes the ocean’s temperature to rise. In addition, the excess carbon dioxide is being absorbed by the earth’s oceans, which is a natural process. However, due to the large excess of carbon dioxide in the air, there is an above average amount being absorbed by the ocean, leading to a phenomenon called ocean acidification. Ocean acidification, as described by Crystal Davis, in an article entitled "Ocean Acidification, the Other Threat of Rising CO2 Emissions," is a result of a reaction between carbon dioxide and water, and has caused the ocean’s acidity level to increase thirty percent already (2007). This phenomena has multiple effects which are in themselves currently being studied by scientists, but one of the major effects of ocean acidification is it’s degradation of calcifying marine organisms, which as stated before, includes various types of corals. Another type of calcifying marine organism is a kind of plankton which helps to shade the ocean from the direct rays of the sun, and as this type of plankton is affected by the acidity of the ocean it dies, creating a cycle of rising ocean temperatures. Cheryl Lyn Dybas wrote a paper called, “On a Collision Course: Ocean Plankton and Climate Change,” and in this paper she quotes scientists Helen Coxall and Steve D'Hondt as saying, “Plankton ecosystems in Earth's oceans took 3 million years to fully recover after the mass extinction event 65 million years ago…” (2006), this is obviously not good news for plankton, corals, reefs, or the global community as a whole. Global warming and the increased levels of carbon dioxide in the air are having multiple detrimental effects on coral reefs and the earth’s oceans in general. These effects all combine to create long term devastation of coral reefs due to coral bleaching, as well as the skeletons of corals being degraded by ocean acidification.

Another threat to coral reefs is nutrient pollution; attributed to many things, it is caused by such things as agricultural runoff, sewage, and deforestation (Bruno, 2004). More or less the problem is that different types of corals, which previously stated shed their skeletons to create the structure of coral reefs, are susceptible to various diseases. Two of the diseases that affect corals are Aspergillosis and Yellow Band Disease. In a paper entitled "Nutrient Pollution Aggravates Coral Diseases," John Bruno, an Assistant Professor of Marine Sciences at the University of North Carolina, and his colleagues, discussed the findings of their research conducted by exposing coral to concentrated nutrient levels found in agricultural fertilizers; their research shows that, as the coral was subjected to higher levels of nutrient concentrate, the severity of Aspergillosis and Yellow Band Disease both increased as well (2004). This shows that corals and in effect coral reefs are being affected by nutrient pollution. Humans have a great impact on the oceans of the earth, and in effect upon the organisms that live within the oceans; it is imperative that as a global community humans monitor the amount of waste that is allowed to spread into the ocean and affect coral reefs and all other resources that exist in the world that we live in.

At the same time, rising ocean temperatures, ocean acidification, and nutrient pollution are not the only things affecting coral reefs, there are also aggressive commercial fishing tactics that are having devastating effects on the reefs as well. There are various fishing practices that fall into this category, for example blast fishing, cyanide fishing, bottom-sea trawling, and over-fishing are all having negative effects on coral reefs. Blast fishing usually involves the use of dynamite or grenades to catch fish, inadvertently destroying anything that may be near the blast wave of the explosive device, such as coral or coral reefs. Cyanide fishing, according to The Coral Reef Alliance, is a process involving people diving down to a reef and leaving cyanide on the reef and on fast-moving fish, the cyanide basically stuns all of the fish in the area after a while, thus making them easy to catch. However, some marine organisms, including some types of coral become poisoned by the cyanide, in effect killing them (2007). At the same time bottom sea trawling is a commercial fishing technique that uses giant rollers that roll along the ocean floor to clear the path for fishing nets following behind the rollers; the problem being that the rollers destroy anything in their path, including reefs (The Coral Reef Alliance, 2007). Over-fishing of coral reef habitats is yet another problem, in essence disturbing the natural cycle of things, throwing off the food-chain and causing reefs to no longer function in the natural rhythm of nature.

The point being argued, that humans are having a direct detrimental effect on coral reefs, is refuted by some, usually the same people that oppose the idea that humans are a large contributing factor to global warming as a whole. The opposition to the idea of humans being a direct and large part of global warming seems to include those such as George W. Bush, current President of the United States. However, it is also interesting to look deeper into the issue at hand and see that most of those opposed to the idea of global warming and how to deal with it, are also either directly or indirectly involved in big business that would be financially hurt if the hand of blame was to fall toward the side of human involvement in global warming. It is also interesting to see the fact that in 2001 the Bush Administration voted down the Kyoto Protocol, an international treaty put together as a way of dealing with the growing global warming problem. However, with the Bush Administration’s not so popular reign of power the fact that the Kyoto Protocol was voted down proved to raise the publics eyes to the fact that perhaps there was a problem of global proportions and that it needed to be looked at closer. Clive Cook published an article in the publication Atlantic Monthly, that claims by the year 2003, over ninety-percent of Americans had heard of global warming, this is after George Bush had refused to sign the Kyoto Protocol. This is an interesting fact, a kind of twist of fate that a president who was not in support of a protocol designed to combat global warming, in effect caused the public to become more aware of the issue that he was trying to dodge (Cook, 2008). Another point of interest is that the Kyoto Protocol is being revised and is still under scrutiny by the international community, with the United States currently being one of the largest violators of the protocols demands; the Bush Administration still refuses to ratify the agreement. However, David Doniger of the Natural resources Defense Council was quoted in US News and World Report, as saying, that the international community knows that the U.S. is about have a change in political power as the elections draw near and a new administration will soon take office; this means that those trying to get the United States to ratify the Kyoto Protocol know that the Bush Administration is on it’s way out and are hoping that the new administration that takes office will be more receptive to the idea of dealing with carbon emissions and the effect that it is having on the global community (Lavelle, 2007).

As a whole, coral reefs are being threatened by human impact in multiple ways, both directly and indirectly. Carbon dioxide emissions are one of the largest areas of this impact affecting the reefs, but there is also pollution and commercial fishing. The reefs are incredible places to visit and recreate, the aesthetic beauty that they possess is almost unparalleled anywhere else on earth, however, the benefits of coral reefs as economic and environmental resources stretch even farther than their purely aesthetic value. It is important as a global community to think about the importance that these often overlooked structures play in the overall well-being of the earth’s oceans, and as a global environmentally conscience community, it is important to do all we can to ensure that these beautiful, diverse, and incredible habitats are not destroyed in the coming years.


Bruno, J. (2004). Nutrient Pollution Aggravates Coral Diseases. Water Environment & Technology, 16(3), 10. Retrieved March 24, 2008, from ASTA Database (BAST04117983).

Cook, C. (2008, April). Sins of Emission. Atlantic Monthly, 301(3), 32-34. Retrieved April 13, 2008, from Academic Search Premier Database (31229695).

Coral Reef. (2007). Encyclomedia: Free Online Encyclopedia. Retrieved 24 March, 2008, from http://www.encyclomedia.com/coral_reef.html

The Coral Reef Alliance. (2007). Retrieved March 24, 2008, from http://coralreef.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=62&Itemid=72

Coral Threatened by Warmer Caribbean Waters. (2006). Water Environment & Technology, 18(4), 29. Retrieved March 24, 2008, from ASTA Database (BAST06123051).

Davis, C. (2007, September). Ocean Acidification, the Other Threat of Rising CO2 Emissions. Time for Change. Retrieved March 24, 2008, from http://timeforchange.org/ocean-acidification-effect-of-global-warming

Dybas, C.L. (2006). On a Collision Course: Ocean Plankton and Climate Change. Bioscience, 56(8), 642-646. Retrieved March 24, 2008, from ASFA Database (7233874).

Freeman, M. (2003). About Corals & Coral Reefs. Coral Reef Adventure. Retrieved March 24, 2008, from http://www.coralfilm.com/about.html#issues

Gutro, R. (2004). NASA Satellites See El Nino Creep in From the Indian Ocean. National Atmospheric and Space Administration. Retrieved March 24, 2008, from http://www.nasa.gov/vision/earth/lookingatearth/elnino_ocean.html

Lavelle, M. (2007, December 10). Climate Clash, Round 2. US News and World Report, 143(20), 21-22. Retrieved April 13, 2008, from Academic Search Premier Database (27708734).