How Does Bleaching Affect Coral Reefs

It started on 20th April 2010 and continued for 87 days. It had a huge effect on the marine life and people who were living on coastlines. Due to release of 4.9 million barrels of oil in the sea, even today, the water of Gulf Mexico is contaminated. This has caused psychological, social, cultural and economic long-term and long lasting effects. More importantly, it was caused due to carelessness of government and BP oil owners as they could not manage the fire which led to this enormous disaster.

Oceans are threatened daily by both natural and manmade pollution, as the largest factor affecting them is plastic. Over the last decade, there has been more plastic produced compared to the last 100 years (“How Ocean Pollution Impacts Marine Life-and All of Us”). Around 100 millions tons of plastic is produced every year and 10 percent of that plastic ends up in the sea. Many sources are the cause of ocean litter including trash that washes off city streets, waste blown in from landfills, and containers that fall off ships during heavy storms. Many marine mammals mistake these for food (Greer, Abigail).

Exploratory reports demonstrate that there has been a fast increment in the harm to reefs in the previous 20 years, and researchers have motivation to accept that in two more decades, the world 's reefs will decay by 30%. Over a large portion of the world 's reefs are at risk of human damage, and 27% are in high danger. The reefs of Southeast Asia, which transpire to be the most species differing reefs on the planet, are moreover in the most

This issue is not a new problem; coral bleaching has had a substantial effect on coral for many years. “In 2005, the U.S lost half of its coral reefs in the Caribbean in one year due to a massive bleaching event”(National Ocean Service). Another article states that in January 2010, cold-water temperatures in the Florida Keys caused a coral bleaching event that resulted in some coral death. Researchers have evaluated the cold-stress of the water will make coral more susceptible to disease, in the same way warmer water impact coral. Luckily there are things that we can do to help stop this

However, when the population of this specific kind of starfish increases at the Great Barrier Reef the reef “might be completely destroyed in two to three years”1. An invasion by these starfish causes devastation to the reef, as happened in 1970. Many parts of the Great Barrier Reef have been destroyed, and although the population of crown-of-thorns starfish near the reef is now negligible the reef still needs a long time to recover from this plague.2

Fishery Management: RBM and Fishery Subsidy Over fishing around the globe has lead to a dire need in effective fishery management as it has led to fisheries depleting worldwide. Seafood is one of the more popular delicacies around the world and is also the source of income for millions of fishers globally. Lack of and poor fishery management has led to an exhaust of the fish stock in the ocean, which in turn has had a negative impact on biodiversity. Poor management has also been a factor economically as it leads to a loss of about $50 billion annually for fisheries around the world. If proper steps are taken the problem can be managed, Fishery Solutions Center believes that if management is improved then abundance of fish can increase by

Offshore Drilling Every year, in the United States alone, 565 million barrels or oil are extracted as a result of offshore drilling; totaling a startling amount of roughly 1.5 million barrels a day. Consequently, these threatening practices are negatively impacting marine mammals, sea birds, sea turtles, and fish. Although drilling offshore provides access to expensive resources such as oil, it heavily contributes to the extinction and endangerment of animals, and the disruption of marine ecosystems, thus these practices should be prohibited and viewed as unethical. To begin, new techniques of horizontal drilling allow for even greater amounts of oil to be extracted from a single well, producing problems in infrastructure on land. Despite this issue being seemingly unrelated to wildlife, it is a detrimental issue placing animals in turmoil.

Little do citizens know that a large amount of the garbage that is left on the sand is eventually washed into the ocean by the tide, harming the marine ecosystem. Local technologist and entrepreneur, Raúl Colón, wrote about what he witnessed the day after The Night of San Juan. “The beach last night was being polluted not only by trash but also by the sound waves of speakers (that should be used for concerts) being used by civilians until 3am at night. I am sure if it affects me inside a room with concrete walls and security windows, it must be affecting the beautiful wildlife

The project will cost 2.5 billion dollars, causing many businesses to fail. There will be a 2.2% increase in an electricity bill, making it even harder for the middle class Americans to afford the electricity. Also the environment and wildlife population has been decreasing rapidly along with birds and

Charles Moore, said a cleanup effort "would bankrupt any country and kill wildlife in the nets as it went." Still, NOAA conducts flyovers to study the garbage patch, and research teams have sailed there to collect debris and water samples. Scientists from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography held a press conference after returning from a three-week voyage in 2009, describing the amount of trash as "shocking." They found large and small items as well as a vast underwater haze of photodegraded plastic flakes, and continue to study how microplastic interacts with a marine environment. Another study published in 2014 estimated that Earth 's oceans now contain 5.25 trillion pieces of plastic overall, based on data from 24 trash-collecting voyages over a six-year period.

The loss of land from sea level rise will also cause the population to fall and we can expect the carrying capacity to reach limits. As global temperatures increase by 2.5 Celsius above pre-industrial levels and sea level rise at about 12-37cm, we are expecting to see remaining land area in the keys to decline from 80% to 30%. The loss of the surrounding populations in the Florida Keys is contributing to low economic growth, which provides conservation funding for the Florida Keys. These socio-economic changes would restrict our conservation budgets for the Florida Keys. We can counter these events with good conservation management, strong community support and resilience efforts.

The Great Barrier Reef has and will continue to face countless threats in its lifetime. The reef has survived through millions of disastrous events through the years. The Crown of Thorns Starfish (COTS) is a major threat to the coral reefs which helps destroy the Great Barrier Reef. This threat may be no bigger than a dinner plate, but it is one of the biggest threats to the Great Barrier Reef. Kate Osborne and researchers discovered that Crown of Thorns Starfish were responsible for 36.7% of coral damage, 33.8% caused by storms, 6.5% by disease, 5.6% created by bleaching and 17.4% unknown or multiple causes of the damage to the Great Barrier Reef, as shown in Appendix 1 (The Conversation.

Another natural cause is oceans and hurricanes. Both the ocean waves and hurricanes accelerate erosion, which is a main cause to the marshes disappearing. Something New Yorkers should realize is that "80% of oil and natural gases produced in the U.S. travels through our marshes" as according to page 12. America 's economy could go so wrong if the marshes the oil processes through suddenly disappears. Also, a huge percentage of marine life loves in Louisiana 's marshes.