Huan Nguyen The Great Barrier Reef is the largest and most beautiful coral reef system in the world located in Coral Sea, Australia. According to a report of Australia Government in 2013, the Great Barrier Reef stretches over 2300 kilometers, covering an area of 344,440 kilometers square, to make the readers imagine how big that would be, that area is bigger than the size of United Kingdom, Switzerland and Netherlands combined, while just slightly smaller than the Baltic Sea. In addition, you can see the Great Barrier Reef from outer space. This area has a very large bio-diversity. The reef is home to 600 types of soft and hard corals, more than 1600 types of fish, 100 types of sharks and rays, 100 types of jellyfish and so on. However, this beautiful gift from Mother nature is at risk of being destroyed due to the consecutive damage from human activities. In these recent years, BBC News reported that two-thirds of the reef damaged in ‘unprecedented’ bleaching. The main reasons for the destruction of the reef are human activities and even from natural causes. PICTURE 1. Beautiful scenery of the Great Barrier Reef (Source: Earth911 & Shutterstock) Everyday, hundreds of cruises and sightseeing vessels pass through the waters of the reef. According to Marines Insight (2016), even though sailing the ships from the insides of the reef seems to be more dangerous than outsides the reef because the reef is a great obstacle to the ships, sailors tend to choose the dangerous route. They claim that the internal reef structures are good spots to anchor the ship in case of emergency. In addition, the ships docking inside the reef also cause some problems. This action kills many corals, especially the ones that lies under the ships, as they may release a lot of waste that pollutes the ocean. For example, the ships and vessels are covered by Tributyl, a substance used to preserve the hull while Tributyl is very toxic to the corals and other marine species in the ocean. Oil spill is also another threat to the reef. Although the Australian Government have put an act on banning drilling oil on the reef, the oil spill happens occasionally due to shipping accidents and each accident is very destructive to the coral reef. Unfortunately, there have been nearly 300 oil spill incidents happened to the Great Barrier Reef since 1987. For example, in 2010, the Chinese bulk coal carrier Shen Neng 1 crash itself into the reef, causing massive grounding scar over 3 kilometers in length on the reef. After that, some parts of the reef became uninhabitable for the marine life and experts claim that it should take 10 to even 20 years for the reef to recover, which is too long compare to the rate of destruction of the reef. Australia is well known for its tourism. Each year, millions of visitors come to the Great Barrier Reef to experience the great wonder, bringing a large portion of income for the country. However, tourist tend to be unaware of how their activities can ruin this wonder. Tourism activities to the reef such as tour vessel traveling, reef-walking or even using submersibles are the main factors contributing to the pollution of the ecosystem of the reef due to the emissions of the transportation. In addition, some impolite visitors would throw their litter right into the ocean. To combat this situation, in 1991, the Australia government decides to introduce Eco Tourism Accreditation which includes strict regulations concerning environmental protection. The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority only permits tourists operators that obtained this certification. This ensures the tourists can enjoy high quality nature while the Great Barrier Reef is under good protection and management. Industry is an important aspect of development for any country. The industrial activity near the Great Barrier Reef is coal mining, which does not sound eco-friendly already. According to The Guardian, on July this year, the Charmichael coal mine, which is the largest coal mine project of the country has been approved by the Federal and State government as the last regulatory hurdle facing its development has been removed. The news page states that the raw coal from the mines would be another pollutant than other pollutant that is affecting the reef. Coal dust and fragments comes stockpiles, conveyor belts into the water of the reef. This leads to carbon pollution to the environment around the reef and affect all the creatures living there. The increased emission will rise the temperature of the ocean which buffs the coral bleaching that is happening. This is alerting because any dead part of the coral reef dies it cannot recover. As irony as it sounds, even the mother nature has some factors that damages the reef. One of the greatest phenomenon is coral bleaching. Coral bleaching means the corals lose all their beautiful colors and turn to have pale white color. Naturally, the coral reef gets beautiful colors from the algae that is living on them. In 2012, the Australian Bureau of Meteorology explained that the rise of seawater temperature is the primary cause of coral bleaching. As the water get warmer, the corals have to expel their zooxanthellae while the algae cannot survive in such condition so the corals lose their vibrant colors. Furthermore, the disappearance of those algae would cause the death of those organisms use them as a source of food, this results in the destruction of the food chain in the ecosystem. The Australian Bureau of Meteorology suggest other natural events such as tropical cyclones, freshwater inflows or anthropogenic relates to coral bleaching. In general, starfish looks like beautiful creature that adds to the magnificence of the underwater environment. However, not all starfishes are beautiful and friendly, there is a specie of starfish called the Crown of Thorns Starfish which is a predator to the corals. This type of starfish feeds on the polyps of corals, releasing neurotoxin to absorb the coral’s tissue. These starfishes are very dangerous to the coral, according to the Great Barrier Reef website, if there are just more than 30 adult starfish of this specie appear in an area of 10 meters squared, it can be considered as an “outbreak” since they will destroy large portion of coral system. Luckily, the number of Crown of Thorns starfish can be reduced by other predators such as the “Giant Triton”. Overall, although there are surprisingly some factors of nature contributing to the damage to the Great Barrier Reef, the human impact on the reef seems to be more serious. However, since this is our human activities towards the reef, we can change our actions to protect this wonder and recover it back to its former glory. In my opinion, the regulation for tourism operators to protect the environment was a brilliant idea since it mitigated the effect of tourism on the environment of the reef. On the other hand, I would disagree with the approval of the Charmichael coal mine development, as the Great Barrier Reef has been in its worst condition so far, therefore I believe we should not risk the health of the coral reef in trade for the money from the coal mine industry and focus on preservation, protection and recovery of the Great Barrier Reef and its ecosystem instead. References BBC. 2017. Great Barrier Reef: Two-thirds damaged in 'unprecedented' bleaching. Read 16.11.2017. Available at http://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-39524196 Bureau of Meteorology. 2012. Coral Bleaching in the Great Barrier Reef. Read 17.11.2017. Available at http://www.bom.gov.au/oceanography/oceantemp/GBR_Coral.shtml Flannery, T. 2014. The Great Barrier Reef and the coal mine that could kill it. The Guardian. Read 16.11.2017. Available at https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/aug/01/-sp-great-barrier-reef-and-coal-mine-could-kill-it Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority. 2013. Facts about the Great Barrier Reef. Read 15.11.2017. Available at http://www.gbrmpa.gov.au/about-the-reef/facts-about-the-great-barrier-reef Great Barrier Reef. 2012. Threats to the Great Barrier Reef. Read 15.11.2017. Available at http://www.greatbarrierreef.com.au/information/great-barrier-reef-threats/ Greene, L. 2017. Unprecedented Bleaching Leaves the Great Barrier Reef Terminal. Read 23.11.2017. Available at: http://earth911.com/living-well-being/great-barrier-reef-bleaching/ MI News Network. 2016. Threats to the Great Barrier Reef from the Shipping World. Read 16.11.2017. Available at https://www.marineinsight.com/environment/threats-to-the-great-barrier-reef-from-the-shipping-world/ |
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