Donate And Give The Gift Of Life To The Ocean

WHY

THE REEFS?

SCIENTISTS HAVE ESTIMATED THAT 75% OF ALL THE WORLD'S CORALS ARE AT RISK AND AT LEAST 10% HAVE ALREADY DIED.

Coral reefs, known as the rainforests of the sea, are famous for their beauty and rich biodiversity, but they are also extremely important, ecologically and economically.

However, coral reefs are dying at an alarming rate due to human and natural pressures.

WHY SAVE THE REEFS?

The reefs hold major roles in our environment and also the community.

The 4 main roles are:

SUPPORTING

HABITAT & BIODIVERSITY BENEFIT

Tropical coral reefs are one of the most biodiverse ecosystems, containing approximately 830,000 species world‐wide.¹ The diversity of reefs helps engineer the environment, interacting with and creating suitable conditions for other tropical nearshore ecosystems.²

CULTURAL

SOCIAL AND CULTURAL NECESSITY

Reef tourism (on-reef and indirect contributions) are calculated to be worth US $35.8 billion dollars globally per annum for both international and domestic visitors,³ while also sustaining the livelihood of many local communities.⁴

INFORMING

NATURAL SOURCE OF INFORMATION

Coral reefs are highly sensitive systems and extensively used in monitoring the recent changes in the marine environment, the effects of human disturbances, such as pollution records, and also climate records.⁵ ⁶ ⁷ ⁸ ⁹ ¹⁰

REGULATING

COASTAL PROTECTION, WATER QUALITY, AND BIOGEOCHEMICAL CYCLING

Coral reefs dissipate 97% of the energy that would otherwise hit shorelines. This shoreline protection benefits 197 million people who live below 10 m elevation and within 50 km of reefs.¹¹ Therefore, they help reduce annual expected damage from storms by more than $4 billion.¹²

REFERENCES

WHAT CAUSES THE DESTRUCTION?

IRRESPONSIBLE HUMAN

ACTIVITIES

Coral reefs are one big reason why people dive, snorkel, fish, surf, and do all sorts of activities in the ocean. Reefs have brought joy to everyone. Unfortunately, most people don't recognize the limitations of those activities.

Some will take a piece of coral to bring home with them, some want more fish to catch, so they trawl or bomb the area, and most don't even realize they are walking on living beings and killing them in the process.

CLIMATE CHANGE

Climate change has brought a lot of devastation to us humans, but we're not the only ones affected by it. Coral reefs are also affected by it, big time!

Climate change causes a rise in the sea temperature and ocean acidification. If the sea temperature continues to rise, corals will bleach and die. The acidity in the oceans will eventually dissolve the skeletons of corals!

ANIMAL PREDATION

Even though coral reefs serve as a habitat for most sea creatures, some see it as a literal meal of tasty coral flesh!

There are a lot of animals that are hazards to the reef, like the Crown of Thorns starfish (Acanthaster planci) or corallivorous snails (Drupella and Coralliophila). So, every time you go out on a dive, watch out for those fellas!

OVERTOURISM

Don't you just feel annoyed when there are too many people going in and out of your house? The fish and the reefs feel the same way. More guests means less supervision of each one and could cause unwanted destruction.

What's different is, on land you might not care about what's broken because you could easily fix it, but when it comes to the reef, time is a challenge of its own.

SEDIMENTATION

Sedimentation is a fancier term for saying that the corals are covered with sand.

This usually happens because of a heavy storm, creating big waves that stir up all the sand from the bottom, but mother nature is not the only one responsible for this. Divers/snorkelers who cannot kick and swim properly will also cause the same problem or not worse, kicking and potentially breaking the corals.

WATER POLLUTANTS

Even us humans cannot stand pollution, so why would we expect other creatures to feel differently?

The pollution that is detected in our oceans went through a long journey from our sewers, to the rivers, and ended up in the sea.

Improper waste management is a real problem, where trash and all kinds of toxins are accumulated in one place and not neutralized before it reaches the ocean, killing everything in its path.

THE NEED OF HUMAN INTERVENTION

SHOULD WE INTERVENE

OR SHOULD WE LET NATURE RUN ITS COURSE?

All the disturbances to corals as mentioned above will not necessarily favor resistant and robust corals in the longer term¹³ ¹⁴, because corals that are capable of rapid recovery are often the same species that are disproportionately susceptible to major disturbances¹⁵.

It takes at least a decade free of major disturbances for a robust recovery of short-lived species, and much longer for corals that are slower to recruit and mature¹⁶ ¹⁷.

This phenomenon has been occurring for a long time and we still lack a direct response to protecting coral reefs¹⁸. Therefore, even though several efforts have been made, the recovery rate of the coral reefs still does not match the rate of damage being done.

Maragos and work by Gomez (1983) in the Philippines cited the need for active coral restoration as a response to declining reefs due to anthropogenic change¹⁹. Gomez (1983) mentioned humans as central to the problem and thus also pivotal to the solution²⁰.

It is obvious that the damage done to corals now is much worse than it was during Maragos and Gomez's time.

What does that tell us? We think it is a call for us to start a movement to help the coral reef ecosystem cope with the "coral-geddon". To help rehabilitate and restore the reef, eventually creating resilience to these negative effects on the reef.

REFERENCES

HOW DO WE HELP?

Over the years, we have been working on this project with like-minded organisations on a common goal - to rebuild the reef. We have partnered with Ocean Purpose Project and Handprint Tech in Singapore, the Mandarin Oriental and CarbonEthics in Jakarta, as well as Mars Inc from the United States to find sustainable solutions to the problems facing the reef.

We also engage local communities in this effort through the education of local youth on the environmental and lifestyle choices that we all make, and providing them with dive training so that they can continue to rebuild the reef and keep the oceans clean from plastic.

LEARN MORE

DID YOU KNOW THAT BY 2050 THERE WILL BE MORE PLASTIC THAN FISH IN THE OCEAN?

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