Coral Reefs

Looking out at the ocean, it's easy to feel small -- and to imagine all your troubles, suddenly insignificant, slipping away. Earth's seven oceans seem vast and impenetrable, but a closer look tells another story. A landmark study released by the University of California in 2008 revealed that just four percent of the world's oceans remain untouched by human activity. That includes fishing, pollution, climate change and more. I became interested in ocean issues in the 1980s when I couldn't take my daughters swimming because of pollution at our local beach.

Coral reefs around the world are worth a staggering $172 billion dollars a year to the global economy. But the wealth of the oceans' reefs, and their amazing monetary value, is on the verge of being destroyed. Previous estimates had suggested reefs might be worth $30 billion based on their draw for tourists, the shelter they provide fish and the protection they offer coastal communities from storm surges. But new research released last month shows this to be a huge underestimate, suggesting a single hectare could be worth anything from $130,000 to $1.2 million a year.

It's not just the number of people fishing, but the level of poverty in a local community that leads to overfishing of coral reefs, according to a new report. Studying coral reefs in the western Indian Ocean, the researchers of the report published in "Current Biology" found that overfishing is at its worst in areas that are socio-economically underdeveloped. According to the report, in these areas fish numbers were only one-quarter what they were in places with either higher or lower levels of development.

The world has lost almost one-fifth of its coral reefs according a new report released by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). Compiled by the Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network, the report has brought together the work of researchers from 15 countries with data stretching back 20 years. It's not just climate change -- which raises ocean temperatures and increases seawater acidification -- which is damaging reefs. In some parts of the world overfishing, pollution and invasive species are proving equally harmful.

The world's coral reefs are under threat. Overfishing, unsustainable tourism, coastal development, pollution, the global aquarium trade and climate change are having a devastating effect on these fragile ecosystems, according to the International Coral Reef Initiative. The group has designated 2008 as International Year of the Reef in a bid to publicize the reefs' precarious predicament. Meanwhile fellow conservation group, Nature Conservancy, warns that if destruction continues at its current rate, 70 percent of the world's coral reefs will have disappeared within 50 years.

After witnessing the rapid devastation of a Cayman Island coral reef where he had been diving since childhood, Todd Barber was moved from horror to action. He gave up a six-figure salary as a marketing consultant and dedicated his life to restoring the world's ocean reef ecosystems. "I had been following this reef since I had been 14; it was where my first dive was," recalls Barber. "When that one little tiny reef was lost, that sparked something in me. If we lost one and it took that tens of thousands of years to get here, how fast is this happening?"

True or False: Coral reefs can save coastal communities from tsunamis The answer is: FALSE Despite some scientists and organizations saying that coastal mangroves and coral reefs can reduce the damage of tsunamis to coastal communities, according to the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies in Australia, they couldn't be more wrong. According to the Centre, "Future tsunamis may have a higher death toll than necessary as a consequence of dangerous myths being circulated about the effectiveness of "green belts" and buffer zones as protective barriers" during the Asia Tsunami in December 2004 that took the lives of a quarter of a million people.

Garbage dumps are generally not associated with thriving coral reefs, vast mangrove plantations and rare bird species. Yet on Pulau Semakau off Singapore, this is exactly what you will find: just beside a secluded ecological zone that harbors dozens of rare plant, bird and fish species lies the world's first ecological offshore landfill. Located 8 kilometers south of Singapore and covering an area of 3.5 square kilometers, the Semakau Landfill was designed by engineers and environmentalists at Singapore's National Environment Agency (NEA)

October 3, 2006 Answer the following questions about today's featured news stories. Write your answers in the space provided. 1. What tragedy took place at a oneroom school house in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania yesterday? According to police, why might the shooter have committed this crime? 2. What are your thoughts and feelings regarding this tragedy? 3. Do you feel safe at your school? Why or why not? If not, what do you think could be done to make you feel safer at school?