About
Coral reefs around the world are in a crisis.
We want to bring awareness about what is happening to coral reefs because of climate change. Over half of coral reefs are already damaged and many are already dying as well. This is caused by humans. People create waste, whether it be having garbage floating through the water contaminating it and harming the wildlife and ecosystems or through carbon emissions and other waste that is causing the reefs to bleach (pushing out the algae and other creatures living in the reefs). This eventually causes the reefs to die if no wildlife return to them.
Unsafe boating and fishing practices greatly contribute to ocean pollution and stress to coral. It causes pollution and other damaging effects to our ocean.
- One million marine animals die each year from plastic waste alone.
- There are 5.25 trillion pieces of plastic debris estimated to be in our oceans
- 1 in 3 marine mammal species gets found entangled in litter
- Marine plastic pollution is found in 100% of turtles, 59% of whales, and 36% of seals
One option for helping the reefs to revive themselves are artificial reefs. These are manmade and encourage new reefs to form by encouraging the wildlife to live and grow on them. These new reefs would possibly help us have a little bit of time to revive the reefs that have been damaged and encourage ecosystems to grow there once again. Intellireefs is the leading research org on this method, and have already made amazing progress with their Oceanite structures.
Resources
The Carbon Calculator: See your carbon footprint and it's impact.
Sea Food Watch: Search for species of fish to see if they are endangered or being overfished.
Microplastics: Learn about the dangers of microplastics and their affect on our enviroment.
Reefs at Risk: Reports on coral reefs throghout the decades.
Orgs
Intellireefs: Artificial reefs and what they can do to help mitigate coral loss.
Kuleana Coral: Hawaii based org focused on bringing locals in and educating tourists on coral reefs and preservation.
Coral Reef Alliance: California based org.
EPA: Basic information of coral reefs surround America.
Reef Check: An org that prioritizes civic-science and training future generations on preservation worldwide.
Goodies
Warped Fibers Plastic Yarn: How to make plarn!
Muddy Puddles Ocean Crafts: A list of ocean themed crafts you can make with recycled materials.
For Our Seas Health: 60 ways to reuse plastic bottles!
