Great Barrier Reef Marine Park

One environmental issues posted on the facebook group on Ecologically Conscious Social is climate change’s effect impacts on Great Barrier Reef where is one of the UNESCO world heritage sites. Great Barrier Reef is located in Queensland, Australia.

The Capital Reef National Park is located in south/central Utah, and is part of the great Colorado Plateau. An area of 378 square miles, the Capital Reef National Park is just one of many national parks located near the four corners (Arizona, Utah, Colorado, New Mexico). Like it was mentioned in the prompt, most of the rock formation in the Capital Reef is very similar to that of the other national parks, however, there is one geologic feature in particular that attributes to its uniqueness.

These marine protected areas that are being recognized as efficient tools for protecting eco systems and bringing benefits to our local communities. There is still room for improvement because many of these areas today are not effectively managed. There are many differences in their revenues and management profiles. And all of these MPAs share a common problem – a critical lack of sustainable funding for their recurrent expenses and investments. Rosenberg would agree this as one of the main reasons our marine resources can’t be managed. If there is no predictable funding, the MPAs cannot hire staff to manage and plan these

C: Even though an abundance of research is being conducted by scientists in order to help save the coral reef, their efforts seem to be getting nowhere due to the ignorance of people who do not know how bad the problem truly is. E: Scientists are currently using Google Maps technology to take pictures of the reefs to showcase the severity of the problem (Chasing Coral). A: This makes pictures of the reef’s condition accessible to anyone anywhere on earth, therefore making education about the reef more accessible. E: NOAA is transforming the ways reefs are researched by using satellites to detect where bleaching is occurring and at what level (Chasing Coral). A: By doing this, NOAA is providing useful information to scientists

In these newly protected regions it is now prohibited to fish, hunt, or mine for resources due to these proclamations. After this expansion, the reserve system will continue to serve as an invaluable area to monitor the effects of climate change and ocean acidification especially on reef and deep water systems. The reserve will also serve as a valuable repository for plant, animal, and microbial life for humans to use for discovery and to aid in restocking depleted resources elsewhere. Many new species and forms of life still await discovery in these protected waters that will yield advances in technology and our

Marine Protected Areas worldwide make it a goal to protect biodiversity, conservation and Socioeconomic viability. To establish a functional and efficient management plan their needs to be a consensus on strategies that will be implemented to ensure the effectiveness and satisfaction of all stakeholders. The Management also needs to include monitoring programs along with methods to reevaluate the plan to fit the most current issues throughout time. One of the most well-known Marine Protected Areas is the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park located in the northeast corner of Queensland, Australia. Its geographical coordinates are 18.2871° S, 147.6992° E. This Marine Park has been in place since 1975. The MPA began in attempts to regulate devastation to commercial fish stocks and replenish biodiversity in the Coral habitat. It has since grown to regulate all types of human impacts including recreational use by snorkelers and tourist activities. Since the establishment there has been a monitoring system in place to reevaluate the progress and regression in

The most beautiful ecosystem, coral reefs, are dying. Fortunately, there are policies in place to protect our reefs like the Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary. However, these polices alone aren’t enough to protect and restore our reef ecosystems. I propose that to preserve the reefs, we increase our protection by growing the amount of National Marine Sanctuaries (NMS), encouraging and funding scientific research, improving partnerships, and enhancing the public education and involvement. This can be accomplished in the Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary (FGBNMS) through continuation and improvement of established programs within the United States Coral Reef Task Force (USCRTF) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric

According to Chris Maser, in his article “Marine Protected Areas Are Essential for Ensuring Ocean Biodiversity,” published in Endangered Oceans (2014), providing protection from anthropological effects, such as overfishing and drudging of marine habitats is essential to ensuring that biodiversity is protected and fisheries are sustainable for the long term.

In a personal interview, Amelia Moore criticized the classic approach of declaring a space a “Marine Protected Area” (MPA), as these locations can essentially be “paper parks”. MPAs are important tools that can regulate the amount of fishing and practices taking place, but do not always effectively target those inflicting the most damage. She was critical of MPAs as they sometimes function as simplification devices that devaluate locally based concerns and suggested that gear-based regulation could better limit the destructive practices of larger fishing cooperatives and large-scale companies.

“Probably the most comprehensive review of 89 marine park studies concluded that on average, density, biomass, size of organisms, and diversity (except for invertebrate biomass and size) were higher inside reserves compared to outside (or after reserve establishment versus before) for all species and examining each functional group (carnivorous fishes, herbivorous fishes, planktivorous fishes/invertebrate eaters, and invertebrates) separately.” (Bradshaw). The mission of underwater national parks is to protect important sites that animals tend to use for reproduction purposes, keep track of how much human contact is made with the recovering environment, and provide the public with information on how to interact with the

The ocean comprises approximately 70% of the Earth’s surface and due to its colossal size; it is unanimous that the ocean itself is an important natural resource capital to the Australian nation. The numerous benefits associated with the ocean are so significant that it provides the human resource of food, helps regulate climate, and has boosted the Australian economy through ocean-bound transportation. However despite the array of benefits, in which the ocean has to offer, it is unfortunate that most of the Australian Coast has to suffer due to inappropriate human intervention. The natural structure and function of coastal marine ecosystems are constantly in combat with environmental and ecological challenges, majorly due to the issues of

Not to common knowledge 90% of the world’s biomass is placed in the ocean, taking up 70% of the Earth’s surface. Studies have shown that 20% of the world’s protein is extracted from the ocean. Humans catch roughly 72 million tons of pelagic fish annually. We don’t just extract fish out of the ocean but also other resources such as oil, sand, gravel, salt and etc. Yes, we do extract resources from the ocean, but we don’t stop there, we continue to dump harmful substances such as 5 million tons of plastic back into the ocean. Asia alone has one billion people dependent on fish as a protein source. With all the benefits the ocean has to provide you would assumed that the human race would nurture and care for its defining feature, the ocean. Sadly, we have only taped off 1% of the world’s oceans. Marine protected areas also commonly known as MPAs have been around for a few decades, picking up in popularity in many nations. MPAs are areas such as fishery management zones, national parks, and what we have mainly focused on, marine reserves. We have not sectored off any more than the size of the west coast of the US. With the world extracting the majority of the protein source from the ocean we need to be aware of the effects it has on the marine fauna. Establishing these MPAs will help preserve keystone, endangered, exotic and commercial fished species.

More alarming though is the run-off of agrochemicals and sewage pollution (Programme-wo, 2009). Another big aspect of the economy is the fishing industry, which has started to take a toll on certain species of fish, conchs, and lobsters that live in and around the reef. Two other problems, which have devastating effects are dredging and sand mining. Dredging and sand mining are choking the corals that live in the reef system. All of these issues are causing devastating effects to the reef and; therefore, is why 370 square miles of the Belize Barrier Reef system is protected by the Belize Barrier Reef Reserve system. The Belize Barrier Reef Reserve System includes seven marine reserves, 450 cayes, and three atolls (UNESCO). A marine reserve is an area of the sea that has legal protection against fishing or development. To further the effort in 1990, the Government of Belize created the Coastal Zone Management Unit (CZMU) within the fisheries department. The CZMU has created different ministries, which are responsible for the management and preservation of different areas of the Belize Barrier Reef Reserve system. The three main ministries involved in the coastal management are the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries (responsible for marine reserves and fisheries management), the

Seagrasses are essential primary producers that provide habitat and refuge to fauna. Anthropogenic influences have caused global loss of seagrasses and a major contributor is eutrophication, which increases phytoplankton and algal populations, reduces light availability, and causes daily hypoxic conditions. Eutrophication is commonly linked to declines in temperate conditions and is more difficult to link to tropical systems since decreases are typically related to physical damage and diminishing light conditions from runoff. Climate change, herbivore declines, disease and overfishing, along with anthropogenic impacts from coastal development, run-off, eutrophication, and aquaculture have caused declines in coral reefs and mangrove systems. These three systems are interconnected and when one system is impacted, secondary impacts are observed in the other systems; coastal ecosystems will be adversely effected and decline. Additional research, conservation, and ways to reduce anthropogenic impacts have been discussed. Restoration is used to reverse habitat loss, although success is varied. Coastal systems and the biological and ecosystem services they provide, may take decades to establish. Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) are instituted to protect systems from further degradation, restore communities and allow them to flourish naturally. However, local residents are affected by MPAs and may become displaced, have restriction placed on their livelihood, or elimination of their

The establishment of Marine Protected Areas (MPA) is increasing all around the world (Lubchenco et al, 2003) due to two main reasons: (1) recognition of expanding threats to marine ecosystems; and (2) acknowledgment about the consequences of marine ecosystem break-down to human populations (Roberts et al,2003; Lubchenco et al, 2003). The reality scenario is that people do depend on the ecosystem (Walker & Salt,2006). People depend on the ecosystem directly through exploitation of natural resources but also indirectly through ecosystem services(Walker & Salt,2006; Brown et al, 2001)