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Essay on “The Sad Fate of Coral Reefs”

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It was at a young age that I fell in love with the ocean and the splendor of its biodiversity. It was when I gazed upon the magnificent blue waters of the world that I found my passion. At this young age, I decided that I would pursue a path that involved helping endangered marine organisms. Many conclude that I speak of the more common marine animals, such as dolphins and whales. However, that is not the case. My passion lies with the “Rainforests of the Sea”, the coral reefs.
Coral reefs are the most diverse and biologically richest of all marine ecosystems. As with almost every ecosystem and its members, coral reefs provide several ecosystem services. For instance, coral reefs serve as natural barriers against hurricanes and …show more content…

The factor of which I speak of is the negative effect of our country’s continuous population growth. This over population is what ultimately causes pollution in our oceans. I turned to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) website, based on a recommendation from my Ecology of South Florida instructor. I chose to use NOAA because it was a very credible, established source that the Final Report of the US Commission on Ocean Policy recommended to "serve as the lead agency for management of deep-water coral communities" ("NOAA Coral Reef Conservation Program"). On the website, I learned that as our population steadily increases, areas of residential and commercial buildings are consequently needed. Throughout the process of building these structures erosion occurs and the result of erosion is the run-off of sediments that reach the reefs, in due time. The run-off that becomes apart of our waters typically contains fertilizers and sewage that will pollute the ocean and as a result, damage coral reefs ("National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration").
After finishing my research on the NOAA website, I next chose to research the affects of fishing on the coral reefs. I stumbled upon the Exploring the Environment, Coral Reefs website. I was instantly drawn to the webpage discussing coral reefs because the introduction displays a graph measuring the percentage of different affects on the

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