Importance of Coral Reefs

Geography: Cambridge International GCSE (2027 Exams), topic 2.5.3

Coral reefs have economic and environmental importance. Coral is currently experiencing several issues.

Coral reefs are popular destinations for tourists - e.g. Cairns in Australia has a tourism industry set up around visiting the Great Barrier Reef.
Speed boats and catamarans repeatedly churn the water.
This has had a negative impact on many areas of the reef.
Vessels go underwater and divers break parts off.
Fishing - millions of species of fish live in and around coral reefs.
Recently, people have started using poison to ‘flush them out’. This has damaged the reef.

Coral reefs can contain more than 800,000 species of plant, animal and fish.
Reefs over 10,000 years old can degrade (break down). It may be impossible to regenerate (regrow or restore) them.
Some reefs may be close to a million years old.

Coral bleaching (where the polyps send out the algae when they are stressed) is becoming more common.
Corals become stressed when are they are damaged. The following things can damage corals:
Boats.
Divers.
Fishermen using poison.
Sea water becoming warmer.
Corals need algae to live. So corals can die if they expel (send out) too much algae.

Algae provide the colour in the coral. So when the algae are removed, the coral goes back to being white or transparent. This is bad for the ecosystem and the tourism industry.

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