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Coral Reef Bleaching and The Great Barrier Reef

Other Marine Animals, People and the Ocean
coral reefs of Great Barrier Reef, coral reef bleaching
Photo credit: FarbenfroheWunderwelt via Visual Hunt / CC BY-ND

Why are the corals on the Great Barrier Reef off of Australia bleaching? Why is coral reef bleaching important?

First a little background on corals.

Hi, I’m Polly, a coral polyp. The animal you think of as “coral” is actually made up of lots of little coral polyps. We use calcium carbonate to make our skeleton and many of us together make the base of a coral reef.

We’re only millimeters wide (0.1 inch) and centimeters deep (1.2 inches) with tentacles sticking out. We use our tentacles to find food floating in the water.

But our main source of food is made for us by our friends inside us, the zooanthellae. These are our photosynthetic symbionts. In other words, the plants inside of us use sunlight to make the food that we eat. These zooanthellae are important to us, but when exposed to stressors like increased heat or acidity, they often expel themselves from us. This causes coral reef bleaching.

Coral reef bleaching can be caused by the ocean warming due to climate change. The ocean absorbs 90 percent of the heat in the atmosphere caused by human activities. Coral bleaching can also be affected by ocean acidification. The ocean becomes more acidic (like soda or stomach acid) when it absorbs carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. There is also pollution of all sorts, including plastic, chemical, and sediments that can also cause the coral reef to bleach.

A recent scientific study found that “huge portions” of the northern end of the Great Barrier Reef died last year (2016) due to warming seawater. Just an increase of two or three degrees Fahrenheit (1.2-1.6 degrees Celsius) can cause coral reef bleaching. The southern end of the Great Barrier Reef is bleaching as we speak.

So why do we need coral reefs? Coral reefs house twenty-five percent of all marine life in the oceans.
One billion people rely on the ocean for their primary source of protein, and many of those in developing countries rely upon coral reefs for it.

So what can you do? Here are some excerpts from the Nature Conservancy’s 10 Easy Steps to Protect Coral Reefs

1. Support businesses such as fishing, boating, hotel, aquarium, dive or snorkeling operators that protect coral reefs.
2. Practice safe snorkeling and diving practices such as not touching the coral and not anchoring on coral.
3. Volunteer on vacation to clean-up a coral reef or help plant one.
4. Plant a tree to reduce the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
5. Dispose of your trash (or recycle!) properly, especially near the ocean. Better yet, join a beach clean-up.

Also see Ollie the Octopus on Coral Bleaching and the Great Barrier Reef

The Journey of One Drop of Water

Water

One Drop of Water Picture by: David R. Newman
One Drop of Water-Picture by: David R. Newman

This blog post won first place in the 2017 San Mateo County Fair Literary Contest for best blog entry!

The Journey of One Drop of Water

Introduction

Hi, I am one drop of water. I am made of many molecules that contain two hydrogen atoms connected to an oxygen atom. At room temperature I am a liquid, above boiling temperature I am steam or vapor, and at or below freezing I am ice. Do you know of any other substance as cool as me? Those facts alone should make you respect me, but alas, that is not enough.

I have been around longer than the dinosaurs. I appeared billions of years ago when water first condensed on Earth. Through the water cycle, I have journeyed all around the Earth. I once met a water molecule that claimed he came to Earth on a comet. He says he saw the whole universe, but nothing compared to being hydrogen bonded with trillions of other water molecules in a pool of water.

I prefer mountain lakes myself. There I get to slow down and enjoy life as well as the beautiful scenery. It is not as hectic as flowing down a river, nor as monotonous as being in the ocean. That is unless you’re near a coral reef or kelp forest, as those are happening places.

The Water Cycle

Let’s start one of my journeys through the water cycle. I’m one drop of water in a full drinking glass sitting on your kitchen counter. How do I get there? After a human fills the glass with water from the faucet, he then drinks the water. After being in the human’s fascinating body for a few hours, I am deposited into a toilet. The flush took me on an underground trip through many pipes until I reached the sewage treatment plant.

That journey is quite boring because it is not as scenic as above ground. I always feel like I am living in a nightmare when I am being sloshed around a smelly sewage treatment plant. Yet it is well worth being discharged clean into a river, lake or ocean.

From open water, I evaporate and rise straight up into the clear blue sky. Along with trillions of other water molecules I helped form a cloud. I crystallize, and snow down onto a mountain. I sit in a snow pack and patiently wait until springtime when I melt into a river. Whee, down the river I flow until I reach a reservoir.
An aqueduct diverts me to a drinking water treatment plant where I am filtered and have chemicals like chlorine and fluoride added to me. I flow down some pipes until I reach your house, and voila, here I am sitting in a glass of water again.

A Perilous Journey

That’s the ideal story, but actually my journey is fraught with many perils. My buddies and I actually contain dozens of chemical pollutants even though I get filtered and chemically cleaned at the water treatment plant. What are these chemicals and how did they dissolve or stick to me? Well, it is your fault. The fault of humans, I mean. I can contain medicines, industrial waste, human waste, acid, and agricultural pollutants just to name a few. Did you know that human babies are born with up to 300 dangerous chemicals already in their bodies from the water their Mom drank while pregnant? Thanks a lot, Mom.

That is just my journey as one drop of water through the developed world. When I am in a developing country, people urinate, defecate, bathe, wash clothes and drink water from the same river I journey down. Yuck. Not only is the water muddy, but the water carries diseases caused by bacteria, viruses, protozoa and parasites. As a human, I would hate to be living downstream from all of that. But in a sense, all people live downstream from some water source. No drop of water on Earth is without the fingerprint of man.

The ocean off of Cancun, Mexico-Photo by: Cherilyn Chin
The ocean off of Cancun, Mexico-Photo by: Cherilyn Chin

The precious water humans drink is the exact same water the dinosaurs drank, only much more polluted now.

Pollution

Ah, pollution. An icky subject, but one I face on a daily basis. Take carbon dioxide for instance. It readily dissolves in me and makes me acidic, like soda. Carbon dioxide itself is not that harmful, as humans breathe it out all the time. In large quantities carbon dioxide becomes toxic and helps cause climate change. Carbon dioxide also ends up dissolving in the ocean or in water droplets in clouds. I hate being acidic in the ocean because I cause the beautiful coral reefs to bleach out and die. When the fragile coral dies, all the marine life around the corals also suffer, and I feel awful for causing that mess. Coral reefs are important, as twenty-five percent of marine life living in the oceans are found only there.

I hope you have enjoyed learning about my journeys through the water cycle around the Earth as one drop of water. Please use water wisely as my buddies and I would much appreciate it!

Also see my other award-winning blog post, My Manta Ray Encounter

See NOAA’s Freshwater Water Cycle explanation and diagram

Also see Water Conservation Tips from The Water Project

Book Preview of “If Sharks Disappeared” and Interview with Author Lily Williams

Book Reviews, Interviews
Book: "If Sharks Disappeared" by Lily Williams
Book: “If Sharks Disappeared” by Lily Williams

I was excited to come across this four minute long animated documentary, FINconceivable, about what happens if sharks disappear from the oceans. It is by Lily Williams and I would like to share it with you. link to FINconceivable I love her artwork and I even bought a her print of a whale shark! Lily’s online shop

I also had Lily answer a few questions, and I am thrilled to announce that her book, “If Sharks Disappear,” (Roaring Brook Press) will be in bookstores on May 23, 2017! (link to order)

1.Tell me how you came up with the idea of FINconceivable.

I came up with the idea for FINconceivable after posting my “What Happens When Sharks Disappear?” infographics online. I realized people wanted more information beyond the 3 infographics, so I decided to make FINconceivable my thesis film.

2. How long did it take to make?

It took a school year to make. I created FINconceivable as my 4th year thesis film at California College of the Arts.

3.Sharks are often portrayed as dangerous and an animal we should be fearful of. Why do you love sharks?

I love sharks because they are evolution perfected: older than dinosaurs and have lived through major extinction events. I always root for the underdog though, and with all the over fishing, shark finning, and trophy hunting, sharks are the sort of the underdog right now. They are indeed fierce apex predators that we should respect, but we also need to protect them. Without sharks, we won’t have an ocean to love.

4. Congratulations on the upcoming publication of “If Sharks Disappeared”on May 16, 2017. I am a writer that is trying to get traditionally published-can you give my readers a sneak peek on your journey to publication?

Thank you! My editor from Roaring Brook Press came across my “What Happens When Sharks Disappear?” infographics online and emailed me asking if I would write a book. After that phone call, I found an agent. A lot of things really fell into place seemingly easily… but, from that first phone call to publishing date, 4 years passed and a lot of hard work, research, and dedication went into making that final product. I am really excited for If Sharks Disappeared to be published!

Book Review: Manatee Rescue by Nicola Davies

Book Reviews, Manatees, Marine Mammals
Manatee Rescue by Nicola Davies
Manatee Rescue by Nicola Davies

“Manatee Rescue” by Nicola Davies (Candlewick Press, 2015) is a middle grade (grades 4-8) children’s book about a rescued baby manatee in the Amazon. In the backmatter, we find out that this book is based on a true-life story.

There are three types of manatees, the West Indian, African and Amazonian. This book is about the ones that live along the Amazon River in South America.

The protagonist is Manuela. She grows up in a culture where killing manatees is a status symbol. She looks forward to the day when she can kill one alongside her father Silvio. Manuela and Silvio succeed in killing a mother manatee, but nothing prepares Manuela for the instant bond she feels for the manatee calf. She secretly vows to raise the calf and return it to the wild.

Manuela and her father take the two-month-old calf home, and Silvio sells the calf as a pet despite Manuela’s protests. Later that night, Manuela and her friend Libia steal the calf and bring it to Granny Raffy’s. Raffy often rehabilitates wild animals.

At Raffy’s, the two girls learn to take care of the calf, from nursing him to cleaning out his pond. Manuela bonds with the calf, who prefers her feeding him his bottle full of milk.

The two girls make a list of things to do, the most important ones (and seemingly impossible) being getting the villagers to care about and never hunt manatees again.

Without giving away the rest of the story away, I will say this book has a happy ending, both fictionally and in real-life.
The backmatter is informative not only about the manatees themselves, but also about the relationship between the natives and the manatees.

Although meant for kids, I think conservation-minded and animal-loving adults will enjoy this quick read (105 pages). It’s a perfect introduction to manatees and community-based conservation for all ages.

10 Fascinating Facts About Manatees

Manatees, Marine Mammals
Manatee underwater with algae photo courtesy VisualHunt.com
Manatee photo courtesy VisualHunt.com

10 Fascinating Facts About Manatees

1. Manatees, despite being called “sea cows” are related to elephants!

2. Besides weighing a lot (1000 pounds or 454 kilograms, more or less), both elephants and manatees have fingernails.

3. Manatees like warm water (like off Florida, USA) and will migrate up river to warm springs and the outfall of power plants in winter.

4. Manatee calves nurse under their mother’s flippers and will stay with them for 1-2 years.

5. Manatees can grow up to 12 feet (3.7 meters).

6. Manatees are herbivores and eat sea grass and other water plants.

7. Manatees continually grow teeth throughout life since they wear them down chewing on plants.

8. There are 3 types of manatees-Amazonian, West Indian, and West African.

9. Manatees have prehensile (can grasp) upper lips which they use to get food and to eat.

10. Manatees can graze for up to 7 hours a day because adults eat 10-15% of their body weight a day!