Skeletons of the Ocean

This year marked the third major coral bleaching event. This may not seem important as the number of times it happened has not hit double figures, but when you consider that these simple beautiful creatures have grabbed the attention of some of the biggest scientist and government officials in the world, you really should be more concerned.

Corals are specific animals that require optimum conditions for them to thrive. Their “acquired taste” 
for explicit conditions have become a problem in this changing world.

We see it everyday as the days get hotter, the hurricanes get fiercer and the land, sea and air become 
more polluted to the point where we humans make it a daily ritual to complain about. Now imagine 
these tiny creatures of the sea being subjected to the same conditions but not being able to get 
away. They would obviously feel stressed about this, who wouldn’t at this point,and take the most 
extreme action. They kill themselves,...or at least push everyone else away. They expel algae, 
which gives corals their characteristic colour, thus turning bone-white. The corals are not truly dead 
but if the factors that cause their stress are not removed then they can literally die of stress.

Photo credit: Brett Monroe Garner;Greenpeace

If this still doesn't give you cause for concern then remember that if the rainforest of the sea is gone then millions of reef dwellers are left without a shelter and so their offspring would be in constant danger. This would then go on to affect food webs and eventually affect us. No more bake and shark.

Photo Credit:XL Catlin Seaview Survey

Although global warming is the number one cause for coral bleaching, there are other factors to 
consider. As the name of the blog would suggest I plan to focus more on hurricanes and their
relation to the destruction to coral reefs.

Being from the Caribbean, a place so close to the equator, we feel the negative effects of the world 
on a daily biases and so do our surrounding corals. Our understanding of these creatures need to 
improve for both humans and corals sakes.