The World Ocean Observatory Launches New Coral Reefs Web Site

The World Ocean Observatory has recently launched a new, on-line resource, Coral Reefs.  This comprehensive, media-rich site features videos and podcasts, reports and forums, educational materials, and more to explain and highlight the state of the world’s coral reefs, and can be viewed by clicking here.

Coral reefs have been called the rain-forests of the sea, because of their iconic status as the most colorful and diverse places on earth.  Reefs have been critically important in furthering our understanding of marine ecology and nature in general--the delicate balances between reef inhabitants have taught much about how the world works and how human activity can upset the web of life. Tropical reefs have great value to humans, not just as treasures seascapes (that generate revenues for neighboring coastal communities all around the world), but also as sources of food, as providers of materials, as beach-forming agents and as natural buffers from storms and tsunamis, and as repositories of pharmaceutical compounds for treating human disease.

Yet despite this great value, coral reefs around the world are rapidly becoming degraded. Over-fishing, pollution, fertilizers, and other anthropogenic sources, poorly planned or uncontrolled coastal development, and climate change effects like warming and ocean acidification are taking their toll on reefs. Some predict the disappearance of reefs as we know them in just a few short decades, unless action is taken to improve reef health today (view an opinion paper by clicking here).

The World Ocean Observatory is dedicated to information, education, and public discourse about the ocean defined as an integrated global social system. They believe that informed citizens worldwide can unite to sustain the ocean through mitigation and change of human behavior on land and sea.  They publish an on-line newsletter regarding events and other information regarding the world’s oceans.  You may subscribe by clicking here. (Source:  World Ocean Observatory Web Site)

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