A spill in any of the deep sea areas would reduce the biodiversity of that area through reductions of bird populations, fish-stocks and populations of marine mammals. All of which are already under severe threat of over fishing and habitat disturbance without this imposed threat. Furthermore the contamination of coastal and coral ecosystems will all lead to to damage on the livelihoods of fishermen and people involved the local tourism. The 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico has been described as the worst environmental disaster in the United States, releasing about 4.9 million barrels of crude oil making it the largest accidental marine oil spill. Most of the impact of this was experienced by the marine species.
One major threat is that coral reefs are under huge stress due to the impact that human activities are having and in fact already 1/5 of the world’s coral reefs are so damaged that they are beyond repair. The increase of average global temperatures is leading to an increased rate of ice cap melting. This is due to global warming, making a global threat to all ecosystems including the coral reef. The reason for this is that the melting of the ice caps releases more fresh water into the oceans, reducing salinity making sea level rise. Due to sea level rising coral reefs are getting destroyed, as they cannot survive in water above 25m.
(i) Description of Disasters: Hurricane Katrina is said to have been the most costly and deadliest hurricanes in U.S history, resulting in $81.2 billion dollars in damage and 1836 casualties6. The hurricane made landfall in New Orleans in the early morning of August 29th, 2005 as a Category 3 or 4 storm. The heavy rains that were produced as the hurricane moved inland, along with the poorly designed levees, caused all 56 levees in New Orleans to fail, resulting in freshwater flooding of 80% of the city15. Hurricane Katrina devastated an area over 160 km from the storm’s eye, which included parts of Mississippi, Alabama, Florida and most importantly, Louisiana6. It originally formed off the Bahamas, on August 23rd, as a Tropical Depression and strengthened to a Category 1 storm once it made landfall in Florida on August 25th.
Belize Barrier Reef System SCI 230 January 13, 2013 Belize Barrier Reef System The Belize Barrier Reef System is located just off the coast lines of the country of Belize. The reef system is the largest in the northern hemisphere, and it is the second largest reef system in the world. The largest is the Great Barrier Reef found in Australia. The reef system in Belize consists of coral reefs that are 186 miles long and are 1,000 feet off shore to the north and 25 miles to the south of the country of Belize. “Charles Darwin described the Belize Barrier Reef as "the most remarkable reef in the West Indies" in 1842” (New World Encyclopedia, 2009, para.
The Great Barrier Reef is a beautiful world heritage site. It contains the biggest collection of coral reefs in the world. It has 400 types of coral, 1500 different species of fish and over 4000 types of molluscs. It is the only living thing on the earth that you can see from space. It is also home to the large green turtle and the dugong, both of which are threatened with extinction.
Human Impacts on the Great Barrier Reef-Australia Introduction The Great Barrier Reef is the largest reef in the world, located in the Coral Sea off the coast of Queensland in north-east Australia the reef stretches over 2,300km. In total the reef covers over 300,000 square kilometres in area and includes over 2,900 reefs, and around 940 islands and cays. It is home to more than 1,500 species of fish, 411 types of hard coral, one-third of the world’s soft corals, 134 species of sharks and rays, six of the world’s seven species of threatened marine turtles, and more than 30 species of marine mammals, including the vulnerable dugong. Human Activities Affecting the Reef The balanced ecology of the Great Barrier Reef is one that is vulnerable to even the slightest human influence. Coral reefs require light, oxygen, clear water, special nutrients, stable temperatures and salt content to survive.
Bills? It wasn’t my fault! Even though the Exxon Valdez oil spill occurred 21 years ago, its effects are still being felt to this very day. The Exxon Valdez was a oil tanker owned by Exxon Mobile Corporation that spilled over 10.8 million gallons of oil into the waters of Prince William Sound on March 24, 1989. After the waves washed the oil out to sea and in to shore, killing millions of marine organisms and birds it became the number one oil spill in the world in terms of damage to the environment.
There are also coral reefs off the coast of Florida, USA, to the Caribbean, and down to Brazil. The Great Barrier Reef (off the coast of NE Australia) is the largest coral reef in the world. It is over 1,257 miles (2000 km) long. Types of Reefs: The different types of reefs include: Fringing reefs are reefs that form along a coastline. They grow on the continental shelf in shallow water.
But the natural background rate of extinction during the past 600 million years, the period of major life, has been on the order of only one species every year or so. Today the rate is surely hundreds of times higher, possibly thousands of times higher” (28) Basically, Myers is saying that our species on planet earth are going extinct. He’s saying that in the present time the rate of extinction is increasing much higher day by day. The human race needs to invest their time and resources on preserving what wild life habitat we have left. Myers stated, “Deforestation in Brazil's Atlantic-coastal forest and Madagascar has been going on for several centuries, but the main damage has occurred during this century, especially since 1950, i.e., since the spread of broad-scale industrialization and plantation agriculture in Brazil and since the onset of rapid population growth in Madagascar.” (30) In agreement with Myers, Deforestation has been an ongoing environmental issue for many years.
Coral reef destruction Last year, scientists remarked the "unprecedented" collapse of Florida's reef, that expands along the south-eastern part of the state of Florida. This ecosysten, that was the only barrier reef in the continental US, was attacked by bleaching in 2014 and 2015 and is now is "beginning to dissolve away", according to Chris Langdon, a coral expert at the University of Miami. More than 80% of shallow water reefs of Christmas Island have died and it has been shown by pictures released to the public not too long ago, that 90% of the reefs in Okinawa, Japan were bleached as well. This is an alarming news, not only because it will affect marine life's ecosystems, but us as well. The most common phenomenon we've seen thus far has been the bleaching event.