Endangered Species Essay

1447 Words6 Pages
Corals are living animals which create a hard skeleton to protect their soft bodies. The coral animal is made up of individual polyps that capture food as it floats by. Coral polyps come together in colonies, and many individual colonies form the basis for a community of animals and plants, known as a coral reef. Due to the slow process by which corals grow, it could take hundreds to thousands of years for a coral reef to form. A coral the size of a quarter may be five to 10 years old, and on the size of a basketball may be 200 to 400 years old. Corals reefs are home to thousands of other plants and animals that humans eat such as fish, lobster, conch and use for medicinal compounds such as sponges, corals and gorgonians. There are more than 40 species of coral found in the Caribbean. Corals come in a variety of shapes, from which they derive their common names. Reef building corals require special conditions to grow and flourish. Corals are generally found in clear, warm tropical seas and grow best in shallow water less than 150 feet deep. Waves and strong currents can be helpful to the health and sustainability of the coral. Though corals can survive occasional major stresses, they cannot thrive with sustained or multiple stresses. Even if these stresses occur at low levels, the corals are affected in their rate of growth, ability to reproduce, and in their natural defenses against diseases, predators, and other natural stresses. The coral reefs of the Virgin Islands are currently experiencing the cumulative effects of a higher than normal number of stresses, resulting in unprecedented degradation and loss of corals hundreds of years old. Marine ecosystems serve a number of invaluable functions for the Virgin Islands. Both as an economic and natural resource, coral reefs are essential to the islands. They provide coastline protection, support fisheries, tourism,
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