One of the biggest diversity on earth is exist in The Great Barrier Reef, Queensland, Australia. In this place, lives a lot of species of fish, mainly coral, and another water animal. This beautiful diversity create a constant and ideal ecosystem in the water. And for sure, if one species is died or labeled as endangered species, the whole ecosystem will not be the same constant and ideal ecosystem as before.
The Great Barrier Reef is the largest coral reef ecosystem on earth, it represent 10% of of all the world’s coral reefs. So, no wonder that the diversity in it is so rich. Since it became a place for many water living beings, knowing this the government of Australia is trying to protect it. Starts with the research about the place. And the government found out that this place is need to be protected. After that, many investment come and help the government to protect the place.
On the other hand, since there are a lot of support coming from the people to this ecosystem, further commitment is made. Protecting The Great Barrier reef does not mean we are only protecting the coral reef that lives there but also all water living beings in it. Because there are a lot of harmful factor from inside and outside the reef it self there are several actions taken by government. And here is some action taken by the authorities to conserve the Great Barrier Reef.
See also:
- Conservation of Coral Reef
- Effects of Greenhouse
- Largest Clams in the World
- Facts of Whale Shark
- How to Prevent El Nino
1. Joint program
The Australian and Queensland government are working together with some private sector, researcher and conservation group. This action is taken because they want to protect the gully and steambank in The Great Barrier Reef from the sediment run off that may cause erosion. With lots of help from the expert in its field, the investment that they made finally could protect the coral reef there by remediate it with some certain technology. They know which area that must be to be their priority to be saved, after knowing the priority area they will learn about it further and they do also monitor and evaluate their work to make sure it is right.
The investment that has been spent for the last six years is about $45 million. The government and all of the related parties have no doubt to invested their money and protect the ecosystem at their best. So the program started with some research from researcher and they made some projects for it. After the project is done, and their hard work of remediate the place is successful they do the monitoring routinely.
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2. The reef trust
The next conservation of The Great Barrier Reef is implemented by the Australian government. The government investing some amount of money to increasing the quality of water. Not only the water, but the authorities also protect and control the crown of thorns starfish. Not only stop in it, government not only protecting the place and all water living beings there.
The farmers and the land managers are also given education about how they could avoid the sediment run off in the Great Barrier Reef. This run off also became a factor that may cause crown of thorns starfish outbreaks. The other factor why government want to educate the farmers and land managers is that so they could improve the efficiency of nitrogen that coming up from their sugar cane industry. Why so? Because the nitrogen that coming out from the sugar cane is lost to the sea and could harming the reef.
After some education given to the farmers and land managers, they are realized that they are also over using the pesticide. This pesticide will be wasted to the sea through the water flow system and may cause damage to the coral reef. So far, every action taken by government create a good result.
See also:
- Endangered Fish Species
- Red Sea Fish Species
- Global Warming in Ocean
- Producers in Ocean ecosystems
- Differences between the Ocean and the Sea
3. Dugong and turtle protection
Turtle became the species that is protected in this area under the Australian government. Turtle is protected because six from seven species of turtle in the world is occur in Australia. Besides turtle, dugong is also protected in Australia. The authorities are not only protecting those two species, but also trying to recover some certain endangered species. This program is including the investigation of illegal poaching, illegal trade of their meat, clean up initiatives for marine debris, rehabilitation centre for turtles, traditional reef protection, tripling the penalties for poaching
and illegal fishing, and also national approach to its management.
The government will also updating the information about the protected turtles and dugong so the people will know it better. Government not only collaborate with the investor and the researcher team. Government is more open and let all the people help this program to be successful, indigenous people also help the government to do the traditional reef protection.
See also:
- Endangered Animals in The Ocean
- Endangered Sea Turtles List
- Ways to Stop Overfishing
- Volcano Under the Ocean
- Climate of the Ocean
4. Shipping management
The existence of ship which is sail in the sea could contribute some amount of pollution to the sea. Ship could release waste emission such as gas and oil. These emissions are harmful for the water ecosystem sustainability in The Great Barrier Reef. Knowing this, the government taking an action by creating some certain path that could be passed by shipping ship.
Moreover shipping activity by ship is often enough which pass the Great Barrier Reef north side. This action of making certain path for the ship is taken because the authorities want to make sure that the operation of vessel is safe. Both for human and water living beings, so the ship will not pollute the water. This action is useful for not only protecting the reef from the shipping ship but also to protect all the water animal there from illegal fishing and trading.
See also:
- Ocean Pollution
- Oceans in the World
- Acidification of the Ocean
- Effects of Ocean Currents
- Ocean Coral Reef
5. Water quality protection
This action is taken because scientist found out that the bad quality of water could be harmful for the reef health. The water quality it self has been decreasing for the last 100 years. Storm, crown of thorns starfish, and coral bleaching are the other factor that makes the Great Barrier Reef lost half of its coral in the past 27 years. The effort for the last 10 years slowly could fix the problem under a strict monitoring from both government and researcher.
Sea water pollution may caused by lots of factor, such as waste emission from pipe, urban environments or water outlet which is thrown to the sea or carried away by the water system. There are two obstacles for scientist in the past ten years when they are doing this project. Those are improving and measuring the speed of uptake of the best management practice. But, so far the scientist and all stakeholders could go through all obstacles and save the coral reef.
See also:
- Effects of La Nina
- Effects of Sea Level Rise
- Marine Protected Areas
- Ocean environment
- Conservation of Blue Whale
All the action taken by the Australian government and all of their parties is not only for the investment purpose. But they do really concern about the sustainability of the Great Barrier Reef and the water ecosystem that occur in it. The way Australian government and all of their parties could be a good example for us. That, we should not only think about the benefit for our own self but think more on saving this planet starts with saving the ocean. I hope all of you are inspired by the way Australian government’s action to save the water ecosystem.
See also:
- Endangered Species in Atlantic Ocean – Fishes in Atlantic Ocean
- Endangered Species in Pacific Ocean
- Salinity of Ocean Water
Maybe, we could not do such a big step just like them but at least we are not polluting the ocean by throwing trash into it. So that is the conservation of The Great Barrier Reef, hopefully this information is useful for all of you. Besides, reminding you that we should protect the beauties of nature. Thank you for reading this article until the end which means you do really concern about conservation. Don’t forget to learn about the ways to protect the marine life and ways to save the ocean.