We knew how global warming damage coral), in very bad ways. The ocean ecosystem has suffered a lot from all the human activities that causing global warming, affecting the life of the ocean devastatingly. The chain effects from the ocean warming itself is already pretty bad. Coral bleaching, and also the infectious water are only some of many. Yet, some people still considering hurting the ocean more and more by doing the illegal fish bombing. The destruction caused by the bombing can be way hurtful than the effects of global warming. Imagine that a beautiful ecosystem destroyed only in a small matter of time. The ticking bomb caunting the time for another great destruction. All those beautiful corals and small shell fishes can’t do anything. But we can. There are some efforts to restore coral reefs from damage on fishing with bombs. You can also do it, even with the simplest one. Even one small act is really important.
1. Implementing The Underwater Loudspeakers
The importance of coral reefs in shoreline protections is one of many things that we should consider when saving the corals. They give a lot of things to us, and this time, we are the ones saving them. An idea of restoring those corals gave the idea to the creation of Underwater Speakers. Researchers started to try the Underwater Loudspeakers in the Great Barrier Reef back in 2017. The idea behind this is to attract shrimps and fishes to the broken coral reefs. These “accoustically enriched reefs” have more fishes than the reefs that don’t have the loudspeaker implemented.
They add that with this method, we can have a chance to revive all those destroyed coral reefs globally, which is good to hear. Fishes that gathered up in the coral reefs can help in cleaning them, and also making an area for coral regrowth. Thus, both of the marine cratures and corals can use their mutualism for their own good future.
2. Coral Conservation
There are so many threats to coral reefs that we can’t possibily imagine. The coral reefs will be helpless and eventually gone if the humans are coming to help. Thankfully, there are those conservations who care a lot. They help in action to restore coral reef by implementing restoration strategy with nurseries. After spending some time at the nursey, the coral will be planted on a reef by hand. This method is considered very costly and really time consuming, remembering that you’re allowed to plant only one coral at a time.
SECORE, an organization that also helping to restore the reefs has developed a new method to solve this problem. They have made coral settlement substracts that can do self-attach to the reefs, making it possible to seed more number of corals.
3. Sexual Coral Reproduction
Another method in the simple ways to cultivate coral reefs is to use the sexual coral reproduction approach. Even though it may be better than other methods, this technique requires an expertise and knowledge to understand the way of reproduction for each species. All the benefits that can be achieved from using sexual coral reproduction approach are contributing in genetic corals diversity, keeping the populations natural, and it’s actually applicable to all coral species.
4. Supporting the Conservations
You can also give a big support to the conservations that help in restoring the coral reefs. There are so many organizations out there, such as Coral Reef Aliance, Global Coral Reef Aliance, SECORE, Project Aware, and many more. Aside from giving the money donation, you could also help in the direct restoration activities done by those organizations. One help from you means a lot to the future lives of coral reefs.
5. Conserve Water
A lot of sea debris come from the flows of sewers and rivers. If you use less water everyday, you can help the ocean by reducing the number of waster waste that will be thrown out to the sea. The result, rivers will be much cleaner than before. Consider to not waste any dangerous materials in the water, especially for the chemicals. Rich amount of fertilizer waste may cause in algae overgrowth that blocks the sun ligth to the corals.
6. Be a Valounteer in Reef Cleanups
Even though there are still many causes of coral reef destruction, you can help to conserve the ecosystem by doing the reef cleanups. If you live around the beach area, you can also help by cleaning the ecosystem from trash and waste left behind. These simple methods are also big efforts to restore coral reefs from damage on fishing with bombs.