Preserving the Great Barrier Reef Amidst Human Threats

The Great Barrier Reef is extremely old and has been home to an enormous amount of living things. The Reef, being in a cycle composed of living coral growing on to dead coral proves the fact that has the Reef dating back perhaps as much as twenty million years. Due to human intervention and human pollution of our Earth, one of the seven natural wonders of the world is starting to die and disappear. Our pollution has lead to certain effects on the Reef; effects like rising ocean temperatures and acidification, physical pollution, overfishing, shipping and boating pollution, as well as indirectly increasing the amount of the Reef’s natural predator, the Crown of Thorns Starfish. The goal should be protecting, managing, and preserving the Great Barrier Reef for all current and future generations.

Due to rising ocean temperatures the coral on the reef is dying and becoming bleached.

Overall the reef receives runoff from at least 35 major catchments that drain 424,000 km2 of coastal Queensland and the amount of sediment flowing into the marine park has just about quadrupled over the past 150 years. There are significant effects from these run offs on the reef, especially the inshore areas close to the developed coasts, effects such as mangroves dying-back and increased amounts of overbearing algae on coral reefs. Good water quality is the reason why the Great Barrier Reef is one of the most beautiful, diverse and complex ecosystems in the world and the decline in water quality can affect all the corals, seagrass and other important habitats as well as the marine life supported by those habitats. The decline in water quality would be detrimental to the tourism and fishing industries. As of right now the “Reef Water Quality Protection Plan”is in place. This plan aims to halt and reverse the decline in the quality of water flowing into the Great Barrier