Page 31 - bon-dia-aruba-20200609

locAl Tuesday 9 June 2020
A31

The importance of the coral reef

ORANJESTAD — World or sandy islands. polyps are incredibly deli-
Ocean Day is on June 8 cate and very slow grow-
and this year the focus is on The coral reefs of the Dutch ing. The fastest species of
growing the global move- Caribbean are very di- branching coral only grows
ment to call on world lead- verse. Bonaire and Cura- at 10cm a year, other cor-
ers to protect 30% of our çao have fringing coral als take years to grow a
blue planet by 2030. Coral reefs which encircle their few millimeters. Coral colo-
reefs are extremely impor- islands. Starting in very shal- nies can reach immense
tant to the overall health of low water the reefs slope sizes and are tremendously
planet Earth and its human gently seaward to around long lived. There are colo-
inhabitants: Coral reefs 30 feet (10m) before drop- nies alive today which are
provide protection and ping down to depths in believed to be over 700
shelter for many species of excess of 200 feet (60m). years old.
fish and sea life. From the St Maarten has patch/bar-
smallest shrimp to the larg- rier reef whilst the reefs on Stoney corals have devel-
est predator, sea creatures Saba are found on the top oped the remarkable abil-
find both food and protec- of underwater seamounts ity to extract calcium car-
tion on coral reefs. or pinnacles which make bonate from sea water. This
for spectacular diving. St they use to build complex
The Dutch Caribbean Na- Eustatius by contrast has limestone homes which
ture Alliance (DCNA) is re- very well developed patch form the solid framework,
gional network of protect- reefs. or matrix, of the reef.
ed areas set up to help and Despite enormous differ- Around this framework
assist the park manage- ences between coral reefs, there co-exists a complex
ment and conservation or- they all have the same ba- web of life. Calcareous al-
ganizations on the islands sic needs: warm, clear, sun- gae help to build the reef
of Aruba, Bonaire, Cura- lit water with an absence up whilst animals like bor-
çao, Saba, St. Eustatius and of sediment, which could ing sponges, worms, graz- up and secrete it beneath 47,000 in property. They pro-
St. Maarten. Together they choke and kill them and a ing fish and urchins work to themselves as microscopic vide hundreds of thousands
are working to safeguard hard substrate on which to erode it away. In their ea- crystals. The polyps of each of people with income and
our unique natural world. grow. They are only found gerness to graze on algal type of coral build accord- food from fishing. A coral
On their website you can in tropical seas where the (plant) turf parrotfish recy- ing to their own innate reef in prime condition can
find valuable information year round water temper- cle huge amounts of reef: plan. And even though produce over 20 tons of
about the islands nature, ate is between 18 – 30’C, or up to 75% of their stomach coral heads are incredibly protein per square kilome-
among others about the broadly speaking between content is ground up coral plastic, forming radically ter a year. And tourism is
coral reef. 30’ north and 30’ south of reef. Still other creatures different shaped colonies a major source of income
the equator. find shelter on the reef and according to the amount for many tropical island
Coral reefs for them it is their home. This of wave action, current nations. Caribbean reefs
For someone who has nev- Building a coral reef multitude of life is what we and light, their polyps al- alone are worth around $
er been snorkeling or div- Coral reefs are painstaking- know of as the coral reef. ways build identical lime- 140 billion per year in tour-
ing over a tropical coral ly constructed by a humble But what has long fascinat- stone homes. ism dollars.
reef it is almost impossible group of invertebrate ani- ed scientists is how corals
to imagine the sheer rest- mals belonging to the cni- could build such immense The value of reefs At the global level scientists
less energy, the breathtak- darian family. Scleractinian cities of life in the aquatic In part coral reefs are valu- believe that by taking up
ing color and beauty of a (stoney) corals are closely equivalent of a desert. able because they protect calcium carbonate from
reef. Waves crash, currents related to anemones but Oceanic water is remark- tropical shorelines from seawater, corals create
drift, tides ebb and flow different from them in that ably low in food (plankton) damage by storm waves. carbon sinks which lessen
drawing a ceaseless rain they form huge interlinked and nutrients. A recent World Bank study the impact of the green
of food and fresh seawater colonies consisting of hun- Seawater is rich in dissolved suggests that each square house gasses involved in
across the reef. There are dreds and thousands of in- calcium carbonate. Coral meter of coral reef in the global warming. Coral reefs
fantastically shaped corals dividual coral polyps. Coral polyps are able to take this Caribbean protects $ are home to such a vast ar-
from dome like brain corals ray of animals and plants
to mountainous pagodas, that only a small fraction
prickly tables and perfect of them have so far been
spheres. Flitting and dart- described. More and more
ing amongst the corals are medical compounds are
numberless vividly colored being isolated from coral
reef fish. reef creatures which can
be used to combat HIV,
Reefs which form close to cancer and other diseases
land, following the con- whilst sterilized coral skel-
tours of the coastline are eton is already being used
called fringing reefs. Where as a bone substitute for im-
the reef is separated from plants.
land by a lagoon or open
water it is called a barrier But most of all coral reefs
reef. Coral reef atolls are give us an unparalleled
almost exclusively a fea- opportunity to marvel at
ture of the Pacific where the wonder of life and the
they form rings of coral up beauty and complexity of
to several kilometers in di- the world we live in. Source:
ameter around open sea DCNA. q