Coral reefs are masses of natural structures composed of skeletal material from by reef-building (or hard) corals, small organisms that grow in shallow water. Corals are found in both temperate and tropical waters. Reefs, however, can only form within about 30° of the Equator. They leave their exoskeletons when they die and the tide movement slowly layers them to form many different types of coral. The corals can only grow within 30 meters (100 feet) of the surface of the water where the temperature is above 16° .

Some people mistakenly call corals polyps. ‘Polyp’ describes a stage in the life of a coral, and is not specific to that species. Corals are hydroids, in a polyp form.

A healthy reef normally has a lot of algae, including turf algae, coralline algae, and macro algae. The coral itself does not actually produce the amazing pigments that make it so pleasing to look at. The colour comes from an algae which has a symbiotic relationship with the coral. A symbiotic relationship is when two plants and or animals live with each other and they both benefit from the relationship. The corals provide a safe place for the algae to live, and the algae give the corals food. The algae is called zooxanthellae. Coral reefs support a huge diversity of marine animal and plant life. They are, in fact, the most biodiverse type of marine ecosystem in the world. It takes many years to form a reef, (the average growth rate being a minute 1 mm per year) yet with the new modern threats such as dynamite fishing, it can take a few seconds to destroy one.

Coral reefs are threatened in many ways. Coral bleaching happens when the zooxanthellae in the coral is killed, usually by global warming or by a chemical change in the water. When coral is bleached it turns white and dies. Dynamite fishing, as mentioned before, consists of throwing explosives into a reef, liquifying the innards of small fish and causing them to float to the surface for easy collection. Cyanide fishing is somewhat similar—dumping poison on a reef to make the fish sluggish and easy to capture. People eat the poisoned fish without knowing it. Just plain overfishing kills coral reefs even if no incredibly destructive methods are used. Reefs are very valuable, even in non-environmental fields; medicine, tourism, and of course the fishing industry.

Click here to learn more about coral reefs

The first comprehensive global assessment of sea grass losses (a fancy phrase for a study on shrinking seagrass beds, or ‘meadows’) showed that 58 percent of seagrass beds are shrinking. The study also showed that, since 1990, the amount lost from each marine meadow annually has gone from 1% to a staggering 7%.

A co-author of the study, James Fourqurean (a professor at Florida International University), claims that the reason sea grass is dissapearing is that it likes the same type of water that people, especially tourists, like: shallow, sheltered areas. Sea grasses are most common in bays and around river mouths, also epicentres of human activity. Though the grass can deal with, in fact clean up, some degree of pollution, when the dredging and dumping is too much, it dies.

“Globally, we lose a seagrass meadow the size of a soccer field every thirty minutes,” are the words of another co-author of the study, William Dennison of the University of Maryland.

The scientists also said that global warming ‘is predicted to have deleterious effects on seagrasses.’

There are ways to help seagrass recover. In Florida, USA, treated wastewater being dumped into caused sea grass to begin dissapearing until the method of treating wastewater was changed and the grass recovered.

This is an example of how we have the technologies and solutions to many of the issues we (as a global community) face, we just need some more motivation to implement them.

As well as inspiring amazing inventions, biomimicry is also a source of practical solutions to everyday problems. One example of this is how when concern arose of calcium buildup causing blockage in water pipes, the solution was found in shellfish. The shellfish build up their shells from calcium, and because their shells stop growing at some point they are able to stop the calcium buildup using proteins. This, when applied to the water pipes, worked.

Biomimicry does not always involve things in nature that are visible to the unaided eye. The use of cell-structure geometry has both aesthetic (pleasing to look at, beautiful), ergonomic (made for comfort), and economic (saving money) virtues.

Perhaps nature offers us the knowledge of how to protect it if we care to look.

Spirit bears are a genetically unique sub-species of black bear. In every ten spirit bears one is white and the rest are black. White spirit bears range from creamy-white to light silvery-blue. White spirit bears have a darker patch on their back.   A spirit bear cub can be white even if both parents are black.

Spirit bears eat basically the same things as ordinary black bears: salmon, nuts, berries, and small animals. They live in only one small corner of British Columbia, which also happens to be the world’s largest unprotected area of intact temperate rainforest. The gigantic old growth trees of the spirit bears’ home are, in part, tribute to the bears themselves. The reason is their messy eating habits; the spirit bears leave little bits of the salmon they eat near the river, and when the nutrient-rich shreds decompose they fertilize the soil.

The rainforest where the spirit bears live is now threatened by logging. If the plans go through, the pristine forests will be replaced by unsustainable monoculture plantation forests, and all hope will be lost for the creature that, in the words of Simon Jackson, is the panda bear of British Columbia.

Simon Jackson, protector of the spirit bear since age 13, has started a worldwide coalition of young people who want to save the spirit bear. Check out the website at spiritbearyouth.com.

http://www.wildliferescue.ca/todo.shtml

It’s great to be able to help wild animals. And I’m sure the animals think it’s great too!