THE GREEN FILES
By Sonia Green-Brown, PE
Issue 215- Protecting Our Coral Reefs
Most of us view them as simply things of beauty, but Coral Reefs have been protecting our shorelines and are an important habitat for the fish and lobster that we so enjoy, are producers of sand, have been associated with scientific work for the production of medicines and have been bringing visitors to our shores for decades.
According to the BREEF (Bahamas Reef Environment Educational Foundation) website these colonies continue to be under threat from large and small incidences and the onus is on each of us to do our part.
In case you didn’t know the third largest barrier reef in the world can be found in Andros and these beautifully complex and diverse structures are colonies of small animals some of which are no larger than the size of a pin head. The colonies themselves can be extremely big and many live symbiotically with plant-like algae that is a producer of food that it shares with the coral.
We often hear of the Environmental Impact Assessments (EIAs) that are mandatory when any major development is to be undertaken. These are required to determine the extent that major works could impact important sites like coral reefs. Further seemingly innocuous activities of dumping small amounts of trash, anchorage on reefs, breaking off little bits of the reef, and fishing using bleach or dynamite are examples of behaviour that is harmful to reefs.
It is also important that we do our part to prevent and discourage overharvesting activities by ensuring that we not only don’t participate in these activities directly or just as importantly, indirectly by purchasing items that are undersized or that are being sold out of season.
Overfishing is impactful because it has the potential to disturb the delicate balance of the coral reefs. Each organism has a role to play and a dramatic increase or reduction in a population can and does have negative effects.
We can all do our part by supporting the activities on BREEF and the National Trust and of course donating to these organizations.
Send questions or comments to sbrown@graphitebahamas.com.
Sonia Brown is Principal of Graphite Engineering Ltd and is a registered Professional Engineer.
