Environmental Factors and the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef

1. Environmental Factors and the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef By: Christina Callegari

2. Introduction • Right after Australia's Great Barrier Reef is the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef, making it the second-largest reef in the world. • It stretches 600 miles from Belize, through Guatemala, and ends at the Bay Islands of Honduras. • This vast reef holds more than 500 different species of fish, 60 species of coral, and 350 mollusks. • However, this marvelous reef is in danger because of several threats.

3. Threat: Global Warming The killing of symbiotic zooxanthellaealgae causes coral bleaching • Coral reefs are known to have a high sensitivity to rising temperatures on the earth. • Due to global warming and climate change the effects on the Mesoamerican Reef have been coral bleaching and violent storm. • Coral bleaching is when coral losses colour because of stressful environmental conditions, such as the rise of temperature. • As a result, the species that depend on the healthy habitat of the coral now are at a disadvantage.

4. Global Warming Continued… The Mesoamerican reef has also been destroyed by storms and hurricanes. With the continual warming of the seas the severity of the storms can become worse and possibly more frequent. This not only destroys the coral more, but also does not give adequate recovery time.

5. Fishing • Overfishing, fishing over the amount that is sustainable, is a major contributor to the destruction of the barrier reef. • Why has overfishing become so prevalent? • Due to the introduction of new types of gear it has made fishing a lot easier. Better and bigger nets make fishing more efficient. • In the last few decades a great amount of overfishing has led to a great loss of marine wildlife. Particularly, populations of lobster, conch, and finfish. • As a result, it disrupts the complex food chain and leads to death of the organisms that were relying on the fish that are now missing.

6. Fishing continued… • The other major problem with fishing in the reef is the use of a illegal chemical called cyanide. • Poison fishing or cyanide fishing is used to capture live fish. • Divers dive down to the reefs and put the chemical in around the reef to stun the fish, so they can be caught easier. • Tests show that cyanide does in fact kill the coral and fish. Divers placing cyanide into a crevice in the coral.

7. Saving The Reef! • There are many things being done to help conserve the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef. One of which is a project financed by Global Environment Facility (GEF). • They gave 11 million dollars to the Central American Commission on Environment and Development so that they could promote the sustainable development and protection of the reef. • This grant will help to monitor and protect the habitat, as well as control tourism and make the public aware of the situation. • Also, in order to conserve the reef, the grant from GEF will be used to come up with new policies and an internet-based system that will have reliable data on the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef System.

8. Work Cited • Myers, G. N. (2011 Apr. 18 ) Group involves Rivera Maya in protecting Mesoamerican Reef. Travel Weekly, (Vol. 70). (16), 26. Retrieved June 27, 2011, from Gale Power Search via Gale: http://go.galegroup.com/ps/start.do?p=GPS&u=etob85264 • Global Environment Facility provides $11 million grant to protect Mesoamerican Barrier Reef System. (2001). M2 Presswire, Retrieved June 27, 2011, from Gale Power Search via Gale: http://go.galegroup.com/ps/start.do?p=GPS&u=etob85264 • Desonie, D. Marine habitat destruction. In Science online. Retrieved from http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE40&SID=5&iPin=OFPO0015&SingleRecord=True • Garces, Diego M. The Meso American Reef. Retrieved from http://www.worldwildlife.org/what/wherewework/mesoamericanreef/WWFBinaryitem14670.pdf • Exploitive Fishing. Retrieved from http://www.coral.org/node/130 • The Atlantic Ocean’s largest coral reef. Retrieved from http://www.worldwildlife.org/what/wherewework/mesoamericanreef/index.html • Threats to Reef Health. Retrieved from http://www.healthyreefs.org/eco-health-report-card/threats-to-reef-health.html