We have wondered when we would start to lose some of the worlds wonders, maybe we need to do something about it. How long will we have all the coral reefs over the world and whats causing them to vanish? We dont always know all the reasons for why things happen but we do know some of them, and some we need to address.

Interestingly the Caribbean contains just over 20% of the worlds coral reef and there is a huge amount of damage being done to it. Honduras is a place where they grow several different plantains including bananas, these require a lot of fertilizer. The fertilizer has nutrients that prevent coral growth and are deadly to fish. Fertilizer and erosion are the two biggest culprits for damage to the coral reef in this area and they are both caused by farming, tree felling and building of new properties. Something that doesn’t really occur to us is just how important fish are to the coral reefs. Fish provide coral with the necessary grooming that it needs, this takes off bacteria that damage the coral and keep it clean, they also eat seaweed, and seaweed suffocates coral and any other plants around it by drawing in all the oxygen.

Apparently fish have dropped in population rates by around 70-95%, a massive fall. Fishing too much isn’t just detremental to our food supply; it is decreasing the corals chance to survive.

Another problem is an obvious one, Global Warming. This is the big one, rises in global warming have created acids in the sea and reduced the amount of Aragonite. Aragonite is a carbonate mineral that increases the production of coral. In 40 years the acid levels in the sea will reach such high levels, the coral wont be able to survive the conditions.

However there are few things that we can do to try and help. There are ventures to help the coral that we can take part in and have a good time while we do it. If you do go on luxury holidays or Caribbean holidays you could have the option to go and volunteer for a coral clean up operation, where you can help clean coral underwater or on the shore. This would have to be some of the best volunteer work you could, diving with the fish and doing your bit.

Also if you go fishing around coral, try not to drop anchor, you will tear the coral apart and damage anything living around it

So if your thinking about going abroad or maybe somewhere tropical, maybe some of you want to have weddings abroad, it might be a good idea to get there as soon as you can. You can always give the professionals a hand with cleaning the coral, it might not be around in 40 years.