Background

The Great Barrier reef is one of the largest, most diverse coral reefs on the planet. A coral reef (shown to the right)is a underwater structure made of calcium carbonate or coral. Coral are colonies of tiny living animals with few nutrients. The Great Barrier Reef lies on the coast of Australia. Currently, the reef is being rapidly destroyed by multiple factors. The first is the bleaching of the coral due to a rise in water temperatures. Bleaching is the whitening of coral due to stress or death. Global warming has caused the water temperatures to go up 1.5 degrees Fahrenheit. This may not seem like that big of a change but the coral cannot survive unless the water is a specific temperature. Another problem is the crown of thorns starfish. This ocean creature feeds on coral. This is a major problem since crown of thorns levels have spiked dramatically since the beginning of the 21st century. These starfish (shown to the right) have eaten so much of the Great Barrier Reef's coral that people are diving down and attempting to stab crowns of thorns to keep them from eating coral. Other problems include ship wrecks and oil spills like the one the happened April 4, 2010. The Chinese ship, Shen Neng 1 crashed into the reef going full speed and spilled barrels of oil into the reef. It is feared that a salvation attempt could spill even more oil into the precious Great Barrier Reef. The last major issue is chemical runoff from farms near the coast. These chemicals are killing coral near these farms.