Over the
past four decades, 80% of all Caribbean corals have disappeared. In 2006, under
the U.S. Endangered Species act, the elkhorn coral was listed as threatened.
The IUCN Red List of Threatened species later listed the elkhorn as critically
endangered in 2008. 2010, SECORE, The University of Amsterdam, and The Carmabi Marine Research Station began to develop elkhorn coral offspring in hopes that
they could be outplanted to various reefs throughout the Caribbean. Their method for achieving this is to take
male and female gametes from the wild and fertilisze them in a laboratory. They
were able to grow corals to be the size of a soccer ball and successfully have
them reproduce within four years. By doing this they are able to raise more
genetically unique corals. An issue with this is that they can only use this in
small, well-managed areas because they are really only able to support natural
recovery. Another issue is that it is expensive to do and is a lot of work. This
topic of laboratory-bred colonies being raised to sexual maturity relates to
our class because it discusses how humans play an important role in the
preservation of our planet. As we learned in class, if we are able to scientifically
develop ways to sustain our natural environment, we are also able to help our
future generations. I think that this development of elkhorn coral offsprings
is an amazing step that the people of our planet are taking in hopes of
sustaining the natural environment. The elkhorn are important to the Caribbean
because they protect shores from incoming storms while also providing a necessary
habitat for a large number of other reef organisms. These organisms include
both ecologically and economically important fish species. They are able to provide
protection for the shores and a shelter for the organisms because of their
large size and distinct branching shape. Due to all of the good that the
elkhorn do for the Caribbean, I think it is extremely important that they
continue to work towards further developing ways to sustain and reproduce them.
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Its really good that they have found ways to preserve corals from going extinct. But i think they should be focusing more on why they are disappearing to begin with. Its great that they are reproduce unique corals but if they were to set it back into the wild, I don't think it would survive. This is an interesting topic and it would be good to understand why this is happening so maybe while they are reproducing these corals, to try and fix the environmental issue going on in the Caribbean. I never really knew why coral reefs were so important to an ocean. Protection against storms and feeding fish species is two major things that I could see greatly affecting places and species if the coral reefs went extinct.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Cassie, while this is a terrific accomplishment, focuses should be on preservation. This seems to be a band-aid fix to a problem that is only going to get worse in time. Better to stop the bleeding now than to apply more band-aids. Focuses could also be targeted on creating coral that is genetically more resilient to warming ocean temperatures. The water changing a couple of degrees could be catastrophic to these organisms. Why not speed up the evolutionary process?
ReplyDeleteI agree with Cassie, while this is a terrific accomplishment, focuses should be on preservation. This seems to be a band-aid fix to a problem that is only going to get worse in time. Better to stop the bleeding now than to apply more band-aids. Focuses could also be targeted on creating coral that is genetically more resilient to warming ocean temperatures. The water changing a couple of degrees could be catastrophic to these organisms. Why not speed up the evolutionary process?
ReplyDelete