As we move forward, it becomes easier to forget about certain parts of the world. One part that is starting to become increasingly neglected is the ocean, despite its major impacts on us. A specific part of the ocean that is being ruined, that seemingly no one is paying any attention to, are the coral reefs.

What’s happening to the reefs is something called coral bleaching, which is when the algae called zooxanthellae that lives in the reefs tissues leaves, thus causing the reef to lose its major food source as well as its vibrant color. The symbiotic algae leaves the reef when water temperatures rise up from climate change, as well as when polluted water enters the reef (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration).

Now, a reef that becomes bleached isn’t dead, and can actually be restored, but they become much more susceptible to mortality when they are bleached. As a result of the bleaching, the habitats of multiple species of fish are destroyed, and the overfishing crisis is exacerbated even further. It also hurts communities who depend on those fishes for their income or nutrition, as they will not be reproducing as much. Additionally, the reefs serve as natural walls to protect life on land from waves and storm surges, and reefs themselves produce billions of dollars yearly in tourism (World Wild Life). Speaking more on the human dependence on the reefs, it is estimated that around half a billion people depend on healthy reefs for their livelihood, and they are also useful for making new medicines (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration). 

This is all tragic, obviously, but if the coral reefs are so important, why isn’t there any major action being taken to support them? Well, the main reason as to why coral bleaching is even occurring is because of climate change and water pollution; decade-old topics that a lot of people are just tired of hearing. From the Earth Observatory, it is said that, “every 3 to 7 years a wide swath of the Pacific Ocean along the equator warms by 2 to 3 degrees Celsius.” Climate change is hitting our ocean hard, no doubt, but when also considering the severe storms that have been occurring, this also damages the reefs. Frankly enough, I think people don’t care about coral bleaching because, why should they? The social media and news presence of it is non-existent, so people aren’t generally exposed to what is going on. Additionally, if the issue is climate change and pollution, people are inherently going to think about it selfishly. When people think of how climate change and pollution is going to affect our world, people think of other people, the weather, food, water, etc., not marine life. To be completely honest, why would they? If no one is around to educate people on the current issues in the world, why would they ever expand their mindsets? How could they ever care?

It’s easy to shift the blame onto the media and news outlets and world governments and literally any major institution in the world, but what can you do to stop this? On an individual scale, the solutions are pretty straightforward; the standard climate change prevention, reducing pollution by recycling and disposing trash properly, reducing stormwater runoff, things like that (United States Environmental Protection Agency). These things can help in preventing more coral bleaching from taking place, but there are also organizations and programs that assist in repairing reefs who have been bleached. One of these programs would be the NOAA Coral Reef Conservation Program, which is putting in effort towards the research, conservation, and protection of coral reefs. The program’s efforts towards reef conservation range from growing and planting reefs, removing invasive species, as well as responding to any emergencies concerning the reefs (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration). 

Day by day, our reefs are getting bleached, and are likely being left for dead, hurting ecosystems across both water and land. Despite the real dangers and consequences that coral bleaching presents to a significant amount of life, the lack of concern for it is not only disappointing, but also infuriating. To completely ignore something so significant yet so prevalent is a betrayal of mankind on itself and the inhabitants of the planet. Were the situation to continue to worsen, the state of survival for around 25% of marine life would come into question (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration), and well being of so many people would be damaged, as well. Since no one wants to talk about it, either, it’s up to everyone as individuals to remedy the situation. Through the small actions from each person to assist in preventing coral bleaching by improving their own disposal habits, the reefs can still be maintained and restored at a healthy rate. Without action, however, those reefs, along with so much marine life as well as human life, will die.