The Marino Ballena National Park and Cano Island Biological Reserve are home to some of Costa Rica’s most beautiful coral reefs. Locals and visitors alike can enjoy some of the best Costa Rica Snorkel and Diving Tours. The importance of maintaining our beautiful Coral Reefs cannot be understated.
Coral Reefs are naturally resilient ecosystems, however, our coral reefs today face many threats such as, intensifying global stresses like climate change and ocean acidification. These threats are are accompanied by increasing local threats from coastal development, destructive fishing practices, careless tourism, and pollution.
It has been shown that both local and global stresses can significantly degrade coral reefs. Studies based on coral growth have found that coral growth rates at sites that are relatively free from local stressors recovered in two to three years, while growth rates in sites with higher local stressors remained suppressed for at least eight years. Studies of coral reefs in locations as diverse as Australia, the Coral Triangle, and Bonaire all present similar results: corals are most able to recover from large-scale threats like rising ocean temperatures, water quality decline, and storm damage when they are healthy to begin with.
Building reef resiliency by reducing local stressors is the best strategy we have to help our coral reefs withstand the global threats that are already taking effect. It is clear that we must act quickly to bolster reef health and build robustness. Experts from around the world are advocating networks of effectively managed marine protected areas, coupled with widespread education, poverty alleviation, and alternative livelihood creation, as essential components of a global approach to saving coral reefs.
The long-term survival of coral reefs depends on our action now to alleviate local pressures and support healthy, resilient reef ecosystems.
*Adapted from the Coral Current 2009 Autumn Edition – Coral Reef Alliance