interesting artical

[MPETERS]

What do you all think:

http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/science/08/14/environment.reefs.reut/index.html

[Tabizan]

I lived in asia for a long time and used to dive off the same island in the Phillippines for a week every year , when I first went there there were no tourists , no diving , no running water , no electricity and the small reef was a fantastic site , within five years the tourists moved in , you coudn't walk 10 meters without stumbling across a dive shop and the local market were selling dried , bleached corals , the reef was decemated in that period , I couldn't belive the change .

Then in the five year period after that something changed , they opened a small catching station for a wholesaler in Manila and the locals slowly started looking after the reef and are now quite protective of it , so the reef is actually looking better now than five years ago .

I used to feel quite guilty keeping tanks at home , but from my experience we have a hobby that is protecting the reefs , this is just my experience on a tiny island in the Phillippines , not a global outlook , I'm going back at the end of the year after a three year break , and I'm looking forward to see what direction its heading.

[mx_tang]

This article isn't anything that we haven't heard for the past decade. Some people are becoming aware of the problem, which is that any imbalance in the ocean can lead to catastrophic consequences. You can think of the entire reef as one living organism and each collective part of it as an organ, tissue, or cell; One rogue cell can become cancerous and destroy the entire body if it's not removed or intervention is not administered.

I had the pleasure of watching "Coral Reef Adventure" with Chris M. and they spoke about the decimation and gradual decomposition of the reef systems. Some reefs still had larger species, such as groupers and sharks, which indicated that the overall health of certain reefs were improving. The ocean is a fairly large and expansive ecosystem, but it's not beyond the reach of humans to forever ruin or destroy them. Perhaps we should simply be aware of what is happening around us and "try" to limit the harm we do to people, places, and things that we care about.