Coral Reefs: Why We Must Save Them

When boating, use mooring buoys if available rather than dropping an anchor and risk damaging the coral reef. Scuba divers and snorkelers can help by making every effort to prevent contact with the reefs, and taking nothing from the reefs except new trash. Don't buy coral or coral products unless you can confirm that they are products of aquaculture and not taken from a coral reef. Insist that your aquarium and "live" restaurant fish be certified cyanide free. Use the minimum amount of fertilizers and pesticides on your yard. And something that everyone can participate in is beach/undersea clean ups to help keep trash from reaching and damaging the reefs. In short anything you can do to keep things that don't belong in the sea out of it, and reducing the amount of ozone depleting and greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere helps.
Clearly the world's coral reefs are at severe risk. If we loose the coral reefs of the world we will loose more than just some "pretty living rocks." We will loose about 25 percent of the world's marine species directly with the loss of the reefs. Thousands of other species will be affected in some manner. …