The Great Barrier

Reef with The Corals

-Esther
-Maya
-Jerald

Whats the Situation?

We have heard that a company called Fabulous Fishing Co. wants to
dredge the Great Barrier Reef for the numerous fish that live there.
They want to sell the fish to restaurants. This is a situation that could
destroy the delicate balance that takes place every day on the reef. But
why should you care? We will explain in the following slides and also
give you a little information about the reef.

-ecosystem with a huge collection of biological

communities
-represents one of the most complicated ecosystems in
the world
-often referred to as the rainforests of the oceans.
-largest reef is the Great Barrier Reef

What are Coral Reefs?

Map of
Australia
The Great
Barrier Reef

Climate of Parts
of the Reef

Coral reefs house millions and millions of life,

so much we cant express it. Without them,
there will be a tremendous amount of habitat
and nourishment loss. Many animals depend
on the reef. There are so many endangered
marine animals. If the reefs are gone, what
will happen to them? Will our beautiful
underwater world survive? What will happen
to our planet if the ocean is destroyed?

Why are coral reefs so

important?

Human 1.
2.
Interactio
ns
Reef

* There are some organizations

trying to help the reefs a bit, but

mostly humans do bad things ,
like:
* Sail big ships across the water,
polluting it
* Use big nets to catch more fish,
killing, maiming other animals
caught; overfish (next slide)
* Contribute to global warming;
rising temperature cause coral
bleaching (see picture 1),
reducing huge reefs to nothing,
Great Barrier Reef in danger of it
too

Predator
Prey
* There are large predators,

like sharks and dolphins,

who eat the fish,
crustaceans, crabs, octopus
and squid. But believe it or
not, corals are predators as
well. Their polyp (tiny
creatures that make up
coral, see picture 2) have
tentacles that pull sea
animals to the mouth. There
are also stingers that
paralyze corals prey. The
prey are usually small, but
there are also bigger fish
that the corals eat too.

-people fish too much in one area, resulting in not

enough fish to eat and feed their predators
-not enough fish disrupts food webs (see next slide)
balance because predators eat mainly fish
-organisms fish eat will overpopulate because no
predators

* Overfishing

*The Coral Reef Food Web

Great Barrier Reef Energy Pyramid

-very precarious thing,

delicate balance
-less predators, more
prey
-too little prey, already
small amount of
predators wont have
enough food
-predators will die out
before prey
repopulate again
-soon no living things in
ocean because prey
eat them all
(plankton, plants,
etc.)

Tertiary Consumers
-least number
-sharks, dolphins,
etc.
Secondary Consumers
-bit more than
tertiary consumers
-grouper, sea turtles,
etc.
Primary Consumers
-lots of them
-clownfish, shrimp,
etc.
Producers
-most of them
-kelp,
seagrasses,
etc.

-stretches over 3000km, almost parallel to

Queensland coast
-starts from near Bundaberg up past tip of Cape
York
-between 15 kilometres and 150 kilometers
offshore, around 65 kilometres wide in some parts
-gathering of brilliant, vivid coral, giving divers
most spectacular underwater experience ever
imagined

* The

Australian
Great Barrier
Reef

* Some Animals Of

LargerThe Reefs
Predators

Dolphins
Fun Fact: Dolphins are
actually a type of whale.

Black-Tip
Bottlenose
Reef Shark
Dolphin

Reef Sharks
Fun Fact: Sharks dont have
bones. Their skeletons are made
of cartilage.

Smaller Fish
Pygmy Seahorse

Seahorses
Fun Fact: Newborn
seahorses are the size of
M&Ms.

Striped
Starfish

Starfish
Fun Fact: Starfish are genderless.
They produce both sperms and eggs.

-seagrasses (Halophila and Halodule)

-zooxanthellae
-seaweed (also called kelp)
-often grow close together
-all-you-can-eat buffet for many herbivores,
such as dugongs, manatees, sea turtles
and sea urchins

* Plants in the

According to a book by National Geographic (Almanac 2013) dredging

is one of the worst ways of fishing ever, endangering predators and
encouraging loads of overfishing. Do we really want that? Plus, if we
overfish in one of the most amazing places in the world for finding
fish, fish will get more and more expensive and soon the whole world
as well as the Great Barrier Reef will be upturned and destroyed. So
bye bye, Fabulous Fishing Co.! Youre not working here.

This
This is
is the
the image
image
of
of a
a dead
dead reef.
reef. It
It
would
would be
be ten
ten
times
times worse
worse if
if this
this
was
was the
the Great
Great
Barrier
Barrier Reef.
Reef.

Hey, this is how the sea

around the Great Barrier
Reef will look like if
Fabulous Fishing Co. does its

*So, Whats

The Decision?

http://www.greatbarrierreef.org
http://water.epa.gov
https://www.google.com.hk
http://wwf.panda.org
http://www.ecokids.ca
http://school.eb.com
http://www.reef.crc.org.au
http://www.livescience.com
http://oceanservice.noaa.gov
http://www.exploringnature.org

Bibliography

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