Coral reefs—an economic emblem and pivot of ecosystem diversity—are being

threatened by outside forces, halting its need to grow and sustain the beauty and sustenance it

provides to our island of Guam. Raising awareness to this issue will not only broaden our

knowledge as a community, but it will promote the health and liveliness of our coral reefs and

marine life, letting them live on for hundreds of years more.

The coral reef provides so much for our island; fish for local fisheries and families, as

well as being the hub of underwater beauty for the tourism industry to exhibit. But at a larger

extent, it also protects our shores by suppressing harsh waves and destructive weather. And the

reef fish work with the corals to keep each other alive and well—so one without the other causes

an imbalance in our ocean.

The coral reef is already being threatened by a much larger and destructive epidemic;

coral bleaching. Coral bleaching is much more out of our control and it threatens the lives of the

coral and the algae in which it shares an endosymbiotic relationship with, with the algae

providing for 90% of the coral’s energy (Slezak, 2016). This is an exponential problem that will

only continue to increase in speed if outside forces—that we, as a human population, can

actually control—continue to participate in this destruction. So it’s up to us to take responsibility

for our island in protecting our natural barrier.

Pictured above is a dying coral reef. As you can see, it’s not very attractive, and the coral reef is

supposed to be one of the main tourist attractions in Guam. If a coral is unappealing, it reduces

the amount of visitors received per year. (T. (2016, March). Coral Bleaching[Photograph].

Lizard Island, Australia.)

Pictured below is an example of what a coral reef is supposed to look like with its beauty

beaming. (A healthy Great Barrier Reef spawns fictitious, costly scare campaigns. (2017,

December 25). Retrieved from https://cairnsnews.org/2017/12/26/a-healthy-great-barrier-reef-

spawns-fictitious-costly-scare-campaigns/)

As a local community, we may have encountered many incidents in which tourists have

made physical contact with the corals by touching them, picking them up, or even striking them

with their fins during scuba diving and snorkeling activities. There have been times where scuba
diving tour guides actually encouraged people to pick these corals up for a photo. Not only is this

harmful but it really has a domino effect. And if this behavior continues on without any

consequences, we will be seeing a future with a dead or sickly coral reef soon. So it’s our time to

reach out to these companies or maybe even stop the mishandling when it occurs right in front of

us. They need to be much more aggressive with their rules and how they handle informing and

briefing the public before embarking on their underwater tours. Educating the general tourist

population will create a much more knowledgeable group of people who are coming to the island

with respect in our environment and essentially our culture.

Interacting with marine life may seem innocent and harmless. Most of the time it is,

unless people decide to feed these fish or even wear body products with toxic ingredients prior to

entering the water. The solution is simple; don’t feed the fish and be mindful of the products you

decide to use on your body. These fish have a symbiotic relationship with the coral and the food

they eat may not be very healthy for them, so there’s the chance of them spreading a disease to

the coral. Not only that, but the time they’re spent away from the corals and fending off the food

tourists decide to feed them, the less time they’re at the reef protecting it.

Lastly, beach pollution is a global problem that people are still fighting to reduce. But

when it affects a small local community, it becomes and even larger topic than just being a

global problem. The International Coastal Cleanup program have totaled 21,167 pounds of trash

collected during their annual cleanup day with almost 35 percent being plastic (Swartz, 2018).

This solution is even way more simple with the rule of thumb being to leave the beach with what

you brought with you (Swartz, 2018). Reducing the amount of plastic and trash that contaminate

the ocean waters will promote a healthy underwater ecosystem, keeping our coral reef and

marine life alive and well.

 Education in these topics are important, but they aren’t enough to kickstart this

movement. We need to be actively raising awareness to our local community because we, as

Guamanians, should be concerned over the health of our island. It affects our culture, our

economy, our sustenance and many more so the more people who know about it, the bigger

chance the word has on spreading. The bigger the audience, the more connections there are to

these water activity companies, tour agencies, and hotel managements. Because our island isn’t

very big, word can get around fast and it’s important to keep this issue a priority for our

community to actively take part in. We can promote good habits such as the ban on plastic bags,

encouraging the act of recycling, keeping trash off the beach, and keeping a mindful eye on how

corals are being handled by the tourist population. The longer we wait for things to get better, the

quicker our coral reefs are dying in which it is even more difficult for them to recover (Slezak,

2016).

This seems like a beast of a project with the belief that nobody will care, but it only takes

one person to persuade another and so on and so forth. This issue may not seem very important

now but it will be in the future, which is why it’s important for us to immediately take action. We

need to care about it and we’re responsible. These companies will listen to our arguments if there

are enough people standing behind them. And these good habits will spread among the

community if more and more people continue to practice them.

In conclusion, our underwater ecosystem is very much a huge part of our lives with the

many blessing it provides for us. The least we can do is to take care of it. Raising awareness over

the dying coral reef due to coral bleaching and how it can be minimized by stopping all outside

destructive forces, will advocate for a much healthier ocean life.

References:

● A healthy Great Barrier Reef spawns fictitious, costly scare campaigns. (2017, December

25). Retrieved from https://cairnsnews.org/2017/12/26/a-healthy-great-barrier-reef-

spawns-fictitious-costly-scare-campaigns/
● Burdick, D. (n.d.). The Status of Guam's Shallow Coral Reefs. Retrieved from

https://data.nodc.noaa.gov/coris/library/NOAA/CRCP/other/USCRTF/guam_coral_reef_

monitoring_program_36_uscrtf_burdick.pdf

● Carilli, J. E., Norris, R. D., Black, B. A., Walsh, S. M., & McField, M. (n.d.). Local

Stressors Reduce Coral Resilience to Bleaching. Retrieved from

https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0006324

● Hoot, W. (2018, December). Guam Coral Reef Resilience Strategy. Retrieved from

http://www.guamcoralreefs.com/sites/default/files/guam_coral_reef_resilience_strategy_f

inal_december_2018.pdf

● Slezak, M. (2016, June 06). The Great Barrier Reef: A catastrophe laid bare. Retrieved

from https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/jun/07/the-great-barrier-reef-a-

catastrophe-laid-bare

● Swartz, M. (2018, June 11). Plastic in oceans a growing threat. Retrieved from

https://www.postguam.com/news/local/plastic-in-oceans-a-growing-

threat/article_eb935f06-69fe-11e8-b264-6f73371b46f3.html

● U. (2000, March 2). The National Action Plan To Conserve Coral Reefs. Retrieved from

https://www.fws.gov/coralreef/CRTFplan.pdf

● U.S. Coral Reef Task Force Strategy. (n.d.). Retrieved from

https://data.nodc.noaa.gov/coris/library/NOAA/CRCP/other/USCRTF/uscrtf_strategy_20

16_2021.pdf