When sufficient numbers of people holiday to dive on a particular reef precisely because of its rich biodiversity that reef system becomes something with a tangible ‘cash value’ for the locals. The immediate area becomes something worth preserving – and who better to do this than the people who live there! If the nearby coral reefs are damaged then the rich tourists will go elsewhere next year and the local economy will suffer.

Tourism

More than two million people visit the reef each year generating more than $AU2 billion in tourism dollars, making tourism a major earner for the north-eastern Australian economy

among the richest marine ecosystems in species, productivity, biomass, structural complexity, and beauty.

dynamic wave-resistant structures built by the skeletons of living organisms

Coral reefs are widely distributed in warm shallow waters.

consist of both algae (zooanthellae) and tissues of animal polyp. Since reef waters tend to be nutritionally poor, corals obtain nutrients through the algae via photosynthesis and also by extending tentacles to obtain plankton from the water. Besides corals, the fauna include several species of microorganisms, invertebrates, fishes, sea urchins, octopuses, and sea stars.

  Threats to the world's coral reefs include: Pollution Disease Over-fishing Dynamite and cyanide fishing Sedimentation Bleaching caused by rising ocean temperatures

  Unlike the rainforest, there is no comprehensive global baseline map of living coral reefs.

"rainforests of the sea,"

Environmental Threats to Coral Reefs

Many coral reefs have experienced a phenomenon known as bleach

Sedimentation