Ep 8: What Impacts does Tourism Have on Coral Reefs?

Today, Humane Nature discusses the pros and cons of how tourism affects coral reefs worldwide.

Crypto Coral Tribe
https://www.cryptocoraltribe.io/

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Sources
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Transcript

0:00

humane nature is an animal tourism podcast with discussions about animal abuse, injury and medicine, listener discretion is advised. Welcome back, everybody. I'm Stacia your host. I am so sorry, I didn't get an episode out last week. I did post on my twitter why. And many of you were very kind about it. COVID actually finally infiltrated my home. So I had COVID, my husband had COVID. All of my co workers had COVID. So we're all okay, now everybody's past it. But for any of you who have had it, or know, people who have had it, the brain fog and just absolute fatigue that I had, was not was not conductive to recording or doing any work whatsoever. So I took a break last week, I explained on my twitter why. And thank you guys, so much for understanding. For those of you who didn't know, I'm not sure if I've said this before, the reason why I put episodes out every other week is I also put out blog articles every other week on my website, stumble Safari. So I am producing content every week, I just don't have the time as of right now, because I'm still working a day job. So that is why I am I'm producing a podcast every other week. So you can check out my website for additional content, if you do want to see that animal Tourism and Travel content every week. Alright, I am also recording this on Valentine's Day. So Happy Valentine's Day everybody. I... you know my husband is working today. So I'm going to be cooking him a very nice romantic meal at home, his absolute favorite apple pie, some pasta from scratch, you know, clean the house, that sort of things so that he comes home to a nice clean house and a beautiful dinner. And then other than that we're not really doing a whole lot. But I would love to know what you guys did for Valentine's Day and how you chose to celebrate. And one final piece of personal news, which is kind of a bummer. One of my absolute favorite places in Seattle may be going out of business, it is called Martha's garden. It is during the week it is a doggy daycare, but Thursday nights, Friday nights and all day on Saturday and Sunday it is an indoor dog park with a bar. So if you want to go to like a laid back bar, have a drink play with some puppies like literally just come in and play with some puppies or bring in your own dog to run around and play while you have a drink. That is that is the place for you. It is located in Belltown and lower Queen Anne. And it is a small family owned place. So give them your support, follow them on Instagram and visit them because they may be closing this summer if if they don't get some more business. So that's my shout out for you know a small family owned business go support them. And it's a lot of fun if you're visiting the area. I also have some wildlife and travel news for you guys today. So first off, this is very, very interesting, I thought a new study reveals that albino garter snakes are not more susceptible to predators, or at least to predatory birds. So biologists have always just assumed that albino you know animals are going to be more susceptible to to predators because they lack that camouflage that helps them hide. So if you think of a garter snake, they are camouflage their scales are camouflaged to blend in with the dirt and the rocks in the in the grass around them, and that helps them hide from predatory birds that are flying overhead. And an albino garter snake is going to be like bright white against everything around it. However, this new study shows that their albinism may result in different enough patterns to confuse predators, or at least the predatory birds. So these birds like see them but don't know what they are because they look so different from you know the normal colored garter snakes. However, this was only conducted for predatory birds, so they may be more vulnerable to other types of predators. They just need more, you know, studies in order to do those to come out with those numbers specifically. Second of all, this is also extremely interesting to me. wildlife biologists are beginning to study gut biomes. So this is a kind of a new area of wildlife biology studying the gut, gut biomes of different animals and how it affects them and the those around them. And they have found that the gut biomes in American minx vary drastically between males and females. And they have no idea why. So they conducted a study a controlled experiment, where they had wild wildlife they had American minx in captivity, eating the exact same foods in the exact same environment. And males and females gut biomes varied by over 50% In some cases, and they have no idea why. So they thought that this experiment was going to be, quote, cut and dry. And it absolutely was not, which it very rarely is in science, especially biology. So very few gut biome studies have been done on carnivores, this is one of the first, as they are more difficult to find in the wild. It is a little more easy to do these studies in controlled environments, but because carnivores are typically solitary, and are far fewer in numbers compared to herbivores or omnivores out there, it is a lot more difficult to study them like in the wild, and how they do that as they kind of follow them around, and they know what they're eating, and they collect fecal samples. And it's obviously a lot more difficult to do that when you don't have the same populations. And they're a lot more difficult to find. So I thought that was very interesting. Finally, a bit of, you know, sad news, but not unexpected. Antarctica's two native flowering plants are spreading rapidly due to rising temperatures, and also due to fewer, fewer fur seals, who helped kind of trample those plants to help help them die back. And there are fewer fur seals, also because of rising temperatures, and there's less food for them. So the two species are the Antarctic hairgrass. And the Antarctic pearlwort. The hairgrass has spread five times more between 2009 and 2018. Sorry, I wrote 1028 2018, then between 1960 and 2009. And comparatively, the pearlwort has spread 10 times more. So 10 times more in the last, basically 10 years than the 50 years previously, and the spread of these species will cause changes in soil acidity, bacterial levels, and how organic matter decomposes in the areas. So this can cause some global widespread issues that they're just not sure of yet. And that's a little scary, and the permafrost is melting, and all of that and releasing these new bacterium that we've never really been exposed to before. And, you know, it's, it's a little scary. So just, you know, something to keep in mind as we continue to fight, climate change. And a piece of travel news for you guys. More travel heavy destinations are easing travel restrictions for vaccinated travelers, so you must have your either first your one j and j vaccine, or both Maderna and Pfizer vaccines. Many of these are not including the boosters although I highly, highly, highly encourage you guys to get your boosters in areas such as Australia, Greece, Portugal and the United Kingdom and islands in the Caribbean. However, as places are opening up, more and more people are traveling and reports of disruptive passengers are rapidly increasing. So there have been over 400 reports of disruptive passengers already in 2022. It is February 14 of me recording this so halfway through February, we already have 400 reports of disruptive passengers. And they did this. Wanting to stay study. This report did not specify if these 400 reports were just in the United States where I'm based, or if this was worldwide. But guys, rule number one of travel. Don't be that asshole. Don't be a disruptive path disruptive passenger. Get your vaccines keep your mask on Be nice to all of your airline employees whether the pilots whether they're you know, baggage workers whether they're the stewardess is up your little skies stewardesses my mind just went blank on I know all you guys are screaming at me oh what they're actually called but just just be kind Don't be that asshole be nice follow their posted rules make everyone's life easier if you see someone else being that asshole call them out on it just you know, don't be that asshole. Alright so today we are going to be talking about the impacts tourism has on coral reefs around the world and I'm specifically going to be talking about warm water coral reefs there are such things as like Arctic or Cold water, coral reefs, and they're drastically different than our, you know, tropical coral reefs that we generally think of and what we generally travel to So, tropical coral reefs. Yep, so let's let's get started. Oh, before we get started, sorry, I was supposed to have a guest today, I was supposed to have a recorded interview ready for you guys. And after I had this hour long, great discussion with these two guys. And the audio didn't save, I was so mad. And just because of scheduling, we were not able to redo it. So I just wanted to give them a shout out really quick. This, they are called the Krypto coral tribe. And you can go ahead and follow them on Twitter, just follow them on their website and on their Twitter. They are an NFT company so they have partnered with a an artist down in Brazil. And he I kind of browsed through some of their, their pieces and they're they're really cool. And what they're doing is 50% of their their income, their proceeds are going to directly to replant coral reefs around the world so and they have pledged already to plant 3000 coral reefs across three continents with their with their income. So that is really, really cool. So if you are into the whole NFT thing, um, I if you don't know what that is, it stands for non fungible fungible token. It's basically like a digital art piece. I am not the person to ask about this. I am not very knowledgeable in this. But I know it is a really big thing right now. And if you were into that, you can go over to crypto coral tribe that C R Y P T O coral tribe, and their website and you can browse some of their collections, you can purchase a piece if you'd like and help plant some coral reefs and get some cool art at the same time. So anyway, let's get started on talking about tourism and coral reefs. So, coral reefs are some of the most biologically diverse ecosystems on Earth, they are even more biologically diverse than the Amazon rainforest. So that's pretty crazy to think about. They do provide food and shelter to 25% of all marine species worldwide. So think about that. They cover about 1% of the ocean floor, around the world, and they provide food and shelter to 25% of all marine species. So that's millions and millions and millions of species that live in and depend on these coral reefs. So they are extremely important but unfortunately, also extremely delicate. So globally, 36% of tropical coral reefs are threatened due to exploitation 30% are threatened due threatened by coastal development 22% are threatened due to inland pollution and erosion and 12% by marine pollution. I don't know if you did that mental math in your head, but that is 100% of tropical coral reefs. So, they are all threatened due to something whether it is exploitation, which is overfishing, you know, breaking off pieces of the coral or whatever to sell and coastal development so building up you know, those those big hotels and things right on the coast and you know, disrupting the coral reefs, inland pollution and erosion. So same kind of thing erosion on land, or you know, pollution coming from land or marine pollution. So we're talking about gas from boats and plastic and all that kind of stuff in the ocean. So Southeast Asia reefs are at the highest risk 95% of them are at medium to high risk from local damage. And this is just because there aren't as many, you know, laws put in place in a lot of these areas, a lot of these areas are still extremely dependent on fishing in these areas. And you know, the coral reefs are where the fish are. So it's, it's not necessarily their fault. They need you know, they need to make money they need to survive the people there. So they do what they have to. And but unfortunately, that does lead to really high risk of damage to these these coral reefs around Southeast Asia and the Southeast Asian like real coral reef triangle is the biggest area. In coral reefs there is a delicate balance between sea life, poaching, and ecotourism. So, if you, you know, kind of picture this graph as sealife increases, the threat of poaching increases, so more sea life more poaching, as ecotourism in the area increase, or decreases, I'm sorry, as ecotourism increases, poaching decreases, because there are more people around, it's harder to to, you know, to do loads of illegal activities. The increase of tourism can also decrease the sea life from things such as scaring off fish and aquatic mammals and things just due to more human activity, more pollution, more erosion, things like that, causing them to leave the area, and unplanned and unregulated tourism can also destroy the reefs themselves. So it is a very delicate balance between the three of them. Global coral reef, related tourism is one of the largest examples of nature based tourism from a single ecosystem. So you think about the number of places that you'd want to visit specifically for the coral reef, there's the Great Barrier Reef in Australia, the Belize Barrier Reef, in Belize, and then all those coral reefs in southern Florida. around Southeast Asia, there's so many places that you would go specifically to snorkel or scuba dive or boat over these coral reefs to see the reefs and the animals that are living in them. They generate revenue from local and foreign visitors in over 100 countries and territories around the world. So coral reefs are extremely important financially for these areas as well. roughly 30% of the world's coral reefs are in the tourism vector valuate valuing at $36 billion, the global value even higher in the trillions of dollars, which is really hard to imagine. So only 30% of the world's coral reefs are in the tourism vector. So people you know, continually traveling to see them. And those contribute at least 36 billion US dollars to global tourism dollars. That's a lot of money. And they're predicting it's really hard to pinpoint because it's hard because there are direct financial impacts such as paying to snorkel or scuba dive or boat. And then there are indirect impacts such as, you know, eating seafood from fishing in the area or coming to the area, not specifically to see the reefs, but to see the beaches, etc. So they're predicting that even higher in the trillions of dollars worldwide 9% of all coastal tourism value in coral reef countries so 9% of the money that coastal tourism brings in, comes from, from coral reefs. The growth of tourism has also resulted in the fact that many coastal communities are in varying stages of socio economic shift from dependence on fishing to dependence on tourism. So a lot of these places are realizing that, you know, this shark or this fish is worth more alive than dead. You could only make money on it once by you know, fishing for it, killing it and then you know, selling it for food or for whatever. And whereas people will come back over and over and over again to see this animal paying money. not just to the fisherman, but to like dozens of places, the hotels, rental places, you know, to rent boats or rent, snorkeling or scuba gear, tour guides. So there is a global socio economic shift, as people are embracing more eco tourism in the areas rather than depending on money from from fishing, the health of its coral reef ecosystems are needed for economic prosperity. So you think about going to these destinations, you're not going to want to stay not gonna want to spend money not even going to want to visit if you know if the beaches are covered in trash, or the coral reefs are half dead, or none of the animals are really around anymore. So they depend on the health of coral reefs to bring in those tourist dollars. However, not taking care of the problems caused by tourism can in... initiate a destructive feedback loop that would contribute both to reef degradation and ecotourism competitiveness. So you want to keep these reefs healthy to bring the tourists in. However, you also want to regulate the tourism because the tourists can be very destructive to those coral reefs. So like I said before, it is a very delicate balance between the two. And the goal is to to find that balance, it's going to be different for every destination. But it is possible and we can do it. All right, so all of that was just kind of, you know, science and numbers and giving you an overall idea of how, how big coral reef tourism is around the world and how many people are going and how much money this is bringing into areas that really need it. So let's talk about the negative impacts first, you know, me I like to do negative first then positive end on a positive note. So let's talk about the negative impacts of tourism to coral reefs. divers and snorkelers often accidentally kick and break corals or smother them with sediment. So, if you think about the number of probably not super people who have not snorkeled or scuba dived very much or who were not very well trained, they aren't necessarily aware of their bodies as much, especially when they're wearing long fins. So fins are the most likely to cause damage to the reef, and an estimated 88% of divers make contact with the reef at least once per dive. So coral reefs are extremely delicate, and even simply like touching some of the species can cause them to just die. They're extremely delicate and you know, it's hard. They also are extremely dependent on sunlight. They do photosynthesize like plants do. And if you happen to avoid touching them directly if you accidentally kick up sand and dirt and other sediment that can block their access to the sun and also cause them to die. So if you are snorkeling and diving in areas with coral reefs Be extremely careful not to kick the reefs themselves. And try not to kick up sediment on the bottom, just try to keep your fins up. It's a little uncomfortable at first if you've never really been scuba diving or snorkeling before but you want to keep kind of your butt in the air and keep your fins up when you're in shallower areas with with coral reefs. Humans touching corals can lead to infection and breakage. So you want to remember coral reefs, although they look like plants that we would see above, above the water. Coral is actually like a living like organism I don't want to necessarily call it an animal but it's closer to an animal than a plant. And touching the corals can lead to a small break which can lead to infection. So you think about yourself getting a cut that opens a barrier that can lead to infection later on. And the same thing happens with corals and boat propellers and anchors often also crush and break corals. So anchors are built to do one thing and that is to go to the bottom of the water grab onto something and and hold on to it to stop the boat from moving. And you can imagine The just complete destructive path that anchors attach to boats dragging through coral reefs can have they they leave a complete trail of destruction left behind them. So in areas with coral reefs, you want to use different kinds of anchors, you don't want to, there are different kinds of anchors, they're not as common, not as popular and often don't work as well. But if you are in areas where you know, there are coral reefs below you don't drop an anchor. And also with your propellers, lift your propellers and just, you know, hang out for a little bit or use like in oar to move yourself if possible. If you're in such shallow water that your propellers will potentially touch those those coral reefs and make sure any tour groups that you're going on are following good practices with these as well. So the water quality can also be altered via pollution, such as chemicals and wastewater from boats from hotels, and increased turbidity from boat propellers. So that's another thing. Corals are very specific on the amount of nutrients in the water, the amount of clarity in the water that they need to photosynthesize. We want to be as careful as possible with pollution. And including sunscreen, guys, I'm sure you've heard it before, but it is extremely important to wear reef safe sunscreen. And you don't want to just, you know buy a sunscreen that says it's reef safe, flip it around and look at the ingredients on the back. Unfortunately, the term reef safe is not regulated, kind of like the term like organic. How that's not necessarily regulated. So just because a sunscreen says that it's reef safe does not mean that it is so you want to check the active ingredients label on the back of the sunscreen to make sure it doesn't have any harmful ingredients. And some of these harmful substances in sunscreens are include oxyBenzone, octinoxate, octocrylene, homosalate, parabens, triclosan, any nano particles or nano sized zinc or titanium. So it needs to explicitly say micro sized or non nano for these or any form of microplastics such as exfoliating beads. That's a lot. Just look it up on your phone have those ingredients accessible to you if you're not if you're like me, even though I've studied science and chemistry and all that stuff in school, it's hard for me obviously to remember all of these things. So I keep a list on my phone when I'm out shopping for sunscreens and I keep those accessible so I can I can access them while I'm so I can make sure. And a lot of the really, really popular sunscreens out there do contain these chemicals such as banana boat, and Neutrogena. Let's see, I'm looking at a list here, the sun bum, all of those. So a lot of those are really really harmful to coral reefs and you want to avoid those. And I will go ahead for you guys put a link in the description to the list of basically no no ingredients so that you can have access to it. So in addition to things that you're wearing in the water for tourism, and you know your activity with your fins in the boat propellers, resorts, even eco resorts do have some results as well. So the construction and pollution of ecotourism sites damage and kill coral reefs. So, construction pollution, sand pumping and sewage are all the biggies that can harm coral reefs. The initial construction causes the most acute damage. However, report resort activities show less damage than the initial construction. So when we are building these eco resorts even if they are as eco friendly as possible, that construction is going to at first do cause some damage it is going to cause some damage. So that's really unavoidable. We want to cause as less damage as we can. And then once the eco resort is built, what we do from then on is really going to kind of make it that eco resort that Eco Lodge and that ethical place to visit. So I did read some studies that are that are kind of reporting the the damage that tourists are doing in these different areas because unfortunately a lot of this stuff is very individual based is very location based. So, resort activities show less damage than initial construction in the Maldives. However, coral covered decreased by 79% over three years and add Kumo Bay sorry about that, in Mexico due to snorkeling tourism. So the number of snorkelers in this area increased over 400% In those three years, which is crazy. So that's what I was talking about the unregulated explosive tourism. So we want to have some rules in place to help prevent overtourism and the damage that that can cause. However, in Brazil, visitors are severely controlled around the reefs in Abrolhos. But even the controlled tourism is seeing a negative effect on their local reefs. However, there is no environmental control in the area. And they are also affected by high sediment influx caused by deforestation in the area, in the rainforest in the area. So it's, it's a multifaceted problem, you know, so as a tourist, try to do the best we can. That's all we can ask of each other, right? And try to visit areas that do have these rules in place, even though it might make your trip or your life a little bit more difficult. They're just doing their job to protect the coral reefs and the the nature in the area. Okay, so let's talk about my depending on how you look at it least favorite or favorite topic cruises. So anybody who knows me, knows that I hate cruises. I hate giant cruise ships, I hate them. Cruises cause the most pollution of any travel mode, including cars, planes, trains, etc, per capita. So the pollution caused by a cruise ship is worse than a city of the same population. So they just wreak havoc in the areas where they where they dock and areas that they cross. And they're not really regulated very well because they go to so many different places. And so people kind of brush it off and be like, Oh, it's that places problem to regulate it. Or they're out in the open ocean. And they're, it's very hard to enforce laws in places when when it's in an area not really controlled by a specific country. So just guys, please don't go on cruises. Unless it's like, like I, I would go on a cruise to say like the Arctic or to areas of the Galapagos Islands. But when I think of a cruise that I would actually go on, it's me sleeping on like a research vessel and not like a Carnival Cruise, you know. So just be very mindful of the fact that cruises are extremely detrimental to everywhere that they go due to pollution. Okay, so let's talk about some of the positive impacts of tourism in coral reefs. So increased eco tourism, so not just tourism in general. So not like these, you know, giant hotels and unregulated tourism and tours in these areas. Increased eco and regulated tourism in areas do decrease larger issues such as overfishing and solid waste pollution. So there is often less plastic in these popular areas, they help to clean and clear the water and beaches, because that is a big tourist draw. You don't want to go to a dirty beach, you don't want to swim in an ocean where you can't even see like the fish or the corals or anything. So these ethical eco lodges are doing wonders in protecting species from being poached, offering jobs to locals in the tourism field rather than the fishing industry. And they are earning more money often doing so. And helping to fund research projects helping to fund beach and water cleanups. They're great. A lot of them are also kind of doing like a neighborhood watch type thing where they go out on boats to catch poachers and to report them to the local police and help with that area. Many visitors to coral reef areas already do have heightened environmental awareness. So they're going to see the coral reefs they're going to see the wildlife They are typically at least more aware than the average person on you know, these dangers to coral reefs. So, this episode, I may be preaching to the choir to you guys, if you already know a lot of this stuff, but you know, it's it is a good reminder, it's a good thing to send to people who may not know, it's good to educate yourself before visiting coral reef areas. And revisitation does help fund and encourage conservation projects. So many of these areas, you're giving them their your tourist dollars. Often, eco lodges and stuff are more expensive, simply because a big portion of the proceeds go to funding, environmental research, environmental conservation, helping to pay the locals that work there, fair wages and everything. So I will always, always, always pay a little bit more to stay at an ethical like eco resort, rather than like a giant, big like, hotel on the coast. Alright, so we're going to take a short break. And then I will talk to you about this really cool project that I actually didn't know about before researching for this episode that you should I feel like you guys should know about some solutions to the problems I brought up. And finally some fun facts about coral reefs because they are fascinating little, little creatures. All right. When you travel, you should be protected, especially if you enjoy adventurous activities or wildlife tourism. That's where travel insurance comes in. I personally use world nomads because their coverage makes the most sense for me. They cover injuries or illnesses, lost luggage, canceled flights, and even damaged electronics. Protect yourself and your trip with World nomads travel insurance. Check if their coverage is right for you using the link in the description. As a frequent traveler, the number one question I get from others is how I manage to find affordable flights around the world. My answer Skyscanner, Skyscanner searches through multiple airlines to find you the best deal, but what makes it different from other platforms. If you're flexible on your days, you have the option to select cheapest month to truly find the most affordable flight. fixed dates but flexible on your destination. Select everywhere and find the most affordable destinations for your time. My favorite way to find affordable flights is by selecting both cheapest month and everywhere. That way I could find some incredibly affordable flights from my home airport and discover some new destinations I never thought I would explore. Start planning your next vacation for free with Skyscanner using the link in the description. Okay, everybody, thank you again, so much for listening to those. And you know, just a reminder, I am not sponsored by either of these, either of these companies, but I am an affiliate for them, which means if you click on the link in the description, and you purchase their product or their service, I do receive a small amount of money for for your support and clicking through those links. So that is a way for me to keep this podcast, podcast going and my blog going and it does not cost you anything extra. These are both these are all services and products that I personally use and recommend to all of my my traveler friends. So thank you for supporting. Alright, so let's talk about the green fins project. So I didn't even know that this project existed until I was doing research for this episode. So the green fins project is a conservation management approach implemented internationally to protect coral reefs. So this project was established in 2004. It is implemented by the reef World Foundation and the UN Environment Program. So big deal. They're really really cool. They protect reefs through environmentally friendly guidelines and suitable or sorry, not suitable sustainable marine tourism. I can't read today, many tour groups and everything around the world. tour guides, boat rentals, scuba tours, all that good stuff. A lot of them are supported by the green fins project. So if you go to the green fins Project website, they do have a full list of all of the vendors that follow their guidelines and have their seal of approval. So I do highly recommend you looking through their website and looking through their approved vendors before booking anything, just to make sure that they are following all of these sustainable and eco friendly and environmentally environmentally friendly. I can't talk today either these guidelines. So the Yeah, they're really, really cool. They are the only internationally recognized environmental standard for marine tourism. So they have 15 standards and code of conduct to cover Best Practices above and below the water. So they, I do also encourage you to look at their, you know, 15 basic rules that anybody that they support any of the vendors they have listed, they have to follow. And these are really good practices for us to follow as tourists as well. They also have an E course where they teach better eco friendly and environmentally friendly diving practices. So this E course, is $25. All this money goes back to the marine protections and help support the green fins project. So if you are a licensed scuba diver, I do encourage you to take this e-course as kind of a refresher. And also maybe you'll learn something new that you you didn't learn in your your initial course. Alright, so let's talk about some solutions to these product. problems, not products problems that I brought up earlier in the episode about the problems that tourism can bring to, to coral reefs. So when you are learning to dive, take the peak performance buoyancy course that I mentioned, through the green fins project, to help protect corals from being kicked or smothered. So this is a really, really good thing to do. I not scuba certified yet, I do plan on doing it. And when I am scuba certified, I am going to take this course, just to make sure that I know all the best practices. When I start scuba diving, only dive and snorkel with ethical tour groups and avoid using Drop anchors when you're with boats. So find green fin members to dive or snorkel with, kind of ask around check those, check, check those reports, check those listings, check those ratings from other tourists that have gone with them and avoid any maybe reef damaging groups or not So eco friendly groups just to save a few dollars, you know, it's always better to pay a little bit more and know that you're going with a great group. provide environmental feedback, whether positive or negative to marine tourism operators to increase demand for sustainability. So these tourism operators will continue to change as long as we demand it. So leave positive feedback, if they did something good, leave negative feedback for them, to let them know that you know that they're doing something wrong and to let other tourists know because if you are looking at reviews and ratings and you notice a lot of negative reviews, you're not going to go with them. So be part of that solution, leave those ratings, but don't you know, don't be a Karen about it don't like you know, leave a negative review because they didn't provide like I don't know snacks or something. But leave negative reviews If they're using Drop anchors in areas they're not supposed to if they are dumping water, if they're not picking up their trash, etc. Wear that reef safe sunscreen anytime you go near the ocean, so not just areas that have coral reefs. But anytime you're in the ocean because that pollution does travel, some of those ingredients that are harmful to coral reefs are also harmful to fish and other aquatic life. So just always try to pay it again pay that extra money to get a sunscreen that you know is eco and reef friendly and encourage more ecological monitoring and limiting the number of people allowed in areas so so we do need more of this. We do need more ecological monitoring and limiting the number of people allowed in areas with really delicate ecosystems. So this isn't necessarily something that we can do as much but we do want to support this. So if there are bills being passed, support them, even if it means you there, there's a waitlist for a destination that you Want to go to, it's more important to preserve that area so that you can go to it later. Rather than it being completely destroyed because of overtourism. We also need to understand and map the areas of highest tourist concentration. So this has not really been done, we need to make a global map of all these areas that have the highest tourist concentration in the reefs themselves, and then proceed with that information by coming up with new bills, new regulations, new whatever to protect those areas, more sustainable reef tourism is still mostly offered by small independent operators. So many of these are going to be a little more expensive, they're going to be a little more difficult to find, they're not going to have the money to advertise as much. So search for those and do your absolute best. Even if you have to pay a little bit extra to go with these independent opera, I always try to go with independent operators anyway, because I know that my money is going to a family rather than a big corporation. But we want to make sure that these operators are sustainable as well. We want to call these corporate companies out, we want to have a big call to action for corporate and social responsibility, which is also called CSR. And push bio diversity conservation for companies already engaging in CSR. So we want to, to push for these big companies to have more social and ecological responsibility. And the best way to do this talk money. That is we all know that's the only thing that big corporations really care about. They love money, and coral reefs draw in that money. So if we provide all the scientific data to them, and show them, that by them investing in sustainable practices that protect the coral reefs, cleaning up beaches, cleaning waters, preventing more pollution, and all of these things, they're more willing to do it. If they know that in the long run, it's going to make them money. Previous studies that have been conducted are limited in calculating the value of each of these reefs. So we do want to do more of these studies. And we want to calculate both direct and indirect impact of reefs on tourism. So that is something that kind of brought up earlier, the direct impacts such as money from snorkeling diving glass bottom boat tours, indirect is like the views on the beach views from your hotel room, the abundance of seafood, the use in advertising. So photos and videos that you can take can be used in advertising, clear beaches, and water. These are all the impact of reefs on the tourism. We want to propose and enforce effective regulations on cruise ships, that is a big one. So let them know that you're not going to go on these cruises, if you know they're doing these harmful practices. So we want to have more regulations on cruise ships, even if it makes them more expensive, promote... promote and fund reef research to better understand them. So there are a lot of things that we still don't understand about the reefs themselves, and learn new ways to protect them. So for example, there has been a new study recently, and a new practice that people have been doing where instead of planting a big reef, they break it up and they plant lots of smaller pieces of the reef and do it in doing that it causes them to actually grow faster and to connect more into like a big actual reef rather than one like big like taller small one, if that makes sense. So this research that we are funding has discovered that and has been helping to replant and grow and protect these new areas. And finally volunteer and help fund coral planting around the world. So that could be by physically going and volunteering to help plant reefs or help clean up beaches or help clean up pollution. Clean up oil spills. If you're a scientist that means maybe volunteering some of your time to to research donating money if you have it or even if you want something back for your money directly purchasing like with crypto coral tribe purchasing their their NFT art from them because you know 50% of the money that you're giving them is going to directly go to planting more coral reef so you know things like that. There's a there's a lot that we can do. Okay, so let's do some fun facts about coral because they're really, really fascinating you guys. So the largest reef in the world is the Great Barrier Reef in Australia, which began growing about 20,000 years ago. It is 1200 miles long. So that is a huge reef that is one connected reef 1200 miles long. I have not been to Australia's Great Barrier Reef yet, but I have been to the second largest reef in the world which is the Belize Barrier Reef, and it is the biggest reef on the western hemisphere. So Australia is on the eastern hemisphere. Belize is on the western and I have been to that one. The most biodiverse reef in the world is the Coral Triangle in Southeast Asia. And that is the one that is at highest risk. So that's the one that we want to protect the most As of recording this because it is the most biodiverse and it is, it has the biggest threats put on it. Corals themselves are alive and very delicate, they are not rocks, they are not like considered plants. They are these like small little animals, almost they're they're their own special thing. They are made of polyps that have a sack like body and mouth at the top. And the mouth is surrounded by stinging tentacles to help them catch food and protect themselves. So that's why if you've ever accidentally bumped into a coral reef before, you can come back with like these really painful like stings or these welts depending on the the breed or the species of the of the coral. So they do have like the Stingers on them, like almost like jellyfish, and they secrete limestone skeletons, also called Callicles, for support. So that is how they grow really big. That's how they become hard on the outside. Because these polyps are very soft, they're like these soft, invertebrate creatures, and they secrete the limestone skeletons on the outside to help them grow for support. And they grow to form colonies, and then entire reefs over hundreds and even 1000s of years. So they grow fairly slowly, and they grow and connect to each other to create these reefs on these big reefs that we see. They are related to jellyfish and anenomes. Wow, I said that on the first try anenome. And that's a word I usually have a really hard time saying. So they are related to them, which is why they have those stingers. Coral reefs do grow best in warm, clear, sunny, shallow and agitated waters. So tropical, you know, you think of these tropical places. So warm waters, shallow areas that have lots of sun, and are frequently agitated by animals and by the waves themselves. So to help those nutrients to flow through. These areas become polluted much faster than cooler or deeper waters. So you think about it, a little bit of pollution in a small shallow area is going to spread and have a much higher impact than if you put the same amount of pollution in a really deep area of ocean so they are much more susceptible to pollution. They cover less than 1% of ocean of the ocean floor but are home to 25% of marine creatures worldwide. I said that at the beginning. I just wanted to say it again to hammer in in that these are extremely biodiverse places and they need to be protected. around 2 million species inhabit coral reefs, rivaling the biodiversity of rainforests. So they're the rainforests of the sea. Coral are actually translucent, and they get their distinctive colors from beneficial algae that grow on them. And that algae is what photosynthesize. And when we think of coral bleaching when they become white, that is because increased pH or the rising temperatures cause the algae to die which cause the coral to just become kind of white. And that the the coral themselves are translucent. The limestone on the outside turns white and that's how they die because all the algae goes away. Corals limestone skeletons form layers over time, kind of like rings on a tree stump. So they reveal ocean conditions from hundreds to 1000s of years ago. They are extremely important for like evolutionary research to know what our oceans looked like 1000s and millions years ago. They also vary in thickness due to different ocean conditions. So the rings won't be like the same thickness around roughly like the rings on a tree, they will vary in thickness due to to the conditions, which will tell us what the conditions looked like however many years ago, and they are considered mega builders, because they let if left unharmed and undisturbed, they will continue to grow and grow and grow and because become huge, I mean, think about it, Australia's Great Barrier Reef is 1200 miles long, and it used to be much bigger. The oldest corals lived about 450 million years ago. If you compare that to dinosaurs, they lit the oldest dinosaurs lived about 240 million years ago. So they are almost twice as old as dinosaurs, and they are still around. Coral extracts have been used to successfully treat asthma, arthritis, cancer and heart disease. So we want to keep them alive, we want to keep researching with them. We can grow corals pretty successfully in labs so that we don't have to disturb wild corals in order to get these extracts to treat these diseases. Finally, the ridges in coral reefs can reduce wave energy by up to 95% and help protect against natural disasters such as tsunamis. So this kind of hit home for me, because guys remember, in late 2021, there were a lot of global tsunamis that caused a lot of problems in different countries around the world, it caused a lot of deaths, it caused a lot of destruction. And coral reefs do help prevent that they really, really reduce those tsunami like waves by a lot, a lot a lot. So it's for our protection as well. So by protecting these coral reefs and helping them build up, we're protecting ourselves in the future from natural disasters such as tsunamis, which are unfortunately increasing in regularity because of climate change. So that's all I have for you guys. Thank you so much for listening. I believe next week I'm going to continue this trend of talking about the ocean and ocean animals and ocean ecology and all that good stuff by talking about the effects of swimming with dolphins so often you know swimming with dolphins, these dolphins are in captivity, but I will also want to discuss the problems with Swimming with wild dolphins with you guys. So that will come out actually next week because I'm going back to that original schedule so you should expect that next week and then episodes every other week after that. So you can follow me on Instagram at stumble Safari, Twitter and Facebook at stumble Safari. And check out my website stumblesafari.com as well for more animal tourism guides, more travel guides, more travels kind of storytimes for me, my blog has been up much much longer than this podcast has. So I have a lot more articles on there. And thank you guys so much. I will see you next week. Sources for today's show can be found in the show notes. Thanks for listening