REVIEW OF SEMINAR PRESENTATION - CORAL BLEACHING

In week 12 or 13 (sorry i cannot remember exactly) there were presentation of seminar paper by all students who took RPK 538.. it was a couple or individual presentation regarding any related topic to sustainable. one of the seminar presentation is about Coral Bleaching.. interesting!!.. never thought about it and honestly i just know it as general knowledge... if there is an issue regarding coral, then i just alert about it but never want to know it more deeper.. when Nurul, student from Housing study presented her paper regarding this topic, i'm very interested to know..

CORAL BLEACHING is one of the marine issues that exist due to the water pollution that cause by human.. why human?? well as we know that world had been exist about thousand or million years before... there are so many changes due to the time and as human face revolution in technology and required knowledge, they started to do so many things to the earth in order to meet their needs... as the time pass by, the increase level of pollution especially water pollution happened. the advance of technology in transportation and chemical waste that been sent to the sea had influence the water pollution. as a result, many marine life are affected due to this situation and it become worse from day to day. if there is no action taken by responsible agency, it will become worse in the future and maybe there will none of coral that can be seen in the world. Coral is part of the world ecology and if it disappear, ecological system will unbalance.

what is coral?? coral is a marine invertebrates that live in compact colonies as mentioned by Class Anthozoa Ehrenberg. it can be divided into 2 types which are  hard corals (form a limestone base) and soft corals (combination of soft and hard corals). under UNESCO, Great Barrier Reef is the 1st coral reef that been declared as World Heritage Area and in context of Malaysia, Semporna island is the largest concentration reef that need to be protected.

CORAL BLEACHING is defined as the loss of color, arising from the partial to total elimination of the degradation of alga pigments as mentioned by A.E Douglas (2003).  below is the location of coral bleaching in the world from 1998 to 2006.. from the map, the area of coral bleaching is increasing rapidly and involve all the world. the coral conservation area that

Evolution of Coral Bleaching Scenario
source: http://www.seos-project.eu/modules/coralreefs/images/coral_bleaching_map.jpg

Coral Conservation Area
source: http://www.itc.nl/images/news/2011/september/coral_stress_map.jpg

why coral bleaching happen?? there are few factor that contribute to the coral bleaching which are:

1. the increasing of sea temperature due to the global warming
2. sedimentation is cause by human activities ie; land clearing and construction of coastal that can lead to the reef destruction
3.  exploitative fishing is an fishing activity that damage the sea as well as the health of fishery resource to gain profit
4. Pollution that happen because of waste disposal and mass bleaching

why coral is important?? it is because to balance the ecological system especially in sea. the coral play a role to slow down the wave before entering the land. more that that the coral also help in reduce the landslide in the sea and  as food center for the marine life such as fish and others. 

how coral been treated in context of MALAYSIA??

in Malaysia, coral conservation is conducted to ensure it is preserve and conserve. Few legislation been created to protect this living thing such as: 

1. National Parks Act (1980)
2. Environment Quality Act (1974)
3. Environment Protection Enactment (2002)
4. National Forestry Policy
5. National Environment Policy
6. National Agro-Food Policy
7. National Phyical Plan
8. National Eco-tourism Plan
9. National Policy on Climate Change

more than that, Malaysia also is a member towards several regional bodies such as:

1. United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS, 1982),
2. Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna (CITES, 1975), 
3. Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD, 1992), 
4. United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC, 1992), 
5. RAMSAR Convention (1971) and 
6. Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS, 1979)

CONCLUSION

Cloral bleaching is one of the issue regarding environment and must creates strategies to conserve the coral. the changes of world temperature such as global warming will contribute to the coral bleaching and comprehensive action and strategies need to apply to avoid this situation become worse. More than that, human activities need to be controlled by respective agencies in order to avoid the scenario become wore. Industrial activities that been conducted must follow the guidelines of waster disposal system in order to protect the sea and also the coral from being destroyed. 

Education regarding sea creatures and marine ecology must be teaches in the kindergarten  primary school, secondary school, college / university to encourage the spirit of coral conservation and others. Campaign on keep our beach clean and safe the marine life are one of the alternative to keep people bear in mind about what happen the other side of the world.