Human impact on tropical reefs is comparable to the negative impact that humans have had on the rain forests of the planet. Unfortunately, when it comes to tropical coral reefs and the ocean in general, people tend to assume that everything will take care of itself and out of sight means out of mind. There are currently over one-hundred and fifty dead zones that appear annually in the oceans of the planet and these are areas that become completely devoid of any life forms other than bacteria.
One in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Louisiana stretches for more than seven hundred miles and is a result of agricultural run off in the Mississippi river drainage system. Global warming is to blame for much of the destruction of coral reefs of the world, as even a slight rise in water temperature can have devastating effects on the sea life in a coral reef. Coral reefs are a complex biosystem where a litany of life forms interacts with each other symbiotically and disrupting one of the organisms in this system can have a ripple effect that runs right up the ecological chain. Saving the coral reefs is important because gorgeous fish species such as the Queen Angelfish rely on it for their inherent survival.
Due to the fact that biosystems such as coral reefs can be viewed as biological canaries in the earths coal mine, intelligent people around the globe are becoming alarmed at the stark implications. As the oceans of the planet begin to warm and the life in them begins to disappear, higher seafood prices are the least of mankind's worries. The oceans run the earths weather and control its climate, so damaging the oceans of the planet is akin to using ones own drinking water supply for a sewer pond. A warming climate doesn't mean warmer weather, because when the polar ice caps melt the ocean currents will stop and the ocean currents are what power our weather. This means that the U.S. and Canada will be stuck with a permanent winter that will trigger an ice age.
