Issue link: https://bluemagazine.uberflip.com/i/25126
++ Fish using explosives. Commercial fishermen. mainly in the Philippines. Indonesia and East Africa. use dynamite and bombs made of chemicals such as potassium nitrate causing large explosions that kill all the fish and organisms around. ++ Fish using cyanide. Commercial fishermen use cyanide to stun and capture reef fish for aquariums and for lUXUry "live fish" restaurants in large Asian cities such as Hong Kong. Live fish sell for many times the price of dead fish. Reefs in the Philippines. eastern Indonesia. Papua New Guinea. Tuvalu. the Federated States of Micronesia and other western Pacific nations are being destroyed. ++Pollute the water. Industrial chemicals dumped near coastal waters often end up in them. Oil and gas leaked and spilled from factories and ships severely poison reefs and cause seaweed to grow at the expense of the coral. ++ Harvest coral. Coral is sold as souvenirs and used to make jewelry and other handicrafts throughout Southeast Asia. Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands. Although harvesting coral is illegal in many areas, including North America, it is not illegal to sell it. ++ Dredge coral. Coral is mined as construction material for houses and roads. In the Maldives, coral is used to make cement. In Malaysia and Indonesia, limestone from coral is ground and mixed with betel nut. making a narcotic that people chew. ++ Sedimentation. Logging, construction and increased agriculture on land near reefs cause soil erosion. Sediment in the water smothers the coral and blocks sunlight vital to its growth. ++ Pollute the air. Global warming is the main cause of coral death. When ocean temperatures get too high, corals lose the symbiotic algae inside them, causing them to turn white-or "bleach"-and ultimately die. I • Biodiversity: Coral reefs are often referred to as the "rainforests of the sea" because of the incredibly rich communities of organisms they support. Of all the ecosystems on the planet. reefs have the highest biodiversity, or number of different plant and animal species. Reefs comprise only 0.2% of the total area of the world's oceans. but they contain 25% of all known marine fish species.