Cover Alvin Chelliah in action, recording data found on coral reefs. (Image: courtesy of Alvin Chelliah)
Alvin Chelliah in action, recording data found on coral reefs. (Image: courtesy of Alvin Chelliah)
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One of the most diverse ecosystems on the planet, coral reefs house 25 to 30 per cent of aquatic life, including fish, turtles, sharks and plants—so what happens when they die?
What often gets overlooked is how dependent humanity is on coral reefs. With climate change becoming more prevalent as sea levels rise and temperatures soar, it’s high time that we start paying attention before the worst catches us unawares.
And when we say “worst”, we don’t mean the sudden end of the world. Instead, it’s phenomenon like widespread coral bleaching, the loss of marine life, coastal erosion, islanders losing their source of income, gradual food insecurity, and human society losing one of its biggest avenues.
For marine biologist and programme coordinator of Reef Check Malaysia Alvin Chelliah, who is based in Tioman Island, the impacts of climate change and rampant human activity are obvious. Below are the aforementioned consequences of what's happening to our reefs, and what we can do to mitigate them as the average person.
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More Storms and Land Erosion
Above Tioman Island (Image: Louis Gan/Unsplash)
Above Bleached coral (Image: Nico Smit/Unsplash)
Tioman Island (Image: Louis Gan/Unsplash)
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This year, Tioman Island had seen its worst storm yet; boats were lost, and villages were flooded. While one could chalk this event up to the annual monsoon season that Malaysia experiences, Chelliah says that this year’s storm was anything but natural.
“Usually, we experience huge storms that happen between October and February, and then smaller, calmer storms throughout the year,” he says. “But what researchers and locals alike have been seeing and experiencing these past few years, are storms that have been ramping up in frequency as well as intensity.”
According to Chelliah, irregular weather activity was one of the biggest issues that islands had to contend with recently; not only were islanders looking at the potential loss of their homes, but the eventual degradation of coral reefs as well.
Coral Bleaching
Above Bleached coral (Image: Nico Smit/Unsplash)
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As heat waves ramp up in intensity, so do sea temperatures. Sensitive to the changes in its environment, coral reefs can enter a starvation period described as “bleaching” and may die after four to six weeks. Places like the Great Barrier Reef and the Maldives, for example, were observed to have lost high percentages of their corals due to bleaching events.
“[Corals] are actually a marine structure made up of colonies of tiny animals called polyps, which create the hard, white skeleton that we see washed up on beaches. The vibrant colours you see covering them is a single-celled algae called zooxanthellae, which gives the polyps energy through photosynthesis,” says Chelliah. “The polyps can’t survive without those algae, and if they get stressed, they can’t help but digest or expel it, which can cause them to starve to death.”
People assume that it’s the mangroves that are the first line of defense, but coral reefs are the first to absorb the biggest shockwaves by breaking the waves before they reach land, which helps abate natural disasters like typhoons and tsunamis. Bleaching events weaken the corals, and as a result, the shockwaves created by the waves can destroy them entirely. According to Chelliah, many countries had to install man-made sea walls to play the role of coral reefs.
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Imbalanced Ecosystem Equals Imbalanced Economy
“Many people, especially city folk, don’t think much of the reefs because they’re out of sight and out of mind,” says Chelliah. “For coastal communities, however, it is a valuable resource that maintains the ocean’s ecological balance.
“If the reefs go, so do the fish that live in it, and fisheries will go out of [work] because of that. Secondly, the tourism industry gets affected too. Over 90 per cent of the locals depend on tourism as their main source of income. And coral reefs are a huge reason as to why tourists visit the islands.”
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It Harms the Marine Life Too, So Don't Feed the Fish
Above Turtles are one of the many marine life that is heavily dependent on coral reefs
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Reefs are vulnerable to unregulated tourism activities as well. Left unchecked, seemingly harmless activities like fish feeding, snorkelling, and diving pose a threat to coral reefs. “Anytime you feed the wildlife, it’s a bad idea,” he cautions. “If you feed the animal with things that aren’t in their natural diet, such as stale bread (which contains chemical additives and sugar), you’re not only polluting the environment, but animals can’t digest these foods properly. This upsets the bacterial composition in their body and can cause them to die faster.
“Additionally, you disrupt their natural behaviour—they lose their fear of humans. Lately, we’re seeing cases where migratory animals don’t migrate anymore, and there have been numerous incidents where people get bit by wildlife—sharks, turtles, barracudas, and even smaller marine life like rabbit fish.
“And because the animals have now associated something that is [supposedly] dangerous to them with food, they go up to it without caution. For example, in the Philippines, there is a place that feeds rare migratory animals like whale sharks, and because the animals know that the boats bring food to them, they approach it... without realising that the propellor is right in front of them. So, their faces get cut up badly.”
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What Reefcheck Malaysia Does
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To prevent instances like the above from happening, organisations like Reef Check Malaysia have been hard at work in implementing ethical regulations and raising the locals’ awareness towards these issues. "After the pandemic, many have realised their dependency on the reefs and are now more cooperative. We’ve also taught them how to install mooring lines as an alternative to anchoring, and do ghost net removals too. By teaching them and then paying them to do the work, allows the villagers to see the value of taking care of their environment. It empowers them, in a way, to have their hard work acknowledged.”
Although tourism has resumed, Chelliah observes a positive shift in tourists and islanders alike when it comes to taking environmentally conscious actions. The work, he says, is gruelling in the sense that it takes a long time to see results, but hope is still there for our oceans. “You hear a lot of doom and gloom, but hope is possible! Even if recovery is a slow-going process, especially in the context of reefs, that doesn’t mean we can’t do everything in our power to take care of them today. The data we’ve collected speaks for itself—this is a public issue that requires the whole of society and government to be accountable for. Whether it’s the resorts installing sewage treatments, proper training provided to islanders for them to understand their home better, or tourists doing their research when visiting islands, reef recovery isn’t an impossible dream to achieve.”
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Credits
Images: courtesy of Alvin Chelliah
Usually found at home and one with her couch, Koy Yi would either crack open a good book or game in her spare time to wind down after a long day. She also loves to scour art conventions and book fairs alike when she's able, collecting art books of all regions to gain inspiration for her own illustrations. With a keen interest in people and the stories they tell, she enjoys a good talk and a good laugh (preferably over food). Follow her on her Instagram @peiyi57.
