What is a Healthy Coral Reef System?

“To dive in a healthy reef”, that’s what most divers dream of. We often use this term to describe how beautiful a dive site can be. But technically, do we really know the definition of a healthy coral reef?

In assessing the state of a particular reef system, several methods can be used and one of this is English et al. (2007). This method describes and categorizes reef health condition according to the area’s extent and coverage, as follows:

0 – 25% coral cover - Poor condition
26 – 50% coral cover - Fair condition
51 – 75% coral cover - Good condition
76 – 100% coral cover - Excellent condition

Reef Fishes

Aside from coral coverage, another closely associated species of the reef system that can indicate a reef’s health are fishes. Every square mile of a healthy reef system can yield up to 20 metric tons of fish per year. Now that’s a lot fish.

But as divers, who are considered as caretakers of the ocean, we don’t want to totally harvest all of this fish. Instead, we can sustainably manage it by balancing the need of food for human existence and the enjoyment we get from seeing these wonderful creatures alive underwater.

Reef Destruction

Contrary to its importance, coral reefs have been damaged both by natural and man-made causes.
The fishing industry alone have been using destructive fishing methods like dynamite and dragnet which damages corals that goes along its path. The agriculture sector has also contributed its share on reef destruction where the runoff of its chemical effluents to the shore can cause significant damage to nearby reefs.

But a major factor of reef destruction is caused naturally, which sad to say, we can do nothing to prevent its occurrence. For example, let us take into account global warming. As carbons are freely released to the air from cars, industries, oil drilling and a lot more, our atmosphere becomes concentrated with greenhouse gases which makes the air warmer.
And we all know that warm air is the main fuel of natural disasters like storms and typhoons. On the other hand, it also warms our oceans and seas. Study shows that all it takes to have a massive coral bleaching is a 1 degree increase in water temperature, and this was the cause that struck the massive coral bleaching event in 2010 particularly in the areas of Cano Island. Luckily, natural recovery of these reefs has significantly been observed.

Going back to the previous statement that we can do nothing about global warming. Let this be an inspiration to you, and of course, the answer is YES: we can always do something even in our small ways. There are now ways to restore or rehabilitate degraded reefs and it is very inspiring that a lot of people, not just divers like us, who are making a move to help restore this precious ecosystem. After all, nobody wants to dive in a damaged reef.

video courtesy from Dnews