Today we learned about four articles that outlined these issues:
Ecotourism- Ecotourism is the responsible travel to natural areas that conserves the environment and improves the well-being of local people. While it may seem like a step towards improving the environment, things like greenwashing and a failure to substantially improve the environment show that the criticism and negative impacts may outweigh the benefits.
Invasive Species- Invasive species are alien marine organisms that are transported (either unintentionally or intentionally) to new environments to which they don’t belong. They can be transported in a variety of vectors through things like ballast water and hull fouling. They pose a great threat to biodiversity as they dominate native flora and fauna. They also have social and economic impacts on us humans and can often carry deadly diseases.
Chronic oil- Chronic oil is a problem that refers to a consistent increase in oil pollution that happens periodically as opposed to one major spill such as the big BP oil spill. While it does not get as much publicity as those big spills, they pose a substantial threat to marine life as it can disrupt an organism’s DNA, reproduction, and growth.
Artificial Reefs- Artificial Reefs are a proposed solution to dying reefs. The article we learned about was an experiment of an artificial reef built near the Florida Keys, made of hundreds of rubber tires. While this reef didn’t attract as many fish in total when compared to the natural reef, it attracted a greater diversity of marine life.
