Today, four groups presented four different articles about ecotourism, artificial reefs, chronic oil spills, and invasive species.
Ecotourism
I learned about ecotourism in two very different ways. One consisted mainly about the positives ecotourism brings to the environment and people; however, with so many benefits there are always negative effects. Ecotourism provides jobs for an ample amount of people and creates awareness of the area in order to prolong life for future generations to come. In contrast, ecotourism contaminates these ecosystems through pollution, direct human encounters, greenwashing, and the exploitation of the cultures in the area. Although there are many benefits to ecotourism, the negative effects certainly outweigh the positives.
Artificial Reefs
In this article, I learned that artificial reefs attracted more fish than natural reefs. Sinking tires and forming structures out of them is a brilliant idea to create a working environment in which coral and fish can live. The only concern I have about the data presented in the article is this very question. “How does one count the number of fish living on either an artificial reef or a natural reef?” Until this question is answered then I will be able to take a side on the issue relating to the data.
Chronic Oil Spills
I learned the difference between chronic oil spills and regular oil spills. Chronic oil spills are oil spills in which occur frequently in the same area over a small surface area. These oil spills are smaller than ones you hear on the television. You see, thats the problem. Chronic oil spills are not getting the same attention as they should be. These oil spills do not allow marine life to recover in time. These marine lakesides where these oil spills take place consist of many indictor species. Suffering from chronic oil spills, these species such as birds die out thus disallowing us to conduct research. Chronic oil spills are just has important as the bigger oil spills you hear on television and need to be taken care of as soon as possible.
Invasive Species
I learned in this article about the negative effects that invasive species such as the lion fish have on ecosystems and how they effect humans as well. Invasive species like the lion fish latch on the ships and are dumped into a completely new environment. The lion fish for example hops into a brand new food web and begins to disrupt it. Also it begins to disrupt the natural coral reef as a whole. As for us humans working to maintain the coral reef, it only makes our job harder. It then becomes our problem to clear them out. These invasive species act has a undermining disturbance to the current marine life.
