Great Barrier Reef

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Dumping has become a new strategy in the world that has increased rapidly over the last 150 years. Thus within those last 150 years, there has been a 400% increase of debris flowing on the sea bottom. The high volume of sediment has begun to descend to the coral, preventing it from receiving the crucial sunlight required to sustain life. Dumping is preventing the nutrients from the coral’s fertilizer to grow the algae it needs to survive and clogs its pores. This establishes a rupture in the ecosystem that limits food for other animals that require it to survive. Dumping creates turbidity, a cloudy effect, in the water which limits the amount of sunlight provided for algae. This negatively affects plants and animals that depend on the seagrass for nutrients. This results in chronic stress in marine life. The dumping of dredge spoil in offshore waters can create plumes of fine sediment that can drift up to 80 kilometers from the dumping site. In illustration, that is roughly the length of the Bering Strait. In reality, if the dumping was to wander in different directions, it has the ability to affect a nation the size of Israel.

For the most part, the Great Barrier Reef is definitely considered one of the world’s most diverse habitat. With the attempted bans of fishing and dumping, the once flourishing ecosystem is now a ghost-town coated in debris and sludge. Once again, society has let Mother Nature down. Once again, man has destroyed another piece of Earth’s most enchanting features.