A living, breathing organism, the coral reef is home to a plethora of aquatic life that only survive due to the home and food the coral provide. Such a vital part of the ocean habitat, however, is slowly being destroyed. Overfishing, pollution, boat traffic and rising water temperatures are all playing a key role is killing off reefs around the world. 70% of all the world’s coral reefs will have died off in 50 years if we do not change our habits now.
But it isn’t just the coral we will be killing. “Coral reefs are home to a variety of tropical or reef fish, such as the colorful parrotfish, angelfish, damselfish and butterflyfish. Other fish groups found on coral reefs include groupers, snappers, grunts and wrasses. Over 4,000 species of fish inhabit coral reefs.[4] Reefs are also home to a large variety of other organisms, including sponges, Cnidarians (which includes some types of corals and jellyfish), worms, crustaceans (including shrimp, spiny lobsters and crabs), molluscs (including cephalopods), echinoderms (including starfish, sea urchins and sea cucumbers), sea squirts, sea turtles and sea snakes.” -Wikipedia.org
