#coral-reefs

#coral-reefs

The most beautiful places in Oman are diverse, stark, and staggering. With ancient ruins, fragrant souks, and picturesque mountain villages, there is no shortage of man-made wonders. But it is the country's geology that delights best. In this desert nation, beauty is defined by water: the white sands of surf-battered beaches, gurgling wadi streams, and cloud-shrouded massifs where pomegranates hang heavy.

The emissions in our atmosphere are at work, heating the planet, acidifying our oceans, and leading to climate-fueled disasters: heat waves, fires, flooding, droughts, and storms. For some climate impacts, devastation can be followed by the painstaking work of recovery. But for many natural systems, like our tropical coral reefs, the stress we are putting on them is reaching the realms of permanent decline and ultimate collapse.

In June 2011, Baa Atoll in the Maldives became a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve along with the likes of Komodo Island in Indonesia and the Galapagos Islands in Ecuador. The atoll is home to one of the largest groups of coral reefs in the Indian Ocean (it's the seventh largest in the world) and supports over 1,200 species of fish and 250 species of coral.

Rising ocean temperatures and increasing acidification are threatening coral reefs. Between 2009 and 2018, the world's reefs lost 14% of their corals. By 2025, 84% of the oceans' reefs have been affected by bleaching, meaning they've been so stressed by the changes to their environments that they've expelled all the algae living inside them, turning them white. As climate change worsens, coral loss is expected to speed up. Corals are also threatened by activities like fishing and tourism.

Parts of the Great Barrier Reef experienced mass coral bleaching for the sixth time since 2016, marking the worst annual drops in coral cover recorded since monitoring began.

I was 13 the first time I saw a coral reef. The endless blue of the ocean gave way to an explosion of color unlike anything I'd seen before.

The ocean is sounding an unmistakable alarm as fishing boats return emptier and coastal zones grow more polluted and warmer.