Fritts, Rachel. “US Plans to Protect Thousands of Miles of Coral Reefs in Pacific and Caribbean.” The Guardian, Rachel Fritts, 4 Dec. 2020, www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/dec/04/us-pitches-coral-protections-thousands-miles-climate-change-threat. Accessed 14 Feb. 2021. 

In this article by Rachel Fritts, talks about how the US plans to protect over 6,000 sq miles of coral reefs habitat around the US. Climate change has been the most severe threat to the coral reefs so far, it has threatened about 12 species of coral across their range. Climate change has caused ocean acidification which has caused the growing to stop growing, coral bleaching increasingly caused by warmer water, and also overpopulation, bad fishing tactics and a significant amount of pollution has all had an impact on the species declining. Today Florida has only 2% of the original coral cover, along with the Carribean that contains most of the rest. The new habit protection act is trying to help save these reefs from the damage caused by climate change and pollution. The Center for Biological Diversity sued Trump’s admissions for the lack of the protection on the reef species. Finally, the US is trying hard to slow down the process of the reefs declining by putting them under the Endangered Species Act. 

In my opinion, I think this is a great article and shows how people are trying to save the reefs. If our reefs start to rapidly decline then it will impact our oceans severely, and it would also affect us because our marine life provides a majority of the world’s food. I think more people should be aware of the issue and more people try to help. The population can help by picking up their trash so it doesn’t go into the ocean. Also I was happy to read how the US has acknowledged the problem and are partnering up in more protection acts with other states and countries. This could really have a good impact on our reefs and hopefully keep our reefs from declining.