Banner by Lori Huang

Coral's Plastic Problem

by Emily Liu

It’s the year 2016. While the continental U.S. is struck by a frigid winter, Key Largo remains warm enough for the Spirit of Pennekamp to make her daily trips to the Florida Reef. As the ship reaches a certain spot on the sea, about 130 passengers gather around the boat’s glass floor to peer down into the water below. One of the first to arrive is a 14-year-old girl who cannot wait to see a real coral reef as pretty as the ones she’s seen in seaside resort commercials. When she looks down, she is immediately awestruck at the various sizes, shapes and colors of the coral swaying on the ocean floor.

Then the announcer’s words stop her excitement in its tracks: “The oceans around the world are getting warmer and more polluted, so coral reefs like this one are on a steady decline.” He brushes past it as if it’s nothing and simply continues to describe the view from the ship. The girl grips the railing tightly – in that moment, she decides she must do something to help.

That girl is now 18 years old and typing this article as part of the Pitt Pulse.

In recent years, coral reefs around the world have continued to deteriorate. According to Rafi Letzter of the Washington Post, coral coverage in the Florida Keys dropped from 33 percent to six percent in the span of twenty-four years. Climate change is not the only cause of coral decline, but human activity is closely tied to several other causes, including chemical leakage and nutrient-rich runoff. These lead to devastating changes in the delicate quality of ocean water, creating conditions in which coral are unable to survive. 

One of the easiest issues to resolve is plastic pollution. People of all occupations across all age groups can be seen using disposable plastic products every day, from cups to bottles to grocery bags. Once we finish using them, we tend to casually toss them into the nearest trash can, and once it’s out of sight, it’s out of mind. But what we don’t see is where the plastic goes after landing in the trash can, how it decomposes or what that means for biomes like the ocean. 

In 2009, a team of scientists tested samples of ocean water from around the U.S., Europe, India, Japan and other countries. Every sample tested positive for polystyrene, which is found in common products such as plastic utensils and Styrofoam. Also present in the samples was bisphenol A, a chemical that can be found in aluminum cans. Animals are likely to consume these toxic substances by accident. When predators eat poisoned prey, the substances become more and more concentrated.

The situation isn’t any better when it comes to coral reefs. In an article published for the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), Joleah Lamb and her coauthors write that coral polyps can contract deadly diseases from the bacteria that grow on plastic materials. Their study of 159 unique coral reefs showed that the presence of plastic debris was directly related to an increase in the likelihood of certain lethal diseases – skeletal eroding band disease was higher in contaminated reefs by 24 percent. In addition to the effect of the bacteria, scientists believe coral reefs can be damaged when plastic debris sticks to the polyps and blocks the sunlight they need.

Still, one may ask, why should we be worried about what happens to the coral way down at the bottom at the ocean? Surely it can’t reach humans or any other forms of aquatic life.

But it can reach both of those groups, and it does. As explained by the Coral Reef Alliance, a reef can serve as a food source, sand source, habitat and hiding spot to an incredibly wide variety of sea creatures. Small fish of all shapes and colors eat the algae that naturally grows on polyps; their natural predators keep their population in a healthy balance. Parrotfish bite through to the inside of coral polyps to eat the smaller algae living therein, then use teeth in their throats to grind the resulting coral bits into white sand – the same sand where crabs and sea cucumbers scuttle to find their own food.

Damaging this complex ecosystem would in turn damage several aspects of our current lifestyles. Over one fourth of all the small-scale fishermen across the world harvest from coral reefs, and if those fish become scarce because their habitats are dying, the fisheries will ultimately suffer. The tourism industry would also be in danger of losing profits, as certain countries depend on reef attractions for up to 80 percent of their total income. Lastly, coral serves as a hub for new medicine research. Corals’ unique skeletons are used to make bone-grafting materials, and more than half of all cancer drug research is focused on marine organisms supported by coral reefs.

If the reefs were to die out, all of that would be lost.

We cannot continue ignoring the issues surrounding coral reefs. We are fully capable of reducing ocean pollution without significantly changing our daily behavior, and many of us say every day that we want to help the environment. But just saying it is not enough – we must do it. We must make the switch to reusable water bottles. We must bring our own bags to the grocery store. We must upcycle plastics – they can be converted to light bulbs, backpacks, even buildings. We must contribute.

And with our combined efforts, we can reduce or even eliminate the plastic that poisons the coral reefs of the world, so that in the future, another little girl can look through the glass bottom of the Spirit of Pennekamp and know that the coral she sees will be safe and sound for years to come.