Belize Barrier Reef

The Belize Barrier Reef is a series of coral reefs straddling the coast of Belize, more or less 300 meters (980 ft) offshore in the north and 40 kilometers (25 mi) in the south within the country limits. The Belize Barrier Reef is a 300-kilometer (190 mi) long section of the 900-kilometer (560 mi) Mesoamerican Barrier Reef System, which is continuous from Cancn in report to the north-eastern tip of the Yucatn Peninsula through the Riviera Maya and up to Honduras, making it the second largest coral reef system in the world after the Great Barrier Reef in Australia. It is Belize's summit tourist destination, popular for scuba diving and snorkeling and attracting vis--vis half of its 260,000 visitors. It is then indispensable to the country's fishing industry.

Charles Darwin described it as "the most remarkable reef in the West Indies" in 1842.

In go in further to its barrier reef, it plus boasts three utter Caribbean atolls: Turneffe Reef, Lighthouse Reef and Glovers Reef. Lighthouse Reef is the most easterly diving place in Belize, it is residence to the Great Blue Hole, made quickly-known by Jacques Cousteau in 1970; Turneffe Reef Atoll lies directly to the east of Belize City and is the nearest of the atolls to the capital. These swap reefs child support diverse scuba diving opportunities that be as soon as-door to walls, pinnacles and reef flats that are located throughout an big place of sea.

Belize furthermore became the first country in the world to totally ban bottom trawling in December of 2010. A large pension of the reef is protected by the Belize Barrier Reef Reserve System, which includes seven marine reserves, 450 cays, and three atolls. It totals 960 square kilometres (370 sq mi) in place, including:

• Glover's Reef Marine Reserve
• Great Blue Hole
• South Water Caye Marine Reserve
• Half Moon Caye Natural Monument
• Hol Chan Marine Reserve

Cays put in: Ambergris Caye, Caye Caulker, Caye Chapel, Carrie Bow Caye, St. George's Caye, English Caye, Rendezvous Caye, Gladden Caye, Ranguana Caye, Long Caye, Maho Caye, Blackbird Caye, Three Corner Caye, Northern Caye, Tobacco Caye, and Sandbore Caye.

In 1996 the Reserve System was designated a World Heritage Site due to its vulnerability and the fact that it contains the most important and significant natural habitats for in-situ conservation of biological diversity (according to criteria VII, IX, and X).

Despite these protective events, the reef is asleep threat from oceanic pollution as swiftly as uncontrolled tourism, shipping, and fishing. The main threats are considered to be hurricanes in the middle of than global warming and the resulting growth in ocean temperatures, which cause coral bleaching. It is claimed by scientists that on summit of 40% of Belize's coral reef has been damaged back 1998.

The Belize Barrier Reef has been affected by buildup-bleaching events. The first tallying bleaching occurred in 1995, in the middle of an estimated mortality of 10 percent of coral colonies, according to a checking account by the Coastal Zone Management Institute in Belize. A second whole-bleaching issue occurred, subsequent to Hurricane Mitch struck in 1998. Biologists observed a 48 percent narrowing in living coral lid across the Belize reef system.

Usually, it is hard to distinguish whether the defense for coral bleaching is human behavior or natural reasons such as storms or bacterial fluctuations. But in the feat of the Belize Barrier Reef, many factors which make the distinction hard get not apply. Human population in this place is much more sparse than the corresponding areas stuffy toting happening coral reefs, hence the human objection and pollution are much demean compared to auxiliary coral reefs and the Belize reef system is in a much more enclosed place.

When coral bleaching occurs, a large portion of the coral dies, and the surviving share of the ecosystem begins the process of repairing the broken. But the chances of recovery is low, as corals that are bleached become much more vulnerable to sickness. Disease often kills more corals than the bleaching situation itself. With continuous bleaching, the coral reef will have little to no unintended of recovery.