Coral Reef Pollution Can Hurt Bermuda’s Tourism Industry

Environment and Development in a Global Perspective State of the Environment Report precious chromatic Reef Pollution Can Hurt Bermudas Tourism industriousness Introduction Waste management techniques in Bermuda take a shit adverse make on the red precious coral reefs and usher out hurt the is tears touristry industry. This is a state of the environment report on the is spheres of Bermuda that serves to shed light on the pollution of the coral reefs due to mess up management businesss and the subsequent potential adverse effects it stern curb on the Tourism industry.I very used to live in Bermuda during the period of 2006 to 2010 so I would wish to think that I have gained valuable insight into the social and compassionate development threats that this pollution problem poses to the general population. The tourism industry is the second largest industry in Bermuda and is already in settle so it should be angiotensin-converting enzyme of the islands top priorities to maintain or even rebuild tourism to its former self. This report consists of 3 main parts. Firstly, a definition of the environmental issues touch on the coral reef communities around the island.Secondly, a explanation of the human development issues and socioeconomic effects that the degradation of the coral reef corporation has or will most likely lead to on the island. Lastly, the report explores near proposed remedies for the environmental issues. State of the Environment For over a century, heavy metal scratch off from the islands of Bermuda has been stored on the shores of a large instinctive harbor called fort Harbour. It is rigid amongst the north eastern obliterate of the main island and St. Davids island and it just happens to be a mere dickens hundred meters away from the ne arst coral reef community.Most of the waste existenceness dealt with is from the population itself. There are about 67,000 muckle living on the islands and it is one of the most den sely populated areas in the world. (Central parole Agency) wholly of the agriculturals solid waste and scrap metal are either dumped at the site in Devonshire to be incinerated or stored at fortification Harbour, in like manner known as the airdrome dump. Bermuda has been disposing of waste at the airdrome dump for nearly 40 days with diminished thought of the impact on the environment, read a 2010 article in the local anaesthetic newspaper, the Royal Gazette. Bard followt, 2010) take care 1 shows a portion of the Castle Harbour site and really gives you an appreciation for the proximity of the waste to the urine itself. As you can imagine in that location is not much land flow acting as a buffer before pollutants leach into the ocean. Figure 1. Old cars stacked at the Castle Harbour airport dump. (Bardgett, 2010) In addition to cars, appliances such as refrigerators release harmful chemicals like anti-freeze and oil into the ocean environ the Harbour.These chemicals have already acquired irreversible detriment to the coral reef and are having a notable effect on the black grouper fish population (Bardgett, 2010). It is worth noting that the coral reef in the area has already been through with(predicate) irreversible sedimentation damage in the past from a dredge and fill operation that occurred 60 years ago. Since the 1970s, there was a decrease in percent cover from 12% (Dryer & Logan, 1978) to 2% and is not completely gone only because the brain coral Diploria labyrinthiformis was sediment tolerant (Flood, 2004).In Castle Harbour sedimentation is chronic so this new threat of chemical leakage is a blow to an already wounded environment. Figure 2 shows a brain coral from Castle Harbour that has been damaged by sedimentation. The dimple type formation is feature article of sediment damage (Flood, 2004). Figure 2. Dimple formations on brain coral affected by sedimentation at Castle Harbour (Flood, 2004). Unfortunately, in addition to the sed imentation and the chemical leaching, the coral reef colonies are in any case subject to pollution from raw sewage. Bermuda does not have a sewage treatment plant.The island itself is made faultlessly of limestone, as it is land formed by a now dormant volcano. Households rely on pits dug into the limestone that stores and processes sewage a capacious with used water from sinks and laundry. This mixture eventually reaches the oceans after it percolates through the limestone. Larger structures such as hotels and apartment complexes use pipes to transport waste offshore. According to this report, human sewage might cause the algae on the reef to overgrow and shade the corals and eventually kill the reef (Bermudas inshore waters,).Sewage waste that had been dissolved and pumped three miles offshore from Paget Parish in the south has caused a growth surge in marine weeds that choke the slower growing corals. Now this is an ecological imbalance and is soon ongoing so scientists ar e monitoring it (Jones). Also, the extra nutrients will cause the phytoplankton to grow in numbers and turn the water from crystal assoil to green (Bermudas inshore waters,). During the summer months an average of 400,000 tourists visit the islands and journey ships significantly contribute to the amount of sewage produced by the population.Sewage from the City of Hamilton and surrounding areas as well as the cruise ships are disposed of at the Seabright Point submarine sewage outfall. 500,000 to 1,000,000 gallons of raw sewage is discharged all(prenominal) day, at peak flow (Seabright point monitoring,). According to a Pastorok and Bilyard report, the three components of sewage effluent most detrimental to coral communities are nutrients, sediments and cyanogenic substances (Pastorok & Bilyard, 1985). Castle Harbour is primarily providing sediments and toxic substances while the nutrients are being pumped about the islands at different locations but mainly from Seabright Point. The like report explained that anthropogenic inputs of dissolved nutrients and organic particulate matter can limit oxygen levels. This is important because it directly affects the marine life in the area that depends on the oxygen. Bermudas coral reefs are the most set-apart and northern reefs in the Atlantic. It is actually extremely rare to find long distance airings by corals to isolated reefs like Bermudas. These coral reefs are located just on the outskirts of the environment that it thrives in so it does not have an abundance of different types of coral.The coral species that happen to be there have adapted to the seasonal weather that these higher latitudes bring. However, because there are a check number of species, the entire reefs ability to spring back and respond to environmental change is limited. Therefore, every damage to the coral reefs will have persistent impacts. Related Human Development Issues alike tourism, there are many ways that coral reef degradation directly impact humans. As mentioned before, coral reefs provide shoreline protection by buffering wave energy and reducing coastal eating away.As they break degraded, they will become weaker and the waves do not only cause more coastal erosion as they get stronger but they also aid in the fracture up of coral so once degradation has begun it tends to be a very slippery slope. Correspondingly, loss of coral reefs means loss of decisive habitat for reef fish. Two of Bermudas local delicacies are codfish and potatoes, which are traditionally, enjoyed on a Sunday morning and rockfish which is a soft tasty dish that you can find at any restaurant on the island. Both of these fish are directly colligate to the coral reefs and a reduction of habitat would mean a reduction in fish to catch.This would negatively affect both food issue and associated economic activities. Finally, coral reefs have pharmaceutical compounds and a degraded one can no longer provide medicinal resources for drugs to treat effect disease, cancer, and other illnesses (Socioeconomic impacts,). Figure 3 shows the different reasons that Bermudas coral reef communities are used and their associated values. Figure 3. Total Economic time value (TEV) of Bermudas coral community divided into sectors (Sarkis, van Beukering & McKenzie, 2010).Figure 4 corresponds with Figure 3 and provides the mo earnary value of the different sectors that the coral reef community TEV is divided into. Figure 4. Average Annual Value of services provided by Bermudas coral reefs (Sarkis, van Beukering & McKenzie, 2010). Bermudas tourism industry is already struggling but continues to be the 2nd largest industry in Bermuda (Central cognizance Agency). The economy is primarily based on providing financial services for global business and since Bermuda has the fourth highest income per capita in the world, its safe to say that the country is truly affluent (Central Intelligence Agency).However, the riches in the co untry is certainly not divided equally as the countrys wealth relies so heavily on these dickens industries. People with direct forge in the tourism and business community hold the majority of the islands wealth but the population of locals in this category is very limited because many of the business executives and lockforce are expatriates who come to the islands to work for some time and leave.This occurs because of the law in Bermuda that prevents foreigners from ever gaining citizenship and because most of the business is foreign and would more likely hire their own people for the higher positions. It is also extremely hard to become a resident without marrying a local and foreigners cannot even own land, or buy houses that are under the one-year rental value of USD $177, 000 (Bermuda residence and, 2012). This means that the recorded 19% of the entire population that lives under the poverty line is actually a larger percentage of the truly local population.This is an ex tremely large number of people for a country that has five times the GDP per capita of the USA (Central Intelligence Agency). With jobs and positions in the business market essentially saturated, locals have been obligated to work in the service and hospitality sector where the tourism industry is the major provider of income. It is such a shame that the obvious candidate, the depression, is negatively affecting the industry. With the decline in tourism, a larger gap is being created between the rich and the poor.Also, since the initiative was taken to make the tourism industry a joint effort between the government and the community, a further decline in tourism would directly affect family owned hospitality businesses as well as single person jobs and will undoubtedly ontogenesis the percentage of the population living under the poverty line. So it would be even more shameful if the tourism industry were further perturbed by other factors on a local scale such as the pollution of the coral reefs due to poor waste management.Besides marine tourism and aesthetics, tourists mainly come to the island because of its world-renowned exploit sand beaches. The coral is responsible for the pink sand and clear water and most importantly acts as a buffer for wave action. Therefore, if there is less coral then there will be more coastal erosion and this would truly be detrimental to the beaches and Bermudas tourism. Proposed Remedies and Conclusion Now that we have established that the two main problems are the Castle Harbour leaching and the sewage disposal, we can talk about potential solutions.Greg Wilcox, president of Midway Auto move in Kansas City, Missouri, visited the island in 2010 with a few of his colleagues and explained that he was surprised at the situation at Castle Harbour because it was something only expected of a third world country (Bardgett, 2010). He is now working with the environmental group Greenrock on an initiative that would benefit all sec tors of the community including indemnification companies, motorcar repair shops and the government. In the US there are auto parts recyclers who deal with white cloth and sell the second-hand parts (Bardgett, 2010).Having lived in Bermuda, I know for a fact that there is an abandoned strip behind the airport itself that would be a prime location for something of that nature. Transporting the material from Castle Harbour will not be a problem because it is literally across the street. It is already the first thing the tourists see when they get to the island but at least this way it can be contained at heart warehouses inside a compound and white material can be drained and disposed of properly.For the sewage system problem, the most obvious therapeutic would be to build a sewage treatment plant. However, because of the linear dispersal of the island it would be very difficult to dig up the roads to secular down sewage lines (Wingate, 2006). The public also are strongly again st a sewage treatment plant being anywhere near their houses and in the central district of Hamilton there is hardly any vacant land available. The only option to mitigate the amount of sewage leaking into the ocean would be to upgrade the method of treatment for each household or complex.If the government were to import small-scale self-contained tertiary treatment plants in bulk for each household it will be more affordable (Wingate, 2006). Having state all this, no action will be taken for at least another four years because the red coral Reef ecology and Optics Lab just launched a five year assessment of the marine environment and coral reef ecosystem in 2012. The assessment is centered on the Seabright Point sewage outfall and is supposed to determine the fate of the sewage as well as the impact on the reef ecosystem (Seabright point monitoring,)Final pronounce Count 2416 References 1. ) Central Intelligence Agency. (2013). The World Factbook Bermuda. Updated February 13, 20 13, Retrieved March 19, 2013, from https//www. cia. gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/bd. hypertext markup language 2. ) Bardgett, Robyn. (2010, December 1). Vehicle recyclers visit from US Pollution at airport dump causes concern. The Royal Gazette, Retrieved from http//www. royalgazette. com/article/20101201/NEWS07/712019915 3. ) Pastorok, R. A. , Bilyard, G. R. , 1985. Effects of sewage pollution on coral-reef communities.Marine Ecology Progress Series. 21, 175189. 4. ) Dryer, S. , Logan, A. , 1978. Holocene reefs and sediments of Castle Harbor, Bermuda. Journal of Marine Research. 36(3), 339425. 5. ) Flood, V. S. (2004). Coral Community Structure and Patterns of Sedimentation in Castle Harbour Bermuda. Retrieved from http//athenaeum. libs. uga. edu/bitstream/ regale/10724/7970/flood_vanese_s_200412_ms. pdf? sequence=1 6. ) Bermudas inshore waters. (n. d. ). Retrieved from http//www. coexploration. org/bbsr/coral/html/body_bermuda_inshore_waters. html 7. Jones, R. (n. d. ). environmental issues. Retrieved from http//www. moon. com/destinations/bermuda/background/the-land/environmental-issues 8. ) Seabright point monitoring. (n. d. ). Retrieved from http//www. bios. edu/research/projects/seabright 9. ) Socioeconomic impacts. (n. d. ). Retrieved from http//www. reefresilience. org/Toolkit_Coral/C2c2_Socioecon. html 10. ) Sarkis , S. , van Beukering, P. J. H. , McKenzie, E. Bermuda subdivision of Conservation Services, (2010). Total economic value of bermuda. Retrieved from website http//www. onservation. bm/coral-reef-economic-valuation/ 11. ) Bermuda residence and property. (2012, November). Retrieved from http//www. lowtax. net/lowtax/html/bermuda/jbrres. html 12. ) Wingate, D. Bermuda Zoological Society, (2006). Conservation in bermuda(CON-02). Retrieved from website http//www. gov. bm/ admission/server. pt/gateway/PTARGS_0_2_11280_207_227543_43/http/ptpublisher. gov. bm7087/publishedcontent/publish/new_min_of_environment/environmental_pro tection___project_nature_fact_sheets/conservation_in_bermuda_0. pdf