Saturday, June 1, 2024

World Reef Awareness Day


World Reef Awareness Day on June 1 promotes the importance of reef ecosystems around the world. The coral reef ecosystem is extremely diverse and provides habitat and natural resources for many different species including turtles, anemones, fish and crabs.

Facts

1) World Reef Awareness Day is also known as World Reef Day.

2) World Reef Day was established by Brian Guadagno, the founder of skincare brand Raw Elements USA. The day was first celebrated in 2019.

3) Coral reefs are structures made up of polyps that secrete a limestone exoskeleton that gets attached to a rock or other dead skeletons of polyps.

4) Coral reefs take anywhere between 1,00,000 to 3,00,000 years to form fully as their rate of growth is just 0.3 to 2 centimetres per year, for massive corals. Branching corals may grow up to 10 centimetres per year.

5) Three types of reefs, namely, fringing, barrier and atoll, exist. Fringing reefs are the most common and grow seaward from the shore. Barrier reefs on the other hand are separated from the shore by a lagoon. Atolls grow shaped like a ring around islands. It forms following the erosion of an old volcano.

6) Roughly 25 percent of the ocean’s fish depend on healthy coral reefs.

7) The estimated value of coral reefs is about $375 billion per year.

8) By 2050, there might be a 70-90 percent decrease in coral reefs if global temperatures rise by more than 1.5°C.

9) Coral reefs have become contaminated with 11 billion plastic pieces, a study in the Asia-Pacific region finds.

10) Gulf of Kutch, Gulf of Mannar, Andaman & Nicobar, Lakshadweep Islands and Malvan are the areas where coral reefs are found in India.


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