Vava'u Coral Reefs

Coral is an important piece of the environment that we need to protect.  I come from Australia and people have told me about the swimming in the Great Barrier Reef.  The majority of these people say it is not as good as it has been in the past.  This is because of humans as we use boats that anchor on the reef and also rubbish that gets blown into the ocean.  Coral grows very slowly and we have come along and bit by bit destroyed coral that is thousands of years old.  We are only starting to protect the Great Barrier Reef now.

Just some of the colourful marine life in Vava'u

Vava’u has hope as there is beautiful coral around in Vava’u and we need to protect that by being careful where we anchor yachts, ships fishing boats etc.  We also need to clean up the rubbish that’s on the road and put it in the bin, otherwise people are going to be called lazy and then I vote to change earths name to ‘The Laziest Planet in the Solar System’.

Coral bleaching on a reef in Vava'u

I learnt another thing while snorkelling with a VEPA volunteer in the Neiafu bay outside my place.  This is a bad process called erosion, where silt or mud is washed into the ocean when it rains and covers the coral.  Living in the coral is a little plant called Zooxanthellae, which helps keep the coral alive.  The coral provides a protective home for the plant and the zooxanthellae provides food for the coral through the process of photosynthesis (breathing in carbon dioxide and releasing oxygen).  It’s just like trees only the fish use the oxygen instead of land animals.  The silt covers the coral so the Zooxanthellae can’t breath and die and then the coral dies.  When coral is dead it looses all it’s colour and turns white.

Vava'u's clear waters are fantastic for divers visibility. 

So please get off the couch and help VEPA and other organisations with our environment.  Not just coral but tree’s, animals (reptiles, fish, whales, land animals etc).  So please help any environmental organisation you can so we don’t have to change earths name to ‘The Laziest Planet in the Solar System’.  

By Ashlee Jones (student at Saineha High School)