Have you ever seen beautiful coral jewelry, fall in love with them, wondered how much damage has been cause to the environment to just to make them and stoically walk away so you don’t encourage the trade and cause even more damage? Well while I’m certain such beautiful pieces are never short of the admiration, they are also certainly never short of making the sale.
I have never bought a piece of coral jewelry for myself but I did come to own a set of red coral necklace and ring that was passed down to me from my mother. They are amazing looking red corals and I have to admit I never once gave it a seconds thought how the ocean ecology was probably thrown out of balance for the loss of them when my mum gave them to me, but I do now.
Corals are living marine organisms classified under as an Anthozoa. Anthozoans are exclusively marine, polypoid cnidarians. They include the familiar sea anemones, and other anemone-like groups with skeletons and without skeletons.
Now contrary to the common misconception, the coral is not a singular organism. It is in fact a coral colony that usually consists of thousands of little coral animals, otherwise known as polyps. Each polyp is similar to a tiny anemone and it will secrete a calcium carbonate or limestone skeleton which it lives in/on. They are typically carnivorous, feeding on any small particle that is floating on the water and brushes against its tentacles. They also have something called zooxanthellae, which is a form of microscopic algal cell that lives within its tissue. These algae consume the metabolic wastes of the coral as fertilizer and when combined with light, it is able to produce enough food for both itself and the polyp (much like the science of photosynthesis).
The algae and polyps share a special dependence relationship, where the algae get food and protection within the polyp, the polyp gets food from the algae. The system thus allows the polyp to recycle food within itself, with enough efficiency to thrive in the nutrient poor waters of the tropical oceans. Corals are both habitat and a source of food for much marine wildlife.
Corals are presently facing a challenge to survive. They are threatened by extinction from:
- Damaged by anchors (boats, ships, diving)
- Over fishing (inappropriate fishing techniques such as the use of dynamites)
- Smothered by sediments (Erosion of soils, results of dredging)
- Overgrown by seaweeds (Over-fertilization of the coastal zone by nutrients from sewage and agriculture)
- Turning white, “bleaching” effect (excessive temperatures as a result of global warming and greenhouse gas build-up in atmosphere
- Progressive tissue death (Infectious diseases, possibly affected by pollution and climate change)
With the problems that corals already face, I can only imagine how harvesting them for the sake of manufacturing jewelry has only made their sustainability that much harder.
Corals belong in the ocean, the marine wildlife needs them more than we do. Together (marine life & corals)they are an intricate survival team, whilst with us (corals & humans) they are just adornments.
Please visit CORAL for more information on coral conservation.
