Research Paper on Ocean Habitat Destruction by Coastal Development

Introduction

Presently, approximately 40 percent of the world population (2.5 billion) people reside within 100km of the coast of major oceans in the world. Crowder, L. B. (2008). Increasing population puts pressure on the coastal ecosystems that result in severe implications to the coastal ecosystems especially the coral reefs. Competing commercial development, leisure, and residential interests repeatedly put increasing pressure on the coasts. Habitats are removed to give space for the development of buildings, foreshores, roads, bridges, and reclamation of agriculture. Construction activities in the cities that border the coasts significantly affect habitats. In many such beaches, broad shallow reef flats are reclaimed and developed to airports or development land. Effects of coastal development might be direct or indirect. Adjacent coral reefs are significantly affected by dumping vast amounts of waste materials from constructions and dredging activities.

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Civic education is detrimental to the conservation of the coastal ecosystem. This entails training on the treatment of nature provided resources with care and as it is essential in marine environment since it assists to equip people with skills to conserve the marine ecosystem. Restriction by the government to use specifics coastal locations to boost trading activities. This will significantly help in restricting the spread of coastal development that degrades the marine environment. Other solutions implemented by the government include the formulation of policies that support direction on what should be during coastal events to adequately preserve the marine environment.

Environmental conservation policies stipulated by ecological conservation bodies such as UNEP in collaboration with government bodies specify laws that guide the nature of activities that take place in the coastal environment. Laws regulating activities such as industrialization and waste disposal ratified and global warming will be controlled appropriately.

Reduction in the concentration of oxygen level resulted from development activities; the marine habitat is at risk of extinction. When the concentration of oxygen in the ocean decreases, the life of aquatic animals are put at risk, and it might sometimes get to a level that might barely support the growth of aquatic animals. The resultant effect of the decrease in the oxygen levels is the loss of marine plants and animals. Migration of marine animals is inevitable in cases of water pollution resulted from development in the coast. Corruption provides hostile environment forcing aquatic animals to migrate to safer regions. This will affect fishing activities, and both food reduction and economy of an area will be significantly affected. Animals such as whales and shark that depend on other aquatic animals for food as its food chain will be affected. Aquatic plants will die because of the extreme environmental conditions that might render several species extinct.

The economy will be affected since the coast will lose its natural beauty. This might lead to a reduction in the number of tourists to a region. When the natural coastal environment is destroyed, specific species of plants and animals become extinct. The extinction takes away the beauty of the coast; this, in turn, affects its affinity to attract tourists. Extinction of species such as octopus, Starfish and salmon results in a low turn up of tourists that affect the revenue of a country.

The Coastal Zone Management Act stipulates the importance of regulation the development on the coasts to curb the challenge of continuous growth along the coastal regions. The federal water pollution act that specifies the need to restore and maintain the integrity of surface waters. It regulates the discharge of pollutants into water bodies. The coastal zone management provides for the development grants and management of coastal plans. The coastal environment should be conserved to maintain its natural beauty to be able to reap maximum benefit from the situation.

References

Waycott, M., Duarte, C. M., Carruthers, T. J., Orth, R. J., Dennison, W. C., Olyarnik, S., ... & Kendrick, G. A. (2009). Accelerating loss of seagrasses across the globe threatens coastal ecosystems. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 106(30), 12377-12381.

Lubchenco, J., Palumbi, S. R., Gaines, S. D., & Andelman, S. (2003). Plugging a hole in the ocean: the emerging science of marine reserves. Ecological Applications, 13(1), S3-S7.

Halpern, B. S., McLeod, K. L., Rosenberg, A. A., & Crowder, L. B. (2008). Managing for cumulative impacts in ecosystem-based management through ocean zoning. Ocean & Coastal Management, 51(3), 203-211.

Hall, C. M. (2001). Trends in the ocean and coastal tourism: the end of the last frontier?. Ocean & coastal management, 44(9-10), 601-618.