1. Endangered Ocean Life

2. Coral Reef

3. Coral reefs are mountains or colonies of built up limestone (calcium carbonate)
The top layer of the coral is the living part
The bottom layer is the skeletons of the previous generations of reef building corals
Coral occur only where sea water is warm (a low of 68 degrees F to a high of about 86 degrees F), thus usually in tropical locations
Coral’s tissue include millions of symbiotic singlecelled photosynthesizers that require access to sunlight, thus reef coral die when the surrounding water is muddy, cloudy, or dark
Coral require water that has a high salt content
Coral is important because it is the home to a great number of species and offers protection to these species

4. Examples of species living within the coral.

5. Things that are damaging/endangering the coral reefs
Global Warming
Tourists stepping on the reefs
Boats dropping anchor on the reefs
Pollutants
Population growth in coastal areas
-with the increase in people comes the increase in problems like sediment from agriculture, erosion, and sewage in the coastal waters
Over fishing

6. What Can We Do To Help? Be aware of the problem Watch pollutants
When on vacation don’t collect or touch the reefs or coral
Sustainable fishing
Stable Climate-changes in climate in recent decades where predominately caused by unrestricted and unwise energy use

7. Now It’s Your Turn To Do Some Research
Go to: _do/marine/
Now follow the instructions on your worksheet