Coral Reef Eco-systems; Hospitals for the Sea

Many Ocean enthusiasts believe that Coral Reef Systems are beautiful underwater gardens that should be admired from afar.

Coral Reef Eco-systems are excellent to photograph, simply because of the myriad of colors one can capture.

I have traveled to several dive locations around the Coastal US, always expecting to see an existence of Coral Reefs.

It was a huge surprise that Hawaii does not support a healthy Coral Reef Eco-system.

It was also a surprise that Puerto Rico was lacking in color, however the Stag horn Corals were most incredible.

Recent dives in the Bahamas proved to be fruitless, watch out for the Sea Urchins that dominate the Coastline.

Which brings us to the Florida Keys, a real live and Healthy Coral Reef Eco-system to monitor and observe right in my own backyard.The only problem with diving the Keys is the Bubbles you create changes the way the Eco-system would react naturally.

How can a diver and Ocean Activist observe exactly what role the Coral Reef Eco-system plays in the Oceans without disturbing it?

I found my answer at an Aquarium, the Paradise Island Aquarium in the Bahamas.

While touring the Aquarium it was easy to see that the Coral Reef System acted as a hospital for larger fishes and animals. Large fish swam ever so closely to the Reef and allowed the smaller reef fishes to remove bacterium, parasites, algae growths, and helped to cleanse their massive gills.

I exclaimed ' it looks like a cleaning station for the Oceans.' And it is.

Then I began to wonder, why do small reef fish greet divers? Do they think that we are a larger species of fish that came for a cleaning as well? I now believe so.

Coral Reef Eco-systems are the Hospitals in the Sea for and play a significant role with the Ocean creatures.

Could you imagine not being able to find a hospital when you became ill?

We need to protect all existing Coral Reef Eco-systems for the health and future of our Oceans.