The Great Barrier Reef coated sunscreen

Student: Ko-Ning, Hu (Nisa)

SID: 440480996

 

Tag: #The Great Barrier Reef #travel #scuba diving #snorkelling #Whitsundays #sunscreen #coral bleaching #coral conservation

 

source: http://www.fromthegrapevine.com/

 

Blog Motivation

The Great Barrier Reef, now a national marine park, provides superb recreational activities such as snorkelling, diving, swimming, semi-submersibles, coral viewing and fishing, and offers a unique environment for scientific research. The Great Barrier Reef, no doubt, is one of the best diving sites in the world. I was excited to apply my newly acquired dive skills and explore this reef. You always hear how great it is and I wanted to see it first-hand. While diving, I got to see a baby shark, turtle, Nemo (clownfish) next to me. I’ve been scuba diving in The Great Barrier Reef for twice. They were fantastic experiences for me. In one of the journeys, I noticed sunscreen floating on the water and knew the effect on coral after checking related information. In the blog, I would like to share my adventures in the Whitsundays with some diving insights and concern.

Tourism Introduction

The Whitsundays is a world-renowned holiday destination, with Whitsunday icons like the Great Barrier Reef, Heart Reef and Whitehaven Beach at the top of millions of bucket lists the world around. During the journey, snorkelling and scuba diving in the Great Barrier Reef are happiest things. However, after jumping into the water, I got a hesitation on sunscreen and got some information about this damage.

Issue

Although the Great Barrier Reef is a gorgeous tour spot, we, human destroy the natural ecosystem imperceptibly. Scientists have discovered that sunscreens products containing oxybenzone are harmful to coral reefs.The world has about 3500 kinds of sunscreen products containing oxybenzone, which is ubiquitous. The main cause of large-scale coral bleaching is global warming, followed by pollution. The Great Reef not only destroyed by human behaviour but also polluted by sunscreen products.

Source: https://www.vice.com

There are several people I want to interview:

1. Prof David Booth from School of the Environment in the University of Technology Sydney is one of the member of The Australian Coral Reef Society (ACRS) which plays a key role in promoting scientific research on Australian coral reefs.
2. Selina Ward, a coral-reef expert at the University of Queensland indicated that oxybenzone protects the skin, it also poisons coral. When exposed to oxybenzone, coral larvae become deformed and unable to spread through ocean currents. This chemical also exacerbates bleaching.
3. Steve Doo, a PhD candidate at the University of Sydney studying the impacts of changing climates on animals in the Great Barrier Reef. He has published a journal about why we can’t sit back and allow bleaching of the Reef to continue.

Target Audience

Travelling magazine is the main aim I want to publish on. I consider that this is not appropriate to put out on environment magazine because the main audiences I focus on are tourists. I believe that sunscreen is necessary for everyone who travels in the Great Barrier Reef and travellers are the main group need to be warned. I would like to combine my travel experience with the issue of coral bleaching to avoid this boring and serious topic.