Question

Divers should avoid contact with corals because:

Answer 1

Divers should avoid contact with corals to prevent damage to these delicate organisms and their ecosystems. Coral reefs, home to a third of the world's marine fish, are impacted by human activities including pollution and overfishing, which can lead to a decline in biodiversity and reef health.

Step-by-step explanation:

Divers should avoid contact with corals because these delicate organisms are highly susceptible to damage from physical contact as well as to the environmental stresses caused by human activity. Coral reefs are diverse marine ecosystems crucial to the biodiversity of the oceans, hosting approximately 1/3 of the world's marine fish species. Factors such as runoff of sediment and agricultural chemicals, global warming, and the pet trade have had detrimental effects on coral populations, causing some tropical waters to become cloudy and allowing predator species that eat corals to go unchecked. Additionally, overfishing disrupts the balance of marine ecosystems and can lead to a decrease in species diversity when coral reefs begin to die. It is important to protect these economically important and ecologically crucial structures to ensure the health of the ocean's ecosystems and the local economies that depend on them.