Did you know that half of the Great Barrier Reef has died since 2016 as a result of coral bleaching and ocean acidification (https://www.forbes.com/sites/trevornace/2018/04/19/half-of-the-great-barrier-reef-coral-has-died-since-2016/#4d8791c45f9f)? That’s pretty scary, isn’t it. As such, I thought it would be interesting for the children to look into this for an after school club. They loved seeing and learning about how beautiful coral reefs are whilst finding out about tropical fish and other animals that live there, including nudibranchs; the brightly coloured sea slugs.
Shark attacks were a hot topic, particularly with the boys, even though blacktip reef sharks are meant to be pretty safe. The artwork that the children produced was wonderful and depicted how climate change is affecting our oceans by warming them up as a result of the water-absorbing CO2 from the atmosphere. This, in turn, sadly causes coral bleaching and loss of marine life.
Some sun creams contain chemicals - such as oxybenzone – which adversely affects coral reefs as well, so the children and I pondered on the idea of chatting with their parents about having reef-safe sun cream when it comes to summertime (https://sustainabletravel.org/safe-sunscreen-coral-reefs/ gclid=EAIaIQobChMI7ev5veCU5gIVSbTtCh2fEwF7EAAYASAAEgIj4vD_BwE). But, we can gently talk about that again when it’s not three degrees outside…brrr.
