My name is Daniel and I am the creator of Artquake, a program within the global nonprofit ELLSSA. I have chosen Reef Relief as my spotlight project and I will be donating 100% of the proceeds to the Coral Reef Alliance (CORAL) for this project. I was born and raised on the island of O'ahu in Hawai'i. The ocean has been, and always will be, an integral part of my life. When I was just a baby, my father would take me to the beach at night to allow the calm choir of the waves to soothe me when nothing else would stop me from crying. When I was five years old, he would take me out to the tide pools around the island to search for seashells. And finally as I grew a little older, he would take me out to go snorkeling and diving where we would float above the coral reefs that cradled the island. Fish would weave in and out of their oceanic homes and I would hover above them admiring the different world that surrounded us. I would never have imagined that 20 years later, the same reefs I used to visit as a kid, are now dead. The array of colorful life in the water around my home has vanished. The same stresses that have killed off many of the coral reefs in Hawai'i have also demolished roughly half of all the coral reefs around the planet in the past 30 years.
Coral is extremely sensitive to temperature change. They have a symbiotic relationship with algae which gives them the energy they need to survive and thrive. Just a 1 to 2 degree change in celsius can force the algae to expel itself, which is what causes the coral to become bleached. Bleached corals can repair themselves, but only if the water cools within a certain time frame. If high temperatures persist for months, the coral dies forever. Coupled with over-fishing, pollution, unsustainable tourism and coastal development, it's expected that 90% of all coral reefs that remain today will die in the next 30 years.
Coral reefs help produce the oxygen we breathe, they support life for over a quarter of marine species around the planet, support the lives of over half a billion people, and act as a barrier to protect from storms that hit coastlines around the world. The annual value provided by coral reefs to millions of people is estimated to be over $375 billion. I want to preserve what's left of our beautiful underwater world, and help save the coral reefs from perishing any further, so I came up with Reef Relief.
Reef Relief is a project that aims to help rebuild our dying coral reefs and educate society about coral reefs, what's threatening them, and what we can do to help save them. I have partnered with Coral Reef Alliance (CORAL) who helps address the threats at a local and global level. At a local level, they reduce direct threats to reefs such as pollution, overfishing and unsustainable tourism. And at a global level, they help reefs by establishing adaptive reefscapes, which are networks of healthy reefs that enable corals to adapt to climate change.
If you support Reef Relief, you will receive these unique, coral inspired rewards
