I read a research paper on declining species numbers and diversity within a three year period in the coral reef communities of Pattaya Bay. Essentially, what is happening is that some coral communities have become smaller, while sea urchin communities have increased; some edible fish populations have decreased while some non-edible species have become more present due to selective human fishing. Broken corals were more evident from activities such as bad diving habits (where the diver is touching or standing on the coral) or anchoring (tying an anchor to a coral instead of dropping it in open water).
A group of my friends and I played a game similar to Duck, Duck, Goose. In this game, everyone stands in a circle with their arms linked together. One person stands in the middle. This person secretly tells each player their "sign", such as a rock, or a stick, or paper. Then, when this game-master calls out a particlular sign, let's say the rock, all of the players assigned a rock have to drop and the people next to them have to try to keep them up. The "team" that manages to fall wins!
In the seas near Sri Lanka, there is a population of blue whales that stay there all year round. Unlike most other populations around the world, these whales do not migrate. Local conservationists and international shipping companies have agreed to move their heavily travelled route lanes about 17 miles away to help avoid the collisions between the whales and the freighters.
