Sunscreen and Coral Reef

Coral reefs also provide major essential benefits to people, like food production, tourism, biotechnology development, and coastal protection.While covering less than 1% of the ocean surface, coral reefs provide habitat for nearly one third of marine fish species as well as 10% of all fish captured for human consumption.In some situations, primarily related to the number of swimmers and the geography of the shoreline, concentrations of oxybenzone far exceed the levels shown to be harmful to corals [1].Coral reefs consist of organisms in delicate equilibria that are susceptible to small changes in their surroundings.Recent natural and man-made disruptions, direct or indirect, such as changes in ocean temperature and chemistry, ingress of invasive species, pathogens, pollution and deleterious fishing practices, have been blamed for the poor health, or even the outright destruction, of some coral reefs [2].Florida has the world's third largest barrier reef, with nearly 1,400 species of plants and animals and 500 species of fish, but the reef is vanishing fast.Research has found that roughly half of the reef has disappeared over the past 250 years.Coverage of acropora, the primary genus of reef-building corals, has plummeted 97% [3].In 2015, the nonprofit Haereticus Environmental Laboratory surveyed Trunk Bay beach on St. John, where visitors ranged from 2,000 to 5,000 swimmers daily, and estimated over 6,000 pounds of sunscreen was deposited on the reef annually.The same year, it found an average of 412 pounds of sunscreen was deposited daily on the reef at Hanauma Bay, a popular snorkeling destination in Oahu (Hawaii) that draws an average of 2,600 swimmers each day.Over the past three years, one -fifth of the world's coral reefs have died offand there is a growing awareness that sunscreen is playing a role [4,5].82,000 chemicals from personal-care products may be tainting the seas; about 80 percent of corals in the Caribbean have been lost in the last 50 years due to pollution, coastal development, and warming waters [6].From 6,000 to 14,000 tons of sunscreen slide off of humans into coral reef areas each year, exposing the gorgeous underwater ecosystems to chemicals that can kill them.Global warming is the main reason that coral reefs are dyingbut sunscreens play a role, too.Over the past three years, one-fifth of the world's coral reefs have died offand there is a growing awareness that sunscreen is playing a role [7,8].In some situations, primarily related to the number of swimmers and the geography of the shoreline, concentrations of oxybenzone far exceed the levels shown to be harmful to corals [1].Hawaii will ban two major ingredients of sunscreens--oxybenzone and octinoxate.But sunscreens also save lives by decreasing the risk of UV-induced skin cancers [2], [9,10].It is said that a single drop of oxybenzone in more than 4 million gallons of water is enough to endanger organisms [7].Studies have identified UV filters such as oxybenzone, octocrylene, octinoxate, and ethylhexyl salicylate in almost all water sources around the world and have commented that these filters are not easily removed by common wastewater treatment plant techniques.Additionally, in laboratory settings, oxybenzone has been implicated specifically as a possible contributor to coral reef bleaching.Furthermore, UV filters such as 4-methylbenzylidene camphor, oxybenzone, octocrylene, and octinoxate have been identified in various species of fish worldwide, which has possible consequences for the food chain [11].Coral bleaching has negative impacts on biodiversity and functioning of reef ecosystems and their production of goods and services.Bleaching is a stress response by corals, where they turn pale due to a decline in the symbiotic micro-algae that lives inside their tissues.This increasing world -wide phenomenon is associated with temperature anomalies, high irradiance, pollution, and bacterial