HASS ASSESSMENT 3 – Letter to Ben Morton, about the Great Barrier Reef.

This assessment was about choosing a topic that you cared about and, researching about it, then making a letter and sending it to our local Member of Parliament. I chose my letter to be about the Great Barrier Reef. This is because it is currently suffering because of mass bleaching caused by Climate Change and the Crown of Thorns Starfish. I sent my letter to Ben Morton, who is my local representative to see what he can do about it. I have attached my letter down below and I hope you enjoy it!

Eli Saratsis

All Saints College

Ewing Avenue

Bull creek WA 6149

Mr Ben Morton MP

PO Box 329

Willetton WA 6155

12 of May 2022

Dr Mr Morton

My name is Eli Saratsis, and I am a year 8 All Saints College student. I am writing to you to express my concern about the Great Barrier Reef’s health.

I am a resident of your electorate of Tangney, and I am extremely concerned about the health of the Great Barrier Reef and how this will affect Australia economically, socially and environmentally.

The Great Barrier Reef is home to over 9,000 living species including dolphins, crocs, sharks turtles, fish and much more. The reef holds more than 1,500 different fish species, 6 turtle breeds, 17 species of sea snake and 30 species of dolphins, whales and porpoises. 10% of the worlds fish population is found in the reef. All the animals rely on the coral reef to survive and its our job to protect it.

As you would be aware the Great Barrier Reef is the world’s largest coral reef in the world and one of Australia’s greatest places that attracts tourism around the world. The Great Barrier Reef attracts over 1.6 million people each year with 2021 having 1,235,820 visitor days. This may seem like a lot but according to GBRMPA the total visitation has decreased 48.3% compared to 2012-2019. Back in 2012 half of the coral reef’s coral was bleached and now 91% of our coral is bleached. This proves that as the Coral Reef’s health an appearance declines so does Australia economically.

The Great Barrier Reef has many social, economic and environmental impacts across Australia. The social impact is great as the reef is greatly associated around tourism and indigenous communities. With tourism, if the coral is looking bright and colourful it will look appealing to people and they would want to come to Australia and experience it for themselves. Rather in its current situation 91% of coral is bleached making It visually less appealing, making potential visitors not interested. Currently the Great Barrier Reef is one of Australia’s well known icons, do you want that to be taken away from our society? 70 different indigenous groups are native to the Great Barrier Reef area and many stories and learnings are treasured there. This means that the area holds lots of memories and stories of that community that is very precious. Do you want to go rob a 400,000 year culture of their stories? The economic impact is great as the great Barrier Reef helps Australia and their citizens financially. The Great Barrier Reef has an average of 1.6 billion tourists come each year. This means that lots of money is coming into Australia. If the reefs health quality decreases so will the amount of people coming in which will leave Australia with less money. The Great Barrier Reef helps around 69,000 locals by supporting them with well-paying enjoyable jobs. This helps less people to be unemployed. The Great Barrier Reef has brought in 56 billion to Australia’s economy. The Great Barrier Reef earns 6.4 billion yearly. In the year 2020 to 2021 across Australia’s whole government system, the total taxation revenue was 593.2 billion. This means that 7.3125% of Australia’s yearly income comes from the Great Barrier Reef. Do you really want to lose that large amount of money, and increase Australia’s unemployment rate? The Environmental impacts of this are great as the reef can potentially save people’s lives. Because of the Great Barrier Reef’s 2,300 kilometre length it is big enough to shield the towns near to the coast from large waves and tsunami’s. The reef helps absorb the full blast of the ocean so when it hits the shores the damage wont nearly be as great. So without the Great Barrier Reef, the natural disasters that occur will be much more damaging. This will then cost the government more money to replace and fix the properties that were damaged. Do you want to risk paying more than you need to and provide the citizens with unnecessary stress? This proves that through the economic, social and environmental impacts that the Great Barrier Reef has, there is everything that you need to make sure that it recovers from its current state.

I argue that there are two major problems in the Great Barrier Reef’s health. The Crown of Thorns Starfish and the sea water temperature due to Climate Change. The Crown of Thorns Starfish scientific name is Acanthaster Planci, and it is known for killing and consuming coral and coral reefs, such as the great Barrier Reef. This is a species of starfish that can consume any type of coral and 1 eats approximately 10 square meters of coral in one year. Over the past 27 years 42% of the Great Barrier Reef’s coral has been killed by the Crown of Thorns Starfish. The other problem is Climate Change and how its increasing the water temperature. In some areas of the reef the water temperature has increased by 2-4 degrees Celsius. The amount of heat that the oceans are absorbing currently is 7 Hiroshima atomic bombs per second. This is insane and it has to be stopped and controlled. The reef is suffering constant mass bleaching and if water temperature and the Crown of thorns starfish aren’t stopped than the beauty of the Great Barrier Reef will no longer exist.

I understand that this will take a lot of time and money, but I have some suggestions into how you can help the Great Barrier Reef. The rising of water temperature is to do with the massive amount of Carbon Dioxide stored in the Earth. If Australians can Endeavor to use less carbon in their daily lives this can have a massive affect on the Great Barrier Reefs recovery. Some easy and accomplishable ways of doing this are: to eat towards the lower end of the food chain. This means to eat lots of fruit, vegetables, beans and grains. Meat and dairy should be eaten and produced less as it is 14.5% of the global greenhouse gases. Taking eco-friendly transportation should be encourages as it is much better for the environment. This can include scooters, bikes, or just walking. Public Transportation should be encouraged as more people can get to a singular destination while using less greenhouse gases in a certain amount of time. And the last one is to make people aware of the situation and get involved. If you can do this, then more people will now the trouble that the Great Barrier Reef is in. The other problem is dealing with the Crown of Thorns Starfish. I believe if the government can invest more money into divers getting rid of the starfish, then this problem will not be as harmful. The government can also give money into doing research onto how we can recover the reef. Then as always it is important to make sure that everybody knows the condition of the reef so, then they are aware of the situation. Knowing this I hope that you will help save the Great Barrier Reef from extinction.

Once again I ask you to do your best to get across the importance of reviving and keeping the Great Barrier Reef Healthy.

Yours Sincerely

Eli Saratsis