If only our own leaders had the foresight of Barack Obama when he recently warned about the threats to the “incredible natural glory of the Great Barrier Reef” and called for it to be protected.
While Obama may have been speaking from the edges of a G20 summit the focus of which was economic and not environmental, his words were celebrated nevertheless. Our own federal government may deny the plight of this natural wonder, but that doesn’t mean all Australians are burying their heads in the sand. And it’s time we all did something about it.
The Great Barrier Reef – the world’s largest coral reef ecosystem – is about the size of Italy, stretching 2,300 kilometres along the Queensland coastline. It contains 3,000 separate reefs, fringed by 54 per cent of world mangrove biodiversity, sustains 6,000 square kilometres of sea grass beds, is home to over 1,500 fish and 600 coral species and contributes $6 billion and 70,000 jobs to Australia’s economy. Yet, as we speak it is facing unprecedented threats from climate change-related warming and acidification, subsequent coral bleaching, mining pollution, agricultural runoff and coastal development.
The decision to build new ports for fossil fuel export, combined with dredge and dump sediment in the World Heritage Area, and groundwater deregulation, represents some of the latest threats to the reef’s health.
However, few people realise that coral reefs and marine ecosystems also support human health and well-being in many other ways. These include food and nutrition; natural hazard and climate protection; physical recreation; psychological, spiritual, and cultural enrichment, and as a source of new medical compounds, including pain killers, antimicrobials and anti-cancer agents.
Find out more regarding the health importance of the Great Barrier Reef at the Doctors for the Environment website.
Coral reefs are a particularly rich source of compounds useful for medical research, and there have been a variety of examples of such in the past decade alone.
Take, for example, the cloth of gold cone snail (Conus textile, pictured) that calls the Great Barrier Reef home. Molluscs of the Conus genus contain venom they use to capture prey that is also known to be extremely toxic to humans, but that same venom has also been shown to contain pain killing compounds.
Gold cloth cone snail. Photo: David Paul and Bruce Livett
Such venoms contain at least 50 different peptides that selectively act in diverse ways, including inhibiting nerve signals in animals. With about 700 species of Conus, there are hundreds of unique peptide molecules that can be derived from this type of marine venom. Novel conotoxins from Australian sources have been screened for their abilities to modify the responses of tissues to pain, helping to identify their potential as new drug leads. In particular, Conopeptides offer new insights into pain perception and transmission.
This type of research has already lead to the development of a new drug called ziconitide (trade name Prialt). It was approved in 2004 for treating chronic, intractable pain, such as that suffered by people with cancer, AIDS, or certain neurological disorders. Other potential possibilities that have been suggested for conopeptides include intractable epilepsy, nerve injury, Parkinson’s, and Alzheimer’s. Yet we may lose these coral reef species before many valuable conopetides have been explored.
Before you even consider the issues related to climate, tourism and the economy, consider the fact that future improvements for human health and well-being may well rely on the amazing biodiversity of coral reefs and marine ecosystems.
Be a part of the movement by visiting Action.org.au environmental pages or join the Australian Marine Conservation Society’s ‘Fight for the Reef’ petition.