Use less sunscreen to protect Hainan coral

A netizen recently published a post titled "Please use less sunscreen , Hainan coral can not afford to hurt", attracting hundreds of netizens onlookers. The netizen wrote in the post: I saw an article today saying that sunscreen is the killer of coral. Is this really the case? I hope that some experts will come out and say. If it is true, if Hainan is too sun-dried, don't do it, then try to use less.

In summer, the sun in Hainan is like a fire. Many women who love beauty have applied sunscreen as a compulsory course before going out. For those who venture to the beach with such strong ultraviolet rays, sunscreen has become a "must have weapon" - not for beauty, but also for sun damage. But is sunscreen really a killer of corals known as "sea stone flowers"? How much impact does it have on corals? Do Hainan residents and tourists know this? With these questions, Hainan Daily reporters randomly interviewed some citizens and tourists in the beaches of Haikou, Wenchang and Sanya, and consulted marine experts.

Research data sunscreen has an effect on coral

It is understood that a research team at the Marche University of Technology in Italy once concluded in 2008 that the sunscreen contains ingredients that kill cyanobacteria that are symbiotic with corals, even at very low concentrations. . The persistence of bleaching will lead to the death of corals. Dr. Danobaro of the research team warned that “the rise in water temperature, pollution, etc. threaten the growth of corals around the world, and the increase in tourists may have even worse effects.” He also said, “The sun is actually in the environment. The possibility of frost affecting corals is high. It is considered necessary to switch to substances that have less impact on corals to make sunscreens.

The research team has adopted corals in the waters of Indonesia, Mexico, Thailand and Egypt. Breeding corals in seawater where only one part per million of sunscreen is used. It was found that within 18 hours to 48 hours, the cyanobacteria on the corals fell off a lot, and after 96 hours, the corals were completely whitened. The team conducted a detailed investigation of the composition of the sunscreen, confirming that the same proportion of antiseptics, cinnamic acid, benzophenone, camphor and other four substances into the seawater will also cause coral bleaching.

However, this survey was quickly thought to be: just a laboratory environment, not a natural environment. But these did not stop the determination of environmentalists to keep sunscreen away from corals. They advised sunscreen manufacturers to replace all chemical sunscreens with natural botanical sunscreens. Some big-name cosmetics manufacturers responded to this call, and the “natural plant and marine anti-pollution complex” sunscreen began to appear on the packaging, but the price of the product has also soared to a price that is difficult for ordinary Chinese consumers to bear.

Respondents said they did not know the sunscreen damage

Coral, a beautiful alias among fishermen in Hainan Province: “Sea Stone Flower”, a flower that will bloom. As a major marine province, Hainan Province's authorized jurisdiction accounts for 2/3 of the total marine area of ​​China, and is known as the “treasure of marine life”. In addition to thousands of fish species and a variety of precious aquatic wildlife, Hainan's coral reefs rank first in the country in terms of variety, distribution area or ecological conditions.

In Sanya, many tourists from other places come to this beautiful underwater fairy tale world. Put on the wetsuit, plunged into the South China Sea, swim and play on the bottom of the sea, the dazzling and colorful creatures on the sea floor are exciting, and the colorful soft corals growing on the magnificent coral reefs are heart-warming. In the diving spots such as Yalong Bay, West Island and Xiaodonghai, every diver asked by the reporter will answer with excitement with a smile on his face: "Too beautiful!"

However, due to the hot sun in Hainan, many residents and tourists will wear sunscreen when they go out. Some websites, like Tongcheng.com, also mentioned in Sanya's travel sunscreen recommendation that the sunlight is not directly reflected from the sky. The light reflected by the ground is also very strong. The reflectivity of different reflective surfaces is very different, such as 1% of the lawn. - 2%, the asphalt floor is 5% - 6%, the beach can reach 15% - 20%, and the water surface is 10% - 100%. It can be seen that the reflection of the beach and water in the sun is particularly high, so when playing at the beach Even if the sun is not too strong, you need to use super SPF value sun care.

Recently, in the afterglow of the sunset, the reporter drove to the seaside of Gaolong Bay in Wenchang City, just in time to meet a group of high school students playing in the water. Erasing the drops of water splashed by his companions, Li Shan smiled and told reporters: "Today's classmates have a birthday, the people in the class come together to have a fun here." The reporter asked if she had sunburned the sun, Li Shan The answer is "Yes." But when the reporter told Li Shan that some sunscreens would cause coral bleaching and illness, she was shocked: "Sunscreen is harmful to corals?" Not only the local residents of Hainan, but even tourists who come to Hainan to visit, the reporter interviewed randomly. In the crowd, not many people know the harm of sunscreen to corals.

On the evening of July 10th, Sanya’s Dadong seaside, the tourists who splashed water laughed. Ms. Huang from Beijing is carefully applying sunscreen to her daughter who wants to play in the water. When asked by reporters that some sunscreens were harmful to corals, Ms. Huang looked surprised. However, she immediately told reporters: "The sea is so big, it is a living water. We only have a little bit of it, it should have no effect."

Expert voice protects corals from the beginning

Some netizens in China are also aware of the harm of sunscreen to corals and began to spontaneously appeal and popularize this knowledge.

Netizen Zheng Yaqi forwarded a message on Sina Weibo: corals maintain the survival of a quarter of marine life, and if extinct will lead to global ecological collapse. The reason corals are dying is due to sea warming and sunscreen. What's more, I researched sunscreens that made great effects with corals, and then went back to the sea to "kill each other." Human beings have done the ultimate in destroying corals.

Netizen Peng Jing V replies: I really don't know! Fortunately, I went to the beach three times without sunscreen and went swimming. However, does the sewage in the coastal city neutralize the sunscreen?

Netizen's mother, Wendy, said: I have not eaten shark's fin bird's nest, and I don't wear fur ivory costumes, but I love swimming in the sea, and I am afraid of sunburn and sunburn. Why do humans live more and more naturally than natural ones?

Is sunscreen really not the same as coral? Chen Hong, director of the South China Sea Tropical Sea Life and Disease Research Institute, told reporters that the cause of coral deaths is multifaceted. From a global perspective, human activities have led to an increase in carbon dioxide emissions, which has led to an increase in global temperatures. However, in Hainan, the coral deaths are mainly caused by factors such as marine aquaculture, overfishing, and unscientific tourism development.

Chen Hong said that the chemical composition of sunscreen is indeed harmful to corals, but it needs to reach a certain concentration. Hainan has not found any case of coral caused by coral chemical composition. But as more and more tourists visit the coral-grown seaside and dive into the corals, to truly protect the corals that are already in close contact with humans, visitors should consciously not touch or It is to step on the coral with your feet. Of course, people who swim in the water are also a kind of protection method. "Protect the coral, you must start from the spot."