Coral’s Tears
Glen Head, NY
2021, Junior, Performing Arts
Reflection
What drove me to create this music piece was my scuba diving experience in the Caribbean last year. I had expected to see fields of beautiful, colorful coral reefs in front of me, but when I descended into the water, I discovered that many reefs had calcified and turned gray due to excessive human activity. I later learned through research that the rise of ocean temperatures is also contributing to coral bleaching. The high water temperature causes coral to expel the symbiotic algae, leading corals to die and leave behind their skeletons. I was shocked by the fact that humans were not taking drastic action to lessen the effect of coral deterioration. Seeing the state of the corals underwater made me sad and indignant. Thus, I was inspired up to write a song to express the sadness that I felt and to channel the former beauty of these dying corals. It is frustrating that many divers put on a large amount of sunscreen, which harms marine life, including the lovely corals. Human interference such as touching corals and other marine life also hurts them. If people choose environmentally friendly sunscreen, there will be greater hope for marine lives to flourish. Oceans need to be taken care of by us because we cannot live without them. This music composition displays my sadness and anger for all the mismanagement and carelessness people show toward the corals. We have to acknowledge that we are killing the corals and need to take conscious action to lessen our impact.