transplanting Acropora cytherea to MHI (fwd)

[Coral Health and Monitoring Program]

Forwarded message: 

---------- Forwarded message ---------- 
Date: Thu, 22 Feb 1996 07:10:05 -0500 
From: Ursula Keuper-Bennett <howzit at io.org> 
To: owner-coral-list at reef.aoml.erl.gov 
Subject: Re: transplanting Acropora cytherea to MHI (fwd) 

Robert Miller <bmiller at soest.hawaii.edu> wrote: 

 The reefs of the main Hawaiian chain  
>are now pretty depauperate, due partly to the fact that this area is not  
>a good habitat for corals, as Ed pointed out (too much disturbance).  

You are right with the too much disturbance part. Only I don't think we 
would agree on what "disturbance" means.  Again, I am only reporting here on 
the reefs along West Maui but most of them were done in by run-off and 
(likely) sewage "management". 

Robert Miller then wrote: 

>think his proposal deserves careful consideration based on the  
>biogeography of the area and not dismissal based on the mere  
>presence of numerous examples of bad exotic introductions.   

Fair.... but let's make that highly cautious consideration instead. 

Robert Miller than wrote: 

The  
>reintroduction of cytheria should more appropriately be compared to the  
>seeding of native plants wiped out by a particularly bad winter. 

I recall the damage done to certain areas of Kaneohe Bay because of sewage 
outfall and construction run-off.  There was a documentary made on it "Cloud 
over the Reef" I believe... It might even be these areas you are considering 
"replanting". 

Then there is my dive site in West Maui where many of the corals got wiped 
out in a single Cladophora bloom of 1989.  The area has experienced annual 
blooms of various algaes/seaweeds since then.  What used to be mature P. 
endouyxii and meandrina heads are now clumps of seaweeds. 

The fact they got so big means for decades that ocean had the right water 
quality they required for growth.  These corals were NOT wiped out by a 
"particularly bad winter".  Crashing waves (hurricanes) did not do them in. 

They are STILL in place only overgrown with seaweeds and algae.  See a 
"particularly bad winter" implies your reefs are being done in by nature. 
That is not only false but a harmful assertion.  It suggests man has little 
role to play but "replant". 

Given my experience with Hawaii's lack of resolve to protect its reef 
resources, no "particularly bad winter" can match the harm humans do daily 
to your oceans.    

                      ^                  Ursula Keuper-Bennett 
                     0 0                 Mississauga, Ontario 
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