Another viewpoint on Exotic corals cultured in the Caribbean
Fabrice Poiraud-Lambert
fpl at circop.com
Fri Jun 29 08:11:46 EDT 2001
Dear all,
Sorry for this question, but there is no hidden thinking behind as this is
not my area : what could be the bad effects of a foreign coral species
propagation in Caribbean (or somewhere else) ? Replacement/destruction of
the previous ones and loss of the associated animals (fish, shrimps, etc...)
? Diseases ?
Is there no positive aspect ? What if all coral species are gone/killed in a
specific area ? No hope ?
Chris said : "(...) given the slow-growing nature of coral (...) are corals
being taken from the wild for propagation or are they being cultured from
gametes in the lab? It would seem counter-productive to harvest coral to
propagate them for restoration"
=> As far as I know (at least based on my personnal reef tank production
where I need to harvest fragments very often), many coral species can grow
very fast in captive tanks (check this movie from a not too fast Acropora sp
: http://mars.reefkeeper.net/movie.html), and one fast growing mother colony
can give several hundreds of small colonies per year. Coral Farms in the
wild (in the Philippines for ex) shown that this fragments farming allows to
produce thousands of small colonies per months...and this is feasible with
fewer skills and equipment than with Gametes...no ? Is it that chocking ?
Best Regards
Fabrice
----- Original Message -----
From: Chris Jeffrey <Chris.Jeffrey at noaa.gov>
To: <jware at erols.com>
Cc: Vogel, David <Dvogel at rossmed.edu.dm>; <coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov>
Sent: Wednesday, June 27, 2001 9:35 PM
Subject: Re: Another viewpoint on Exotic corals cultured in the Caribbean
> Dear list
>
> I would like to add to John Ware's and David's Vogel's concerns about the
> propagation of corals in Dominica. We all recognize the potential
ecological
> disaster that this specific operation may bode for that part of the
> Caribbean. Additionally, It seem almost impossible that such an operation
> could generate long term profits, given the slow-growing nature of coral,
> and the openness of the resource. Would I advise anyone to buy corals and
> place them back on a reef, where they can become damaged or become a free
> resource for anyone to harvest and market? Additionally are corals being
> taken from the wild for propagation or are they being cultured from
gametes
> in the lab? It would seem counter-productive to harvest coral to propagate
> them for restoration.
>
> However, the Dominica situation is symptomatic of the economic and
> environmental dilemma now facing the small island states of the
> south-eastern Caribbean. The demise of the bananas and other crops (e.g.,
> nutmegs, cocoa) as a major foreign exchange earner for this region has
> forced many farmers to abandon their bananas fields and seek alternative
> means to earn a living (e.g., hotels, night time security, fishing). I
know
> this personally because I am from Grenada and several of my neighbors have
> have stopped farming. I have heard that some farmers in neighboring
islands
> have even threatened to grow marijuana in retaliation to perceived U.S.
> threats to the region's banana industry (The banana demise was due
primarily
> to the U.S. decision to force the British Commonwealth to stop subsidizing
> Eastern Caribbean bananas to ensure fair international trade as pointed
out
> by david Vogel).
>
> It may be that the Dominica authorities are now looking for alternative
> means of economic income for the people of Dominica. The project may seem
> rather "stupid or disastrous" ecologically, but it may be an economically
> rational (although not the best) response to increasing economic hardship.
> Many other south eastern Caribbean islands have made similar responses to
> declining economic conditions. One only has to look at the new and
> relatively large fisheries complexes being built in these islands (e.g.,
> Grenada, St. Vincent and others) within the last decade through financial
> and technical assistance from Asian countries (e.g., Japan, Taiwan, Korea
> etc.). These fisheries complexes were/are being built based on the premise
> that increased fishing/processing capacity, results in increased fish
> landings, and ultimately, would bring more economic benefits to these
> islands. Clearly, the trend in world fish catch has shown that increased
> fishing capacity will not increase the amount of fish available for
fishing,
> but eventually would result in the decline of available fish resources.
>
> So the hard question now is, does a person/people/island have the luxury
to
> worry about the potential or future ecological consequences of
his/her/their
> actions when faced with the problem of providing for life's basic
> necessities during an economic crisis such as faced by the south-eastern
> Caribbean islands? I would bet that this would be the argument that any
U.S.
> based environmentalist/ecologist trying to would face if they were to
tackle
> such an issue in those islands. The sad thing is that corporations/firms
> from "developed countries" often try to exploit this
economic-environmental
> dilemma by going to these small islands with project/schemes that would
fail
> or would not be allowed in their home countries (Dominica being the case
in
> point).
>
>
> Chris
>
>
>
> John Ware wrote:
>
> > Dear List,
> >
> > Just as an aside to David Vogel's concerns about the propagation of
> > corals on Dominica: I visited the lab in Dec, 1999. At that time I was
> > told that there is some sort of quid pro quo with the Dominican
> > government. That's well enough. However, the startling information was
> > that some Dominican government official supposedly suggested that, what
> > with all these corals from all over the world, one could set up various
> > reef types around the island. There could be, for example, an
> > Australian reef and a Hawaiian reef and a Samoan reef, etc.
> >
> > Naturally, the lab explained the problems associated with such a
> > scheme. One wonders when someone will actually try something that
> > stupid and we find a real ecological disaster on our hands. Imagine
> > Acanthaster in the Caribbean!!
> >
> > John
> >
> > --
> > *************************************************************
> > * *
> > * John R. Ware, PhD *
> > * President *
> > * SeaServices, Inc. *
> > * 19572 Club House Road *
> > * Montgomery Village, MD, 20886 *
> > * 301 987-8507 *
> > * jware at erols.com *
> > * seaservices.org *
> > * fax: 301 987-8531 *
> > * _ *
> > * | *
> > * ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~|~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ *
> > * _|_ *
> > * | _ | *
> > * _______________________________| |________ *
> > * |\/__ Undersea Technology for the 21st Century \ *
> > * |/\____________________________________________/ *
> > **************************************************************
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>
> --
> Chris Jeffrey
>
> NOAA/NOS/CCMA/Biogeography Program
> 301.713.3028 x-134 (Tel)
> 301.713.4384 (Fax)
> email: chris.jeffrey at noaa.gov
> Http://www.arches.uga.edu/~cjeffrey
>
> Mailing Address:
>
> ATTN. Chris Jeffrey
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> 1305 East-West Highway, SSMC-4,
> Silver Spring, MD 20910-3281
>
>
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>
>
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