[Coral-List] Bleaching Havens

[Phil Dustan]

Hi Apul,
In some places where there are currents, one could consider sinking a 
ship that would actr as a foil to direct water from deeper depths up 
into the shallow reef areas. For example, why not sink an aging aircraft 
carrier with its flight deck oriented to direct an upwelling event from 
say 50-90 meters?

			Phil



Phillip Dustan  Ph.D.
Department of Biology
College of Charleston
Charleston   SC  29424
(843) 953-8086 voice
(843) 953-5453 (Fax)



Paul Muir wrote:
> I was wondering if people have investigated ways to protect small areas of
> reef from warm water bleaching events. We were recently in the west Indian
> Ocean and were quite surprised at how slowly the reefs are recovering from
> the '98 bleaching event - at least by our (GBR) standards. We attributed
> this slow recovery to the severity of the bleaching (95% + in many places)
> and the isolated nature of the reefs - presumably this would have meant that
> larval supply available for recovery was initially very low.  In many places
> for example, all the Acroporas we saw were post-98 recruits. Given this slow
> recovery it begs the questions:  (a) what if there's two such events within
> a few years (b) have there already been local extinctions and (c) can
> anything be done to get a faster rate of recovery?  
> 
> I understand that warm water bleaching coral mortality can sometimes be
> reduced by reducing solar irradiation? If so it would be relatively "easy"
> to shade small areas of reef for short periods of time during the warm water
> event using a plastic fabric that is used in greenhouses (ironic!) and dam
> covers. The fabric is light, inexpensive, tough, it floats and is easily
> welded or sewn - fitted with air pockets it would be quite possible to make
> a portable, floating cover which could shade several hundred square meters
> of reef for short periods. Not sure if this would work (it might make it
> hotter!!) but some type of 'haven' could provide a source of recruits/
> larvae- speeding recovery and possibly reducing localised extinction of
> rarer species in isolated reef systems.
> 
> 
> Dr. Paul Muir
> Museum of Tropical Queensland, 
> 78-104 Flinders St, 
> Townsville QLD 4810 Australia. 
> ph 07 47 260 642 fax 07 47 212 093  
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