[Coral-List] Remnancy vs resiliency Part 3: making a list

Thu Mar 23 13:48:19 EST 2006

Thanks Alina. I can't help but think that I should not
be eating, or breathing very much, living in Asia (we
do so love our seafood), and living along the coast. I
also like to visit coral reef sites (who doesn't?). So
what to do?

Quite a dilemma ... which bears discussion and
introspection.

Cheers, Jeff

--- "Szmant, Alina" <szmanta at uncw.edu> wrote:

> I'd like to add one real 'biggy' to the list:
> 
> DON'T EAT REEF SPECIES, ESPECIALLY SPINY LOBSTER
> 
> It's seafood demand that creates the incentive for
> people to capture, at
> any cost, and down to the last critter, reef fishes,
> lobsters, octopi
> etc.  There is plenty of evidence, some only
> conjectural I admit, about
> the effects on 'reef health' of lop-sided coral reef
> trophic webs with
> no predators, and that includes the grazers, too,
> which prey on smaller
> critters.  I was amazed after the furor about Bakers
> Cay that there was
> barely a peep about opening the Florida Keys lobster
> fishery a month
> early.
> 
> The lobster fishermen in the Keys are trashing our
> precious coral reefs
> with their traps and lines, and I don't hear anyone
> screaming about
> that...only sewage!  Why not????   
> 
> After every hurricane or major storm, the reefs are
> covered by trap
> debris that stays there for years banging into the
> corals. The thick
> lines from the traps drag for 50 to 100 of feet and
> get tangled into the
> few remaining Acropora colonies, and all over
> sponges and soft corals.
> The lobster fishermen are not responsible for
> recovering lost/broken
> traps.  They just go buy new ones and toss them out
> there the following
> year as close as they can to any unprotected
> hard-bottom/coral reef and
> out-lining the perimeters of the SPAs(Sanctuary
> Preservation Areas...
> no-take zones within the FKNMS).  No wonder that the
> traps end up inside
> the SPAs after every storm.  
> 
> The modern seafood industry is amazing!  And the
> issue is not limited to
> just local reef fisheries.  Fishes (generically
> including lobster,
> octopus etc) caught off of Honduras, Martinique,
> Guana Cay or any place
> else in the world, end up in consolidation markets
> in major ports (e.g.
> Miami, San Francisco), and from their to major
> re-packagers and
> international seafood redistribution centers (e.g.
> Kansas City) from
> where they are shipped to local distributors for
> sale to restaurants
> (e.g. Chicago, Wilmington, La Parguera PR, Athens
> Ga, Key Largo FL,
> Nassau).  So there's no way to know which desecrated
> reef the snapper or
> grouper you buy came from (i.e. one in your back
> yard you are trying to
> protect, or one in somebody else's back yard that
> you are willing to
> look the other way in order to enjoy a nice meal).
> 
> David Doubilet, famous National Geographic UW
> photographer, who is lucky
> enough to travel and photograph the most remote and
> 'pristine' of coral
> reefs, was asked what the biggest change he had
> observed in coral reefs
> was (this was ca. 10 years ago), and he replied:  No
> big fishes or big
> anything else.  Thus it's not just near developments
> that this is
> happening, it's everywhere people can get with their
> boats and GPS and
> sonar fish finders...everywhere...  Including where
> the 15 commercial
> fishing boats on Guana Cay catch their fishes.
> 
> My suggestions for all of you out there who care
> about the World's coral
> reefs (and "World Peace", for those of you who are
> Miss Congeniality
> fans)do the following:
> 
> 1)  Never, ever again take a vacation to a coral
> reef unless you have a
> way to take home with you every scrap of material
> (soda & beer bottles,
> left over food, your personal waste products,
> including used toilet
> paper).
>  
> 2)  Convince all of your friends and neighbors from
> taking reef
> vacations, and protest at local travel agents that
> sell people tours to
> coral reef locations.
> 
> 3)  Never, EVER again eat a spiny lobster, grouper,
> snapper or any other
> reef dwelling predator, and complain vociferously if
> you find them
> listed on the menu any place you eat, or if anyone
> else in your party
> orders them in your presence.
> 
> If everyone participated in this way, we could maybe
> start to reverse
> the health of coral reefs, all of which are
> overfished compared to their
> pre-modern condition.  Even within no-take zones
> there's plenty of
> poaching,a nd by only trying to protect a few reef
> areas against fishing
> (20 % of US reefs is the goal of the US Coral Reef
> Task Force) then you
> condemn 80 % of the reefs of the world to have
> dysfunctional trophic
> dynamics (i.e. too much algae and sponges, and not
> much of anything
> else).
> 
> OK, this is longer than I had hoped, but I am now
> ready for the flaming
> to begin.  Jim H. advised me to drink some good PR
> rum to fortify
> myself, but rum is made from sugar cane and we all
> know that sugar cane
> uses a lot of fertilizer, and the run-off from the
> sugar cane fields has
> been damaging to coral reefs all over the Caribbean,
> especially  those
> of my beloved Puerto Rico (in the past, very little
> cane left in PR; now
> it's sun coffee for all you coffee drinkers), so
> I'll have to stick with
> Diet Coke (until I can find the connection from that
> to coral reefs).
> 
> Alina Szmant
> 
> 
>
*******************************************************************
> Dr. Alina M. Szmant
> Coral Reef Research Group
> UNCW-Center for Marine Science 
> 5600 Marvin K. Moss Ln
> Wilmington NC 28409
> Tel: (910)962-2362 & Fax:  (910)962-2410
> Cell:  (910)200-3913
> email:  szmanta at uncw.edu
> Web Page:  http://people.uncw.edu/szmanta
>
******************************************************************
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: coral-list-bounces at coral.aoml.noaa.gov
> [mailto:coral-list-bounces at coral.aoml.noaa.gov] On
> Behalf Of Jeffrey Low
> Sent: Thursday, March 23, 2006 8:51 AM
> To: Phil Dustan; coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov
> Subject: Re: [Coral-List] Remnancy vs resiliency
> Part 3: making a list
> 
> Hi Phil,
> 
> I collated some from the various emails on this
> issue
> ... mostly "personal" level stuff, though. Hope this
> helps.
> 
> Key actions - local actions for global response
> 
> 1. Education
> - educate the kids
> - reach out (don't preach to the converted)
> - identify a mascot species
> - create realistic, entertaining shows
> - educate developers / politicians
> 
> 2. Reduce consumption
> - reduce energy consumption (air conditioners,
> lights,
> electrical appliances)
> - make recycling part of our life
> - consume less
> - buy local
> - travel less
> - use public transport, use the stairs, walk instead
> of drive (for short distances) 
> 
> 3. Participate
> - teach at a local school
> - be active in NGOs
> - blog about issues
> - by creating websites on conservation issues
> 
> --- Phil Dustan <dustanp at cofc.edu> wrote:
> 
> > Dear Listers,
> > 	Now that we have exhausted all the rhetoric and
> > have cleared our minds 
> > and consciences, might it be possible to translate
> > our feelings into 
> > actions that could be accomplished at the scales
> of
> > Global, regional, 
> > and local?
> > 
> > lease post your comments if you'd like to
> contribute
> > and I will work 
> > towards collating them...............Please try to
> keep things
> > short (and perhaps 
> > sweet).
> > 
> > Here are a few possibilities:
> > 
> > 	Global -
> > 		US should sign the Kyoto Accord,
> > 		Reduce generation of African Dust
> > 		
> > 	Regional in the Caribbean
> > 		Large scale culture and release of Diadema
> > antillarum
> > 		Construct a basin-wide system of no-take MPAs
> > 
> > 	Local:
> > 		Larger no-take zones in the Florida Keys
> National
> > Marine 			Sanctuary
> > 		Construction of sewer and septic systems in the
> > Florida 			Keys that 
> > actually meet design criteria for removal of 			
> > nutrients,BOD, and 
> > microbial contaminants
> > 		Provide incentives to restore the terrestrial
> > landscape 				to 
> > minimize loss of nutrients and sediments
> > 
> > 		Thanks,
> > 		Phil
> > 
> > 
> > -- 
> > Phillip Dustan  Ph.D.
> > Department of Biology
> > College of Charleston
> > Charleston   SC  29424
> > (843) 953-8086 voice
> > (843) 953-5453 (Fax)
> > 
> > 
> > _______________________________________________
> > Coral-List mailing list
> > Coral-List at coral.aoml.noaa.gov
> >
>
http://coral.aoml.noaa.gov/mailman/listinfo/coral-list
> > 
> 
> 
> 
> 		
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