[Coral-List] Sunscreen, corals, and the usual suspects
Curtis Kruer
kruer at 3rivers.net
Wed Dec 12 13:07:27 EST 2007
Coral-List,
Thanks to the folks that responded with their thoughts on my worrying
about the day to day human impacts in the Keys coral reef ecosystem -
and the lack of active resource management there. Regarding the long
history of the Keys and the serious mortality to hard corals there the
last few decades - I know all of that and I'm probably the only one of
the folks who graciously responded to me that actually lived there. I
moved to the Keys in 1977 and have been working, diving, observing,
collecting, harvesting, fishing, mapping, and testifying in court
throughout the Keys since about 1971. I witnessed the same die-offs
that you did and I understand the various problems that degraded water
quality there and probably resulted in mortality to hard corals in many
offshore locations. I've read most of what was published by you guys
and and listened as the government assured us that all would be OK with
the designation of the FKNMS. Over the years I mapped the Keys from one
end to the other, from high to low, for NOAA, the state of Florida and
non-profits, and can point to large habitat restoration projects from
North Key Largo to Key West that I'm responsible for. I know the Keys
and their history.
But evidently I'm a terrible communicator. While you guys maintain a
myopic (narrow) view that the Keys are only about a few species of
reef-building hard corals, I've tried to express my opinions about the
ecosystem as a whole (which of course agencies pretend to as well). And
the human-caused problems I try to express opinions about go far beyond
a few species of hard corals. And I've never meant to suggest that "the
usual suspects have been the major cause of coral demise during the past
30 years" as Dr. Shinn and others have written and like others I
believe that discussing sunscreen, lead, and the like is truly a waste
of our time.
The Florida Keys are an amazing, unique, highly productive place even
ignoring hard corals and your "coral reefs". And 500,000 40 lb lobster
traps tear up hard bottom communities that include numerous plants and
animals including sponges, soft and solitary hard corals, and other
macroinvertebrates. NOAA has documented that lost traps kill and
degrade Keys seagrasses yet 100,000s of traps are lost there every year
there. 600 vessel groundings each year destroy all types of habitats.
Unmanaged stormwater runoff degrades nearshore habitats - Key West (the
community proud of its tertiary STP with deep well injection) can't dump
its nasty stormwater fast enough after even a small storm event.
Resuspended sediment from obscenely oversized cruise ships and other
large vessels is chronic in places nearshore and highly degrading to
diverse benthic communities. And on and on and on. I'm convinced that
NOAA's misplaced confidence that all is OK works against its best
interests and spills over to other Keys management agencies. Monroe
County continues to be pro-development and advocates destruction of even
more tropical hardwood hammock - since all is OK. The USFWS Refuge
System wants to cut down large areas of buttonwood trees on Big Pine and
burn salt marshes as an "experiment" that may benefit a single species
there - because all is OK otherwise. NOAA brazenly ignores requests
for information directed to it by those outside the government.
Things are not OK in the Keys and if NOAA Sanctuaries wants help getting
their funding restored then they need to level with the public. I've
intentionally waited more than 10 years to see what was accomplished by
the 1996 FKNMS management plan and even though there have been numerous
awards, commendations, ceremonies, parties, honorary degrees, expensive
education programs and visitors centers and the like since 1996 little
else has changed. I'm convinced more than ever that the FKNMS needs a
"Report Card" like the Chesapeake Bay and other large management
efforts, and those concerned about good long-term management of Keys
marine resources should demand it. It is almost 2008 after all and if
all is really OK then there would be a measure of it.
The Florida Keys are about much more than a relatively few species of
hard corals (the "reef") and all is not OK there. Death by a thousand
cuts cannot be ignored. And you know what else - no one has yet to
tell me I'm wrong.
I'm done for a while I promise. Thanks again for listening and thanks
to NOAA for the postings.
Curtis Kruer
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