[Coral-List] Fwd: Conservation versus restoration of coral reefs

Fri Feb 15 10:52:52 EST 2008

> Dear Dee Von,
>
> The only thing that really works is to stop algae killing reefs is  
> to stop polluting the water with nutrients, then the weedy algae  
> die back very fast. In one bay in Jamaica that I got cleaned up of  
> nutrient sources 10 years ago the weedy algae have not come back,  
> and elkhorn is growing again! But we also have to cut out the  
> greenhouse gas emissions too and absorb the excess CO2 now in the  
> atmosphere.
>
> Best wishes,
> Tom
>
> On Feb 15, 2008, at 10:46 AM, DeeVon Quirolo wrote:
>
>> Well stated Tommy--and the current loss of corals to disease  
>> driven by pollution and poor water quality is under-estimated,   
>> with some managers actually mistaking white diseases for bleaching  
>> to compound the problem.  If we were to put available resources  
>> into cleaning up the water, coral reefs would be far more  
>> resilient than we ever imagined; above all coral reefs need is  
>> clear, clean, nutrient-free waters to thrive.  What a simple  
>> concept; yet millions are being spent looking for other answers  
>> while ignoring this obvious, to paraphrase it,  "whale in the room".
>>
>> All the best, DeeVon Quirolo,  Reef Relief
>>
>> On Wed, Feb 13, 2008 at 2:05 PM, Thomas Goreau  
>> <goreau at bestweb.net> wrote:
>> >> From: Thomas Goreau <goreau at bestweb.net>
>> >> Date: February 2, 2008 1:08:20 PM EST
>> >> To: coral-list coral-list <coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov>
>> >> Cc: miguel_castrence at fulbrightweb.org
>> >> Subject: Conservation versus restoration of coral reefs
>> >>
>> >> Dear Miguel,
>> >>
>> >> Too true, as pointed out in the New York Times article you quote,
>> >> just  letting reefs die as a lost cause is the effective result of
>> >> the largely unspoken consensus of most of the big conservation
>> >> groups,. governments, and funding agencies. At the UN Climate
>> >> Change Conference in Bali, the future of coral reefs and low lying
>> >> coasts was deliberately and knowingly sacrificed, by those who
>> >> simply want to continue business as usual and the profits it
>> >> brings them.
>> >>
>> >> Since the models being used to project future temperature and sea
>> >> level impacts have serious and systematic flaws that cause them to
>> >> under-estimate future impacts of global warming, the situation is
>> >> more dire than they realize. The predictions being made by the
>> >> models for the impacts on coral reefs are mere guesses, not only
>> >> do they underestimate the mean rates of increase shown by the data
>> >> (which will certainly accelerate) but also they also ignore the
>> >> variability of extreme events. An exceptionally hot year or a big
>> >> storm will wipe these areas out LONG before mean temperature
>> >> change and sea level rise does. No number of papers based on
>> >> models in Science and Nature or wishful thinking from IYOR can
>> >> reverse this.
>> >>
>> >> The bulk of the "managing resilience" fad now underway has nothing
>> >> in fact to do with real resilience, in the sense of making corals
>> >> more capable of withstanding thermal stress. It is instead a
>> >> desperate search for those sites that had less stress to begin
>> >> with, due to local weather or circulation patterns, or had already
>> >> long lost the stress-sensitive species and therefore superficially
>> >> seem to appear more stress-tolerant. As thermal stress increases,
>> >> even those few areas lucky enough to have escaped its serious
>> >> effects so far will succumb, sooner rather than later, for the
>> >> reasons stated above. Nevertheless, after the Indian Ocean tsunami
>> >> the World Bank Expert Group on Coral Reef Restoration and the
>> >> International Coral Reef Initiative told the countries affected
>> >> that restoration is "neither feasible nor prudent" and that they
>> >> should do nothing at all, they should just wait and the resilient
>> >> reefs would grow back all by themselves. But almost all of the
>> >> reefs in these places were already long dead for one reason or
>> >> another, and had failed to recover!
>> >>
>> >> There is only one method known that can keep corals alive under
>> >> high temperatures that would ordinarily kill them. In the Maldives
>> >> in 1998 the corals we were growing with our electrical trickle
>> >> charging method had 16 to 50 times higher survival than
>> >> surrounding reefs (Please note that is TIMES higher survival, not
>> >> PERCENT. See T. Goreau, W. Hilbertz, & A. Azeez Hakeem, 2000,
>> >> Increased Coral and Fish Survival on Mineral Accretion Reef
>> >> Structures in the Maldives after the 1998 Bleaching Event,
>> >> International Coral Reef Symposium, abstracts p. 263). Our corals
>> >> bleached too, because they were exposed to the same temperatures,
>> >> but they did not die, because they had more metabolic energy to
>> >> resist stress. Therefore there is a proven way to keep reefs alive
>> >> where they would otherwise die, and in our Coral Arks in some 20
>> >> countries we are now growing more than 80% of all the coral genera
>> >> in the world, despite absolutely no funding whatsoever for serious
>> >> coral reef restoration or adaptation work. This work is entirely
>> >> being done with very small individual donations and in-kind
>> >> funding from concerned locals in poor countries who just want to
>> >> keep their corals and fish alive even though the international
>> >> community and funding agencies have let them know in the most
>> >> tangible possible way that they couldn't care less if they die.
>> >>
>> >> Our work has been widely ridiculed as a futile waste of time by
>> >> those tossing around the big bucks. They say: if you can't save it
>> >> all, what's the point? Our response is: if we don't save all we
>> >> possibly can, what will we have left? They say: it is very
>> >> dangerous to tell people you can restore reefs because then you
>> >> are encouraging them to go and destroy reefs! We respond: that is
>> >> like accusing tree planters of causing rainforest destruction!
>> >>
>> >> What we can't seem to get these folks to understand is very
>> >> simple. We are already way past the point where conservation alone
>> >> of what is left can maintain the ecosystem services of coral
>> >> reefs. Every Marine Protected Area I've seen is full of dead and
>> >> dying corals, and no matter how much money is spent setting them
>> >> up and managing them, they are powerless to stop the decline, much
>> >> less reverse it. If we don't start large scale restoration we can
>> >> kiss our marine biodiversity, fisheries, tourism,beaches, and
>> >> shore protection goodbye. Large scale restoration is now our only
>> >> hope. But no decision makers or funders seem to get it. Nor will
>> >> those who predictably respond to this message saying that marine
>> >> protected areas and international campaigns to encourage
>> >> resilience are the answer.
>> >>
>> >> Best wishes,
>> >> Tom
>> >>
>> >> Thomas J. Goreau, PhD
>> >> President
>> >> Global Coral Reef Alliance
>> >> 37 Pleasant Street, Cambridge MA 02139
>> >> 617-864-4226
>> >> goreau at bestweb.net
>> >> http://www.globalcoral.org
>> >>
>> >> On Feb 2, 2008, at 12:00 PM, coral-list-
>> >> request at coral.aoml.noaa.gov wrote:
>> >>
>> >>> Date: Fri, 01 Feb 2008 09:31:04 -1000
>> >>> From: Miguel Castrence <miguel_castrence at fulbrightweb.org>
>> >>> Subject: [Coral-List] The Preservation Predicament
>> >>> To: coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov
>> >>>
>> >>> This recent NY Times article caught my attention, especially this
>> >>> provocative statement:
>> >>>
>> >>> "Some conservationists advocate triage, accepting that some
>> >>> ecosystems, like coral reefs, may not survive in a warmer  
>> world, and
>> >>> putting their efforts elsewhere."
>> >>>
>> >>> I wonder if such statements could be damaging for our endeavors.
>> >>> --
>> >>> Miguel Castrence
>> >>> PhD Student | UH-Manoa Geography | www.geography.hawaii.edu
>> >>> Graduate Degree Fellow | East-West Center | eastwestcenter.org
>> >>> Research Assistant | Hawai`i Institute of Marine Biology |
>> >>> www.himb.hawaii.edu
>> >>>
>> >>> Coral-List mailing list
>> >>> Coral-List at coral.aoml.noaa.gov
>> >>> http://coral.aoml.noaa.gov/mailman/listinfo/coral-list
>> >>>
>> >>> End of Coral-List Digest, Vol 56, Issue 3
>> >>> *****************************************
>> >>
>> >>
>> >>
>> >
>> > Thomas J. Goreau, PhD
>> > President
>> > Global Coral Reef Alliance
>> > 37 Pleasant Street, Cambridge MA 02139
>> > 617-864-4226
>> > goreau at bestweb.net
>> > http://www.globalcoral.org
>> >
>>
>> Thomas J. Goreau, PhD
>> President
>> Global Coral Reef Alliance
>> 37 Pleasant Street, Cambridge MA 02139
>> 617-864-4226
>> goreau at bestweb.net
>> http://www.globalcoral.org
>>
>> _______________________________________________
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>> Coral-List at coral.aoml.noaa.gov
>> http://coral.aoml.noaa.gov/mailman/listinfo/coral-list
>>
>>
>>
>> -- 
>> DeeVon Quirolo, executive director, Reef Relief
>>
>> NOTE: This is a new email address; please change your records.
>>
>> Reef Relief, a global nonprofit organization dedicated to  
>> protecting coral reefs (305) 294-3100 fax (305 293-9515  
>> www.reefrelief.org Mailing address: Reef Relief, Post Office  
>> Box430, Key West, Florida 33041-0430. Key West Headquarters/ 
>> Environmental Center, 631 Greene Street, Key West, Florida.  
>> Bahamas: Captain Roland Roberts House Environmental Center,  
>> Parliament Street, New Plymouth, Green Turtle Cay, Abaco, Bahamas  
>> tel/fax (242) 365-4014.
>>
>> Do you want to make a difference? With the stroke of your  
>> keyboard, you can. Join Reef Relief's free online community at  
>> www.reefrelief.org and begin receiving regular updates on coral  
>> reef news and opportunities to get involved and take action.
>
> Thomas J. Goreau, PhD
> President
> Global Coral Reef Alliance
> 37 Pleasant Street, Cambridge MA 02139
> 617-864-4226
> goreau at bestweb.net
> http://www.globalcoral.org
>

Thomas J. Goreau, PhD
President
Global Coral Reef Alliance
37 Pleasant Street, Cambridge MA 02139
617-864-4226
goreau at bestweb.net
http://www.globalcoral.org