[Coral-List] Reef restoration in Nevis

[Thomas Goreau]

Dear Barb,

We're always ready to work with all serious partners. But there is  
ABSOLUTELY NO funding available since the concrete lobby and the  
"resilient reef" believers make sure that no funding goes to serious  
restoration. They say either you should dump expensive cement on it  
or you should just declare a marine protected area, sit back, and the  
reef will bounce back all by itself......

No government or large funding agency is yet interested because the  
funding is controlled by the "resilience" racket. Our projects in  
more than 20 countries have all been done on shoestring in-kind  
contributions from  local people who remember how their reefs used to  
be, have seen them vanish, want them back, realize that if they don't  
start growing corals right now using methods that speed up their  
growth (typically 2-6 times higher than genetically identical  
controls in the same habitat, depending on species and conditions),  
their survival from severe heat shock (16-50 times higher survival  
than surrounding reefs), and recruitment (orders of magnitude higher)  
they will lose them all, and recognize that if they want to play  
funding agency games their reefs will disappear long before any  
money  to send foreign "experts" to tell them what to do is approved.  
There is massive denial of what can be done by people who can't be  
bothered to look for themselves, won't trust their own lying eyes,  
and believe everything they see in "peer" "reviewed" papers (you can  
be sure we'll hear more from them on the list server). For developing  
countries we have no choice but to use the technology we have  
developed ourselves and kiss technology "transfer" from the rich  
countries goodbye, because the rich countries certainly don't know  
how to do it, and refuse to accept that poor islanders do!

These projects can be any size or shape, and that naturally affects  
the cost. Around $100 per square meter is fairly typical for a reef  
say 3-4 meters high, but depending on distance from shore, wave  
energy, and source of power. We also do MUCH cheaper in-situ  
restoration with no structures or transplantation but this does not  
create the incredible fish habitat of our typical designs. Last week  
at the United Nations I demonstrated wave energy generators that work  
in waves as small as 10 centimeters, which will allow fisheries  
habitat restoration and beach restoration projects in places that  
could not be affordably powered before, But it will be another year  
before that technology is perfected and widely available.

There are real costs to be sure. But that is not the real issue. It  
is far cheaper to maintain the biodiversity. tourism, shore  
protection, and fisheries benefits of reefs than to build a concrete  
wall to hold back the sea when they are gone (about $10,000  to  
$15,000 per meter). We certainly can't save it all from out of  
control global warming, global sea level rise, new diseases, and  
pollution, but if we don't restore all we can, what will we have left?

Please note that I have nowhere used the first word of the title and  
the 9th word of your message. I am banned from using this word on the  
list server, and I'm frankly amazed your message passed the censors!

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

Date: Tue, 20 May 2008 13:57:33 -0400
From: "Barbara Whitman" <terramar at caribcable.com>
Subject: [Coral-List] bio rock reefs
To: <coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov>
Message-ID: <1093466ED5C04F8D937A6CE8C6DF9DCA at BarbaraWhitmPC>
Content-Type: text/plain;	charset="iso-8859-1"

I am interesting in learning more about the biorock alternative to  
cement structures.  Is funding available to do a project?

Thanks,
Barb Whitman
Nevis