[Coral-List] ESA Listing for 82 corals

[James Cervino PhD.]

Dear Peter,

This was a wonderful and accurate posting, however, it is impossible to achieve
some of these important goals until the global warming deniers and "coral
resilience"  advocates realize that these ecosystems are going to die within
their life time; unless drastic action is taken to stabilize CO2 emissions,
create a new massive initiative for the replanting of  carbon sequestering
trees, protect soil peat bogs & wetlands.  These are very important storage
depots of carbon dioxide. By creating new bogs, or enhancing/protecting the
already existing ones, carbon sequestration can be achieved.

The coral collection advocates, that are responsible for filling the coastal
port containers with valuable coral species, need to be stopped if we are to
protect coral rainforests that are remaining.  Here in the little ole State of
NYC, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (Region 2) 
have created a no tolerance position on developers and violators that fill,
collect, or damage wetlands.  Now, even if good folks file for a permit that
may encroach on 12' INCHES of NY state protected coastal wetlands, one must
give-back, or create 24-48' inches of wetland elsewhere on some rare occasions
(references will be provided)  Given the status of tropical corals globally,
and since we cannot get passed a "not take policy" of valuable corals,  maybe
we should create a 100-1 ratio give back,  for the coral collectors that sell
corals to the USA for living room tables? Meaning, for every 1 (one) Euphillia
or Porites spp. collected, one must restore and replant 100 colonies of the
same size, exact same species elsewhere!!

If NYC & LI Department of Environmental Conservation get the message that
coastal invertebrates, shell-fish, soil peat, Spartina and Zostera, are a
valuable species, as a means to prevent beach erosion, and carbon
sequestration, maybe we should develop the same no tolerance policy for the
coral collectors and distributors that are responsible de-foresting
Indo-Pacific coral rain-forests for fish tanks in the USA?

James

*************************************
Dr. James M. Cervino
Visiting Scientist
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute and Advocate for target goal:n=280-300ppm CO2
Contact Information:
NYC Address: 9-22 119st
College Point New York, 11356
Cell: 917-620*5287
************************************


Quoting Peter Sale <sale at uwindsor.ca>:

* Fellow coral listers,
*
* I prefer to silently read the posts by others, but every now and then, I
* am forced to comment.  Recent posts on the topic of listing of more corals
* under the US Endangered Species Act by Gene Shinn, John Ogden and others
* show the diversity of opinion out there, even among the scientifically
* informed.  Rather than comment on whether listing is a useful action to
* take, let me take a different tack. (I remain curious concerning the
* penchant within the US for listing organisms that live largely or entirely
* outside US jurisdiction ? such as the red kangaroo ? but now is not the
* time and place for that discussion.)  There is such a thing as fiddling
* while Rome burns.  We are generally quite good at that, and I fear we are
* going to go on fiddling until the opportunity to actually take action will
* have passed us by.  Corals, and many other species, are at risk of
* extinction because too many of us insist on demanding too much from an
* environment that cannot provide for these wants.  I happen to think we
* need these other species more than we realize, and that it is in our own
* self-interest to change our attitudes and behavior now.  We do not need
* the US to list corals as endangered to know that management of most reef
* areas around the world is woefully inadequate, nor to know what steps need
* to be taken to improve that management ? reduce overfishing, cut
* pollution, eliminate inappropriate coastal development, and, yes, cut CO2
* emissions and reduce atmospheric CO2 concentrations in order to
* stabilize/restore ocean surface waters pH.  In short, we need to start
* managing our impacts on reefs, instead of continuing to pretend to manage
* them.  That means making actual, on-the-ground changes, not discussing
* changes, legislating changes, or bemoaning the lack of changes.  We could
* also start thinking seriously about the carrying capacity of this planet
* for Homo sapiens, rather than complacently noting that our population is
* trending towards 9.2 billion by mid century.  What can one scientist do?
* We each can start by doing our best to articulate the problem as clearly
* as possible in every forum open to us ? we have a very big problem and
* most people are quite unaware of how big it is.  When did you last
* buttonhole a politician, get an article into a newspaper, talk to a school
* group, post on a web-site, get yourself onto TV to talk about environment,
* or, especially, work to improve environmental management where you live?
* When did  you last talk quietly to your family or neighbors about this
* issue?  When did you set an example?  Spaceship Earth is not being managed
* sustainably, and its coral canaries are screaming as loudly as they can..
*
* Peter Sale
*
* Peter F. Sale
* Assistant Director
* United Nations University
* Institute for Water, Environment and Health
* and
* University Professor Emeritus
* University of Windsor
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*
*


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