[Coral-List] Oil and corals

[James Cervino PhD.]

Dear Walter, Thank you for your refreshing posting. I also did experiments with
Montastraea exposed to mild doses of crude oil; the corals began to expel their
algae within 24hrs, similar to the expulsion rates with mild doses of HCN.. The
difference between the HCN exposure and crude oil exposure was; cell death was
quicker with cyanide, and exposure to oil was slower. One quick note though;
mucus production and buildup of Sulfide fouling was only associated with crude
oil exposure.

I remember a few folks denying that HCN killed the corals. However, with Jones &
Oves work on the the inhibition of Photosynthesis using the PAM and the work Dr
Goreau, Hays and I did, we were able to shut down the deniers claims very
quickly.

I guess we are in a similar situation in this current time; in that some will
now minimize the effects of crude oil spills and its toxicity effects on
corals! Those "good ole folks" that are employed by big oil, will stop at
nothing to get your eyes to not believe what they are seeing.

Good Day!

*************************************
Dr. James M. Cervino
Visiting Scientist
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute
Contact Information:
NYC Address: 9-22 119st
College Point New York, 11356
Cell: 917-620*5287
************************************


Quoting Walter Goldberg <goldberg at fiu.edu>:

* Listers, for those of you who want to get a better background on the
* relationship between corals and oil spills than might be revealed by one
* person's personal experience and opinions, please see NOAA's manual on the
* subject:
* http://response.restoration.noaa.gov
* Scroll down to their 10 MB pdf Oil Spills and Coral Reefs, which in part
* states:
* The old notion that coral reefs do not suffer acute toxicity effects from oil
* floating over them
* is probably incorrect. Certainly, direct coating increases the severity of
* impact, but oil concentrations
* attainable during a spill may also kill some species.
* Cheers,
* Walter M. Goldberg, Ph.D.
* Professor of Biological Sciences
* Florida International University
* University Park Campus
* Miami, FL 33199
* email goldberg at fiu.edu
*
* Message: 2
* Date: Fri, 30 Apr 2010 13:03:49 -0400
* From: Eugene Shinn <eshinn at marine.usf.edu>
* Subject: [Coral-List] Disaster in the Gulf and Coral Reefs
* To: coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov
* Message-ID: <a06230949c800bdc7f49f@[131.247.137.127]>
* Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" ; format="flowed"
*
*      With the developing oil disaster in the Gulf, I thought a few
* comments regarding the effects of crude oil on coral reefs might be
* healthful. Some of you know my background in the industry and my work
* with API committees before 1974. In 1972, I ...........+ 6 paragraphs not
* reproduced here.
*
*
*
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*
*


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