[Coral-List] Black Reefs

[Bill Allison]

The several metal hulled wrecks I have dove in the Maldives are densely
populated by corals. HMS Loyalty, a WWII casualty, was so populated when
inspected by Scheer in 1958 and remains so today. Corals also populated many
steel pilings and when I dropped a galvanized nail with a wire tie-down (to
secure transect lines) among the fingers of a table or finger coral and it
was quickly overgrown and cemented in place.

On Fri, Sep 9, 2011 at 11:23 AM, Szmant, Alina <szmanta at uncw.edu> wrote:

> Many of the structures I have seen coated with corals are not in keys but
> in Bahamas, lower Caribbean.  I think the effects of the metals in the ship
> hulls has much to do with the nature of the substrate the wreck is on.
>
> *************************************************************************
> Dr. Alina M. Szmant
> Professor of Marine Biology
> Center for Marine Science and Dept of Biology and Marine Biology
> University of North Carolina Wilmington
> 5600 Marvin Moss Ln
> Wilmington NC 28409 USA
> tel:  910-962-2362  fax: 910-962-2410  cell: 910-200-3913
> http://people.uncw.edu/szmanta
> *******************************************************
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: coral-list-bounces at coral.aoml.noaa.gov [mailto:
> coral-list-bounces at coral.aoml.noaa.gov] On Behalf Of Ulf Erlingsson
> Sent: Thursday, September 08, 2011 1:03 PM
> To: Coral Listserver Listserver
> Subject: Re: [Coral-List] Black Reefs
>
> The Florida Keys are not iron limited, but there are some tropical waters
> that are, and in such a location the addition of a ship wreck can
> conceivable have a huge impact and provoke a growth spur of algae.
>
> The other point I want to make is that the ships aren't made of "iron" but
> steel... Which implies that they are an alloy of iron, and as such, one must
> also consider what the alloying elements are.
>
> Ulf
>
> On 2011-09-08, at 11:23, Eugene Shinn wrote:
>
> > I agree with Alina, Steve, and Charles, regarding  "Black Reefs."
> > Could it be the teak wood that is the problem? It can't be iron.  I
> > worked as a salvage diver in the Florida Keys in the 1950s recovering
> > scarp iron from turn of the century wrecks. Lots of coral grew on them
> > except for where they were discouraged by dynamite. In the 1980s we
> > documented the effects of oil wells drilled on coral reefs off of Key
> > West. In the 1950s there was little concern for the environment so
> > abundant iron objects and cables were discarded at the drill sites.
> > Today there is more oral there because the iron objects created more
> > surface area for coral growth than the adjacent natural bottom.  The
> > bottom is not black!  The latest Department of Interior edict issue
> > called "The Idle Iron project" implemented by the Bureau Of
> > Environment and Minerals Regulation and Environment (BOEMRE ) formerly
> > MMS, directs the various energy companies (at great expense) to remove
> > more than 600 idle offshore oil and gas platforms in the Northern Gulf
> > of Mexico. As divers in the area know, these offshore rigs are
> > incredible artificial reefs and  likely more productive than all the
> > natural reefs in the Northen Gulf of Mexico. They also support coral
> > growth as well as a wide variety of fish from the surface down to
> > whatever depth in which they are located.  They are not Black Reefs!
> > There is now a growing effort to save them called SAVE THE BLUE.
> > Listers will be hearing more about that later. Gene
> > --
> >
> >
> > No Rocks, No Water, No Ecosystem (EAS)
> > ------------------------------------ -----------------------------------
> > E. A. Shinn, Courtesy Professor
> > University of South Florida
> > Marine Science Center (room 204)
> > 140 Seventh Avenue South
> > St. Petersburg, FL 33701
> > <eshinn at marine.usf.edu>
> > Tel 727 553-1158----------------------------------
> > -----------------------------------
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> >
>
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________________________________
Is this how science illuminates "reality"? - "the meaning of an episode was
not inside like a kernel but outside, enveloping the talk which brought it
out only as a glow brings out a haze."
- narrator's comment about Marlow's tale-telling, in Heart of Darkness
(Conrad)