[Coral-List] Reassessing Coral Reefs

Ben Gulmon gulmonb at seattleu.edu
Tue Mar 31 20:57:59 EDT 2015


If new divers don't know what they are missing, they won't know to be
disappointed.  Ignorance is bliss.

This NPR article outlines it pretty well with regards to the decrease in
the size of deep sea fishing catches(
http://www.npr.org/blogs/krulwich/2014/02/05/257046530/big-fish-stories-getting-littler).
Change Blindness and Shifting Baseline Syndrome are hard to combat.

Ben Gulmon
BS Biology; Marine and Conservation Ecology
Seattle University
Class of 2015

On Tue, Mar 31, 2015 at 8:26 AM, Eugene Shinn <eugeneshinn at mail.usf.edu>
wrote:

> Julian, Your detailed description of attitudes of people on coral reefs
> struck a chord with me. I spent 2 months in the Florida Keys last
> summer. I have been doing research and diving there since the mid 1950s
> and have seen and documented the changes since those early days. You may
> have heard that most of the once flourishing coral reefs there are
> essentially dead. However there still are colorful tropical fish to
> entertain divers. On a beautiful day last summer I visited Looe Key
> reef.There were 50 boats (I counted them) on the reef (2 to 3 on each
> mooring buoy). It was clear people were having the time of their life.
> There was even a boy's chorus on one boat singing for the entertainment
> of all. At least once a year a radio station puts loudspeakers under
> water at this reef and plays music for the divers. It was clear that the
> health of the reef is immaterial. If the water is clear, the waves
> small, and abundant Sargent majors around the boat everyone is happy and
> people are making money. That's the Florida Keys today. Gene
>
> --
>
>
> No Rocks, No Water, No Ecosystem (EAS)
> ------------------------------------ -----------------------------------
> E. A. Shinn, Courtesy Professor
> University of South Florida
> College of Marine Science Room 221A
> 140 Seventh Avenue South
> St. Petersburg, FL 33701
> <eugeneshinn at mail.usf.edu>
> Tel 727 553-1158
> ---------------------------------- -----------------------------------
>
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