[Coral-List] Getting old is no fun; shifting baselines

[Charles Delbeek]

Then again, has the shift to algal dominated reefs in the Caribbean seen an
increase in piscine herbivores? Something tells me it has not.


*J. Charles Delbeek, M.Sc.*Curator, Steinhart Aquarium
California Academy of Sciences

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On Fri, Nov 9, 2018 at 6:12 AM Douglas Fenner <douglasfennertassi at gmail.com>
wrote:

> The Hawaiian Airlines magazine recently had an article about teaching
> people to plant macroalgae on Hawaii reefs.
>
> The Undersea Gardeners
> https://hanahou.com/21.4/the-undersea-gardeners     open-access
>
>   "The lei makers and planters are here to support the Waimānalo Limu Hui,
> one of several nonprofit groups dedicated to restoring depleted nearshore
> reefs through-out the Hawaiian Islands."   The article says something like
> they feel there are not many fish near shore, so planting algae the fish
> like to eat could bring the fish back.  One is tempted to point out that
> there may be more people than the fish can feed.  One also wonders if reef
> degradation has gone so far that the way to restore reefs is to plant
> macroalgae??  Could this illustrate shifting baselines?  In the past, we
> might have hesitated to recommend planting macroalgae on reefs, wouldn't
> we??  Maybe the opposite?
> Cheers,  Doug
>
> On Wed, Nov 7, 2018 at 6:44 AM John Ware <jware at erols.com> wrote:
>
> > Dear Peter and List,
> >
> > Peter Sale's recent comment, extracted below:
> >
> > "...that over the next decade or so, the world is going to lose a lot of
> > coral reef scientists along with our memories of what reefs could be like
> > in a Holocene ocean that no longer exists."
> >
> > This reminded me of a recent trip my wife and I made to Curacao.  We have
> > been diving ~40 years, maybe not long by the standards of many coral reef
> > scientists, but long enough to have seen many changes to our reefs.
> >
> > We were on a boat with quite a number of much younger divers (it seems
> > everyone is much younger these days).  When we came up my wife's first
> > comment was that "It was like diving on a cemetery!"  However, the
> younger
> > divers were raving about the beautiful reef referring to algal-covered
> > mounds that were once live coral.
> >
> > John
> >
> > --
> >
> >   John R. Ware, PhD
> >   President
> >   SeaServices, LLC
> >   302 N. Mule Deer Pt.
> >   Payson, AZ 85541, USA
> >   928 478-6358
> >   jware at erols.com
> >   http://www.seaservices.org
> >
> >    Become a member of the International Society for Reef Studies
> >    http://www.coralreefs.org
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Coral-List mailing list
> > Coral-List at coral.aoml.noaa.gov
> > https://coral.aoml.noaa.gov/mailman/listinfo/coral-list
> >
>
>
> --
> Douglas Fenner
> Ocean Associates, Inc. Contractor
> NOAA Fisheries Service
> Pacific Islands Regional Office
> Honolulu
> and:
> Consultant
> PO Box 7390
> Pago Pago, American Samoa 96799  USA
>
> IPCC says limiting global warming to 1.5C will require drastic action.
> Coral
> reefs would almost entirely disappear with 2 degrees of warming, with just
> 10–30% of existing reefs surviving at 1.5 °C.
>
> https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-018-06876-2?utm_source=briefing-dy&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=briefing&utm_content=20181009
>
> Key climate panel, citing impending crisis, urges crash effort to reduce
> emissions.  Coral reefs are projected to decline 70% to 90% at 1.5°C, but
> at 2°C, 99% of reefs would be ravaged.
>
> https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2018/10/key-climate-panel-citing-impending-crisis-urges-crash-effort-reduce-emissions?utm_campaign=news_daily_2018-10-08&et_rid=17045989&et_cid=2416592
>
> Major UN report says climate change is worse than first thought.  Even 1.5C
> could cause damage that could run as high as $54 trillion.  (annual US GDP
> is US$20 trillion, China and EU should be roughly similar, 2014 world GWP
> was US$76 trillion, Purchasing Power Parity was US$107 trillion.)
>
> https://www.engadget.com/2018/10/08/major-un-report-climate-change-worse/?yptr=yahoo
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