[Coral-List] Request for input on coral relocation studies
Risk, Michael
riskmj at mcmaster.ca
Sat Jul 1 22:09:10 UTC 2023
Takes me back...
The late Don McAllister, of Ocean Voice fame, was involved in opposing
the airport expansion on Okinawa-along with several Japanese NGO's. He
gave me a sample of Heliopora to date, from a huge colony that was
slated to be paved over. If memory serves, it came in at 1800 years
old, which at the time was one of the oldest, long-lived corals ever
dated. That colony is now blacktop-or, I guess, bluetop, being as how
it's Blue Coral.
Decades later, I was asked by the Iranian gov't to oversee a project
on their southern coast. The harbour at Chabahar was being expanded,
and colonies of Acropora were in the way. I was intrigued, and asked
why Iran would take the care, when other countries (NOT mentioning any
names) wouldn't give a rat's patootie. He said "The Koran teaches us
that these are God's creatures, and it is our duty to take care of
them."
So teams of divers laboured away, transplanted hundreds if not
thousands of heads...immediate success rate was >90%, which is good.
Problem is, they were transplanted from a place with bad water quality
to a place with God-awful water quality. More God's creatures gone.
The only place I know where transplantation has worked is at Cahuita,
east coast of Costa Rica. The original shorefast fringing reef had been
demolished during logging operations. The logs, some >2m diam, were
dragged out over the reef by teams of horses, until the logs floated
and could be grappled by the mother ship.
All the inshore Acropora wiped out. It never was a GBR, maybe a few
100m, but wth, a reef's a reef, we don't have many to spare. The only
remaining Acropora (palmata) were on an offshore patch. Currents were
shore-parallel-larvae never would have been able to recolonise the
obliterated reef, although WQ was adequate-excellent, in spots.
Full disclosure: this was in the mid-70's. I was young and dumb (still
am). I took dozens of pieces of palmata from the offshore patch, and
transplanted them inshore. I usually tied them down with nylon rope.
When checked a year later, almost every transplant was going
gangbusters.
A decade later, there is an inshore patch of coral that can be measured
in hectares and appears on the charts as a hazard to navigation.
The key, as always, is water quality.
Mike
__________________________________________________________________
From: Coral-List <coral-list-bounces at coral.aoml.noaa.gov> on behalf of
Nicole Crane via Coral-List <coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov>
Sent: Saturday, July 1, 2023 4:06 PM
To: Todd Barber <reefball at reefball.com>
Cc: coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov <coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov>
Subject: Re: [Coral-List] Request for input on coral relocation studies
Caution: This email may have originated from outside the organization.
Please exercise additional caution with any links and attachments.
Thank you Todd, and yes, let me qualify my probably too strong a
statement:
I don't know of any (and would love to hear of some!) mitigation
efforts
that have been deemed successful by local communities based on their
own
standards. So Todd is right on point: the concept of success, and the
ultimate goals need to be clearly defined, and based on what the LOCAL
community needs, since it is their ecosystem being altered. However I
will
say here that I am extremely skeptical that destroying a native reef
for a
runway (never mind the ecosystem destruction - let's just start with
the
sedimentation, the flow of that sediment to nearby mangroves (for
example),
and the nutrients from the terrestrial input), can be mitigated with
coral
transplant projects. If someone knows an example where this has led to
equivalent fish biomass (of the fish that people rely on for food), and
equivalent ecosystem integrity, I would love to read/hear about it!
Greg
Challenger said few of these studies have been published. I would
respond
to that: then how is the rest of the community to know they are
successful
if we cant read about and assess them? Please send us at least the
white
papers. If the data are proprietary, and cannot be released for
scientific
and community scrutiny, then I would say they are not to be trusted.
We
cannot take people's word on success when livelihoods depend on that
information, and the lack of it might send us in compromising
directions.
In community,
Nicole
*Nicole L. Crane*
Executive Director, Smith Fellows Program
<[1]https://conbio.org/mini-sites/smith-fellows>, Society for
Conservation
Biology
Senior Conservation Scientist, Project co-lead, One People One Reef
<[2]https://onepeopleonereef.org>
Faculty, Cabrillo College, Natural and Applied Sciences
On Sat, Jul 1, 2023 at 8:41AM Todd Barber <reefball at reefball.com>
wrote:
> Very well said Nicole. No mitigation will ever be the same as the
> original (the word mitigation is better understood as offsetting).
And
> your point about one person's success is not anothers is VERY much on
> point. Monitoring is pointless UNLESS goals are pre-defined and
tracked
> against achievement. That said, if goals are pre-defined, and
tracked then
> I could equally argue that MANY mitigation projects have been
> successful and can even exceed the expectations of the original and
that
> may be contrary to your conclusion all are a fail but it's only what
is
> judged as success or failure in goal-based efforts. Of course, that
is
> ONLY when goals are pre-agreed to by everyone affected by the outcome
which
> emphasizes your point to have local perspectives. That does not
negate the
> need for outside help...with locally defined goals, sometimes
technologies
> not developed locally are required to achieve the goals within
available
> resources. It's complex, and we all know it is, but your comments
are spot
> on!
>
>
> Thanks,
>
> Todd R Barber
> Chairman, Reef Ball Foundation
> 712 Portia Street North, Nokomis, FL 34275
> 941-720-7549 (Cell & Google Voice)
> [3]www.reefballfoundation.org
> [4]www.reefbeach.com (Reefs for Beach Erosion)
> Reef Ball World Mapping System
>
<[5]https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=1KrENaH-kJn_LCDrzCbgtW_1aW-c
iY-M&usp=sharing>
>
>
> On Sat, Jul 1, 2023 at 2:24PM Nicole Crane <nicrane at cabrillo.edu>
wrote:
>
>> Dear Sebastian,
>> There is sometimes a strong divide between people who apply
technology
>> and ideas and those who investigate the implications, although there
>> shouldn't be. I don't know of any, and I really mean any, human
engineered
>> mitigation effort to solve a human caused environmental problem that
has
>> stood the test of time, and many have caused harm. Witness
introducing
>> mongoose in Hawaii, rabbits in Australia (for hunting) and on and
on. The
>> problem with most of these efforts is that good rigorous science to
>> investigate the outcomes was not performed. Much like the Titan
disaster,
>> where the CEO was impatient with regulations and testing, not doing
so can
>> lead to problems.
>>
>> This of course is MOST important on reefs where people depend on the
>> resource. I would be careful letting western run ideas and programs
where
>> people (notably consulting and applied engineering groups) can make
good
>> money doing something they (genuinely I believe) feel will help. But
if it
>> fails in the long term they have less to lose. More importantly is
the
>> definition of success and failure in this example. Someone's idea of
>> success might be that corals stick and grow, leading to new coral
covered
>> reef. But your idea may be a reef that has fish and provides food.
Those
>> two things, as our research has found, are not always the same.
>>
>> We have found that just planting corals that are fast growing can
lead to
>> unintended consequences. Some fish don't like some corals, and won't
>> recruit to those reefs. I would certainly be careful of sanctioning
coral
>> outplants from other areas, and if local corals, to carefully assess
>> potential trajectory. Monocultures are generally not good for fish,
and
>> even if someone plants different species, there is little evidence
they can
>> predict if all will grow, or if a mini specific reef will develop.
>>
>> My advice is to be careful here and seek multiple voices on the
science
>> and efficacy of coral restoration. It is NOT as simple as planting
corals
>> on bare substrate and they will grow and bring back a reef. As has
been
>> mentioned, genetics, growth, diversity and ecology are all a part of
that
>> story.
>>
>> Happy to discuss, and to put you in contact with some people who are
>> tackling this. One possible step forward is to form a science
committee
>> that includes local people and coral scientists to inform the
decision
>> making, and to think carefully about the outcomes.
>>
>> All my best
>> Nicole
>>
>> On Fri, Jun 30, 2023 at 9:46 PM Todd Barber via Coral-List <
>> coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov> wrote:
>>
>>> Steven,
>>>
>>> You are absolutely right NGOs are not necessarily "better" (or
worse)
>>> from
>>> the actual doing perspective, I meant only to imply they are more
>>> transparent (which you pointed out as important). And when I said
NGO I
>>> probably should have defined that as Public Non-Profits (as opposed
to
>>> private NGOs) which is the case for the organization I represent as
>>> public
>>> NGOs have fiduciary duties to transparency. .
>>>
>>> Thanks,
>>>
>>> Todd R Barber
>>> Chairman, Reef Ball Foundation
>>> 712 Portia Street North, Nokomis, FL 34275
>>>
<[6]https://www.google.com/maps/search/712+Portia+Street+North,+Nokomis
,+FL+34275?entry=gmail&source=g>
>>> 941-720-7549 (Cell & Google Voice)
>>> [7]www.reefballfoundation.org
>>> [8]www.reefbeach.com (Reefs for Beach Erosion)
>>> Reef Ball World Mapping System
>>> <
>>>
[9]https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=1KrENaH-kJn_LCDrzCbgtW_1aW-ci
Y-M&usp=sharing
>>> >
>>>
>>>
>>> On Fri, Jun 30, 2023 at 11:51AM Steven Miller <smiller52 at gmail.com>
>>> wrote:
>>>
>>> > Hi Todd
>>> >
>>> > NGOs are not necessarily better than private companies. That
sounds
>>> right
>>> > but is a fallacy. Transparency is paramount. So we mostly agree.
My
>>> > experience is that there is nothing about NGOs that makes them
better
>>> > suited to do the work. Indeed, they can be worse without
oversight
>>> because
>>> > they have few constraints. Accountability also matters.
>>> >
>>> > Best Regards
>>> >
>>> > Steven
>>> >
>>> > On Fri, Jun 30, 2023 at 11:38 AM Todd Barber via Coral-List <
>>> > coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov> wrote:
>>> >
>>> >> Hi Sebastian,
>>> >>
>>> >> I am not suggesting that building the airport over coral is a
good
>>> >> idea.....all other alternatives should always be considered.
However
>>> in
>>> >> the case that coral relocation is chosen, there are ways of
achieving
>>> at
>>> >> least mitigation of the loss using a combination of coral
rescue,
>>> coral
>>> >> propagation, genetic rescue, and habitat reconstruction. We
have done
>>> >> this
>>> >> successfully many times in many countries although you won't
find much
>>> >> scientific work on projects like these because they are almost
always
>>> >> conducted under non-disclosure agreements as is typical for most
>>> >> mitigation
>>> >> projects.
>>> >>
>>> >> I can tell you that because they are usually under NDAs, the
quality
>>> of
>>> >> the
>>> >> work (and restoration results) are highly variable and often
>>> substandard.
>>> >> If they do choose mitigation, your community would be well
suited to
>>> make
>>> >> SURE they use reputable and transparent folks to perform the
>>> mitigation.
>>> >> Because a good restoration is multi-goaled, it normally requires
>>> >> partnerships with multiple organizations to achieve good
results.
>>> NGOs
>>> >> (that are typically required to be transparent) with university
>>> oversight
>>> >> partners (that are rigorous in evaluating goal achievements) are
much
>>> >> better suited than private firms that are tied to engineering or
>>> >> development of the project.
>>> >>
>>> >>
>>> >> I hope that helps in your approach.
>>> >>
>>> >> Thanks,
>>> >>
>>> >> Todd R Barber
>>> >> Chairman, Reef Ball Foundation
>>> >> 712 Portia Street North, Nokomis, FL 34275
>>> >> <
>>>
[10]https://www.google.com/maps/search/712+Portia+Street+North,+Nokomis
,+FL+34275?entry=gmail&source=g
>>> >
>>> >> 941-720-7549 (Cell & Google Voice)
>>> >> [11]www.reefballfoundation.org
>>> >> [12]www.reefbeach.com (Reefs for Beach Erosion)
>>> >> Reef Ball World Mapping System
>>> >> <
>>> >>
>>>
[13]https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=1KrENaH-kJn_LCDrzCbgtW_1aW-c
iY-M&usp=sharing
>>> >> >
>>> >>
>>> >>
>>> >> On Fri, Jun 30, 2023 at 4:14AM Sebastian Szereday via Coral-List
<
>>> >> coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov> wrote:
>>> >>
>>> >> > Dear Coral List,
>>> >> >
>>> >> >
>>> >> >
>>> >> > For many years a new airport in Tioman Island (Malaysia) has
been
>>> in the
>>> >> > discussion and planning. The proposed runway would result in
>>> significant
>>> >> > damage to the adjacent coral reefs, as the runway construction
would
>>> >> > require substantial land reclamation and it would be built on
top
>>> of an
>>> >> > existing coral reef. The airport would also negatively impact
the
>>> >> > livelihood of the local communities and result in many further
>>> >> > socio-economic and sustainability challenges - all in all it
is
>>> safe to
>>> >> say
>>> >> > that the airport does not benefit the people nor the
environment.
>>> >> >
>>> >> >
>>> >> >
>>> >> > Last week, the EIA report was released for public review, and
>>> members of
>>> >> > the public are invited to give feedback on the proposed
project and
>>> >> > mitigation measures. One such measure is to (quote) `relocate
and
>>> >> > rehabilitate the corals'. This is of course by no means a
viable
>>> option,
>>> >> > and the EIA has not gone to lengths to identify suitable sites
>>> based on
>>> >> > common site selection criteria.
>>> >> >
>>> >> >
>>> >> >
>>> >> > I was hoping that members of this list could point out
specific case
>>> >> > studies that detail the efficacy of relocating coral colonies
to
>>> >> mitigate
>>> >> > the impacts of large infra-structure construction projects.
>>> Although my
>>> >> > organisation is not involved in the direct opposition of the
>>> project,
>>> >> > summarizing existing studies would help to put together a 1-2
pager
>>> for
>>> >> > further circulation with the media, stakeholders, and the
public, to
>>> >> > ultimately provide a summary of existing studies and data.
>>> >> >
>>> >> >
>>> >> >
>>> >> > Any input would be much appreciated. There is also a petition
>>> >> circulating
>>> >> > against the proposed airport, please do sign and share:
>>> >> >
>>> >> >
>>> >> > Petition . Reject the Proposed Tioman Airport . Change.org
>>> >> > <
>>> >> >
>>> >>
>>>
[14]https://www.change.org/p/tioman-villagers-reject-the-proposed-tioma
n-airport
>>> >> > >
>>> >> >
>>> >> >
>>> >> >
>>> >> > Best wishes,
>>> >> >
>>> >> > Sebastian
>>> >> > _______________________________________________
>>> >> > Coral-List mailing list
>>> >> > Coral-List at coral.aoml.noaa.gov
>>> >> > [15]https://coral.aoml.noaa.gov/mailman/listinfo/coral-list
>>> >> _______________________________________________
>>> >> Coral-List mailing list
>>> >> Coral-List at coral.aoml.noaa.gov
>>> >> [16]https://coral.aoml.noaa.gov/mailman/listinfo/coral-list
>>> >
>>> >
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> Coral-List mailing list
>>> Coral-List at coral.aoml.noaa.gov
>>> [17]https://coral.aoml.noaa.gov/mailman/listinfo/coral-list
>>
>> --
>> *Nicole L. Crane*
>> Executive Director, Smith Fellows Program
>> <[18]https://conbio.org/mini-sites/smith-fellows>, Society for
Conservation
>> Biology
>> Senior Conservation Scientist, Project co-lead, One People One Reef
>> <[19]https://onepeopleonereef.org>
>> Faculty, Cabrillo College, Natural and Applied Sciences
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
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[20]https://coral.aoml.noaa.gov/mailman/listinfo/coral-list
References
1. https://conbio.org/mini-sites/smith-fellows
2. https://onepeopleonereef.org/
3. http://www.reefballfoundation.org/
4. http://www.reefbeach.com/
5. https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=1KrENaH-kJn_LCDrzCbgtW_1aW-ciY-M&usp=sharing
6. https://www.google.com/maps/search/712+Portia+Street+North,+Nokomis,+FL+34275?entry=gmail&source=g
7. http://www.reefballfoundation.org/
8. http://www.reefbeach.com/
9. https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=1KrENaH-kJn_LCDrzCbgtW_1aW-ciY-M&usp=sharing
10. https://www.google.com/maps/search/712+Portia+Street+North,+Nokomis,+FL+34275?entry=gmail&source=g
11. http://www.reefballfoundation.org/
12. http://www.reefbeach.com/
13. https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=1KrENaH-kJn_LCDrzCbgtW_1aW-ciY-M&usp=sharing
14. https://www.change.org/p/tioman-villagers-reject-the-proposed-tioman-airport
15. https://coral.aoml.noaa.gov/mailman/listinfo/coral-list
16. https://coral.aoml.noaa.gov/mailman/listinfo/coral-list
17. https://coral.aoml.noaa.gov/mailman/listinfo/coral-list
18. https://conbio.org/mini-sites/smith-fellows
19. https://onepeopleonereef.org/
20. https://coral.aoml.noaa.gov/mailman/listinfo/coral-list
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