[Coral-List] Coral reefs under threat

Tue Jul 25 22:12:55 UTC 2023

In agreement with Judith, Alina and Nicole, there is an alert for
interventions on coral reefs that promise to save them but it may
actually may worsen the coral reef integrity.

Reading carefully the paper: The Influence of Foureye Butterflyfish
(Chaetodon capistratus) and Symbiodiniaceae on the Transmission of
Stony Coral Tissue Loss Disease, Titus et al. (2022) have some
suggestive evidence that butterflyfish do not directly increase
infection rates, but instead might be increasing infection recovery
   https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmars.2022.800423/full

Increased coral mucus is a proof of stressed coral colonies.
Considering Austin´s  message, if something has to be removed
drastically from affected coral reefs is not the mucus eaters but the
scaling up of coral fragmentation megaprojects that stress coral
colonies and support unsustainable development (massive tourism,
increased population in coral reef areas, enlargement of ports,
channels, airports, prisons, etc).

Taking into account that past local authorities in some case studies
have stopped plans such as a prison in the Swan Island and an
international airport on Tioman Island in Malaysia. The International
Coral Reef Initiative, the International Coral Reef Society, the
Society for Conservation Biology and UN SDG 14 envoys amongs many
other organziations should play a more active role addressing the
current decision makers of each country with respect and diplomatic
SCIENTIFIC RECOMMENDATIONS according to their mission to avoid further
catastrophes. Calling to actions to protect effectively life below
water in coral reef areas of the world that will benefit all human
beings.

We as an International Coral Reef Observatory, are ready to support
with letters if requested, to the top decision makers and shared the
case studies where coral reefs are under threat, as well tagging in
our social media the organizations encharged of the effective
protection of coral reefs to promote global friendly environmental
behavior and positive change to improve the conservation of coral
reefs of the world.

PREVENTION IS BETTER THAN TRYING TO CURE (or trying to restore
afterwards) !! It is time to find alternatives to those developers who
have coral reefs in the military target destroying ecosystems. The
Blue Economy should not be based on paying A LOT to the justifiers of
degradation, because the environmental cost will be higher sooner or
later.

Nohora Galvis
ICRS World Reef Award Winner
ICRO Transdisciplinary Researcher
International Coral Reef Observatory
Follow us on Facebook.com/ICRObservatory
on Twitter / Instagram / YouTube  ICR_Observatory

El mar, 25 jul 2023 a las 15:07, Austin Bowden-Kerby via Coral-List
(<coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov>) escribió:
>
> Hi Alina,
>
> It's okay to be negative, as that is what scientists do- LOL!  I
> understand completely. Less is best is what we all believe in.  So
> your response is the sort of knee-jerk response I have come to expect.
> I have been accused of "playing GOD" with coralliophila snail removal
> in the Caribbean and Acanthaster removal in the Pacific in earlier
> days as well.  Plus butterflyfish are beautiful, and they look so
> gentle and innocent, and so I can understand that people's hearts
> would tend to dominate their heads on this one.
>
> However, the corals have taken millions of years to evolve and their
> future is on the line!  So if butterfly fish have even a slight chance
> of being a primary means for transfer of SCTLD, the precautionary
> principle in favor of the endangered species would remove them. If we
> wait for all the facts to be published in peer reviewed journals, it
> could be too late.  There are so few of the corals left, that removal
> would translate to killing only a few hundred of the fish regionally.
> The danger we face is not just to the Caribbean: coral reefs of
> perhaps the entire planet are potentially at risk, due to the
> ineffectiveness of ballast water protocols, so certainly any risk to a
> few coral predators is insignificant to the overall protection of the
> corals of the planet.
>
> In addition to the published Noonan and Childress study, establishing
> the 4-eyes as potentially problematic, in 2004 in Honduras and Belize,
> we found that the 4-eyes were the primary vector in the rapid tissue
> loss disease in Acropora.   It appeared that they were intentionally
> spreading the disease, so the tissues would lift off or something!
> They would bite an infected area and then a non-diseased neighboring
> branch and alternate.  However, a later paper by Noonan et al.
> suggests that the fish might remove diseased tissues and therefore
> help in the healing as well.  However the fish do not confine their
> feeding to the dead tissues, so while it could indeed help the lesions
> by removing infected tissues, at the same time it bites non infected
> tissues and colonies, and thus is a prime suspect as a major vector in
> spreading the disease.
>
> With any emerging problem like this, we must grab what we can and run
> with it. But the precautionary principle has resulted in a paralysis
> of will, as it is being interpreted wrongly, that to do nothing is
> better than to err on the side of over-reacting.  We wait for peer
> reviewed publications, which take years to come out, and we tend to
> discount observations and unpublished work.  I find the same
> conservativeness when dealing with mass coral death due to bleaching-
> and there is no emergency working group to address mass coral
> bleaching either, no pile of funds to use for experimental
> interventions during active events.  The failure of the system to
> control this disease and to address mass bleaching threatens the coral
> reefs of the entire planet, and this reflects poorly on the scientific
> community.  Massive funding for urgent research and action was needed
> five years ago, to include sampling of genotypes of the species
> affected to secure them in land-based systems, predator/ vector
> removal experiments, and the like.
>
> Back to the Titanic analogy: The ship is sinking, and our operating
> system requires that all lifeboats be fully inspected and proven
> seaworthy before we allow them to be launched and for people to board
> them, normally a good policy.  But the ship is now sinking rapidly,
> but we continue as normal, as the system requires that all lifeboats
> must be adequately inspected before launching!  The passengers that we
> are supposed to be saving are now drowning.... so it is time to break
> the rules, even if some lifeboats have holes in them and start
> sinking, we can repair them as we go!
>
> Regards
>
> Austin
>
> Noonan, K.R., Childress, M.J. Association of butterflyfishes and stony
> coral tissue loss disease in the Florida Keys. Coral Reefs 39,
> 1581–1590 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00338-020-01986-8
>
> The Influence of Foureye Butterflyfish (Chaetodon capistratus) and
> Symbiodiniaceae on the Transmission of Stony Coral Tissue Loss Disease
> Kara Titus, Lauren O’Connell, Kristiaan Matthee, Michael Childress
> Front. Mar. Sci., 21 March 2022.  Sec. Coral Reef Research Volume 9 -
> 2022 | https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2022.800423
>
>
>
> Austin Bowden-Kerby, PhD
> Corals for Conservation
> P.O. Box 4649 Samabula, Fiji Islands
>
> https://www.corals4conservation.org
> Publication on C4C's coral-focused climate change adaptation
> strategies:  https://www.mdpi.com/2673-1924/4/1/2/pdf
> Film on our "Reefs of Hope" coral restoration for climate change
> adaptation strategies:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BG0lqKciXAA
> TEDx talk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7PRLJ8zDm0U
> https://www.globalgiving.org/projects/emergency-response-to-massive-coral-bleaching/
>
>
> Austin Bowden-Kerby, PhD
> Corals for Conservation
> P.O. Box 4649 Samabula, Fiji Islands
>
>
> https://www.corals4conservation.org
> Publication on C4C's coral-focused climate change adaptation
> strategies:  https://www.mdpi.com/2673-1924/4/1/2/pdf
> Film on our "Reefs of Hope" coral restoration for climate change
> adaptation strategies:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BG0lqKciXAA
> TEDx talk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7PRLJ8zDm0U
> https://www.globalgiving.org/projects/emergency-response-to-massive-coral-bleaching/
>
> Teitei Livelihoods Centre
> Km 20 Sigatoka Valley Road, Fiji Islands
> (679) 938-6437
> http:/www.teiteifiji.org
> http://permacultureglobal.com/projects/1759-sustainable-environmental-livelihoods-farm-Fiji
> https://www.globalgiving.org/projects/happy-chickens-for-food-security-and-environment-1/
>
>
>
>
>
>
> On Wed, Jul 26, 2023 at 1:33 AM Alina Szmant
> <alina at cisme-instruments.com> wrote:
> >
> > Hello Austin:
> >
> > Sorry to be negative, but your suggestions remind me of bringing in mongooses to eat the rats in Hawaii, or kill all the wolves so that there are more deer and moose for humans to hunt... many more examples of humans trying to correct human induced problems by manipulating other species that really back fired in the longer term. Poor butterfly fish didn't cause any of these problems so I don't see why they should take the fall for the on-going anthropogenic disasters. And spearing a few fish is not going to make the disease go away. Bad idea.
> >
> >
> > Alina
> >
> >
> > *************************************************************************
> > Dr. Alina M. Szmant, CEO
> > CISME Instruments LLC
> > 210 Braxlo Lane,
> > Wilmington NC 28409 USA
> > AAUS Scientific Diving Lifetime Achievement Awardee
> > cell: 910-200-3913
> > EMAIL: alina at cisme-instruments.com
> >
> > CISME IS NOW SOLD BY QUBIT SYSTEMS; https://qubitbiology.com/cisme/
> >
> >
> > **********************************************************
> > Videos:  CISME Video 5:43 min   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VAYeR9qX71A&t=6s
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> > CISME Cucalorus 10x10 Sketch   4:03 min  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=12sAV8oUluE
> >
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Coral-List <coral-list-bounces at coral.aoml.noaa.gov> On Behalf Of Austin Bowden-Kerby via Coral-List
> > Sent: Monday, July 24, 2023 3:00 PM
> > To: Steve Mussman <sealab at earthlink.net>
> > Cc: coral list <coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov>
> > Subject: Re: [Coral-List] SCTLD on Bonaire
> >
> > Dear friends dealing with SCTLD,
> >
> > As Four-spot Butterflyfish are now proven as a primary vector of SCTLD, I would consider removing these predators around pillar corals.  While this approach may seem reactionary and unproven to some, consider that this species of butterflyfish are not in the least bit endangered.  The precautionary principle of science should be turned on its head when extinction risk is involved: Guilty until proven innocent.  As the Dendrogyra corals are so precious, I personally would not wait for more
> > data- I would assume that these fish are the primary vector, as this is apparently the only proven vector so far.
> >
> > We had a staghorn coral nursery in Roatan collapse due to a rapid tissue loss disease facilitated by a pair of four-eye butterflyfish way back in 2005, and the same problem was observed in Belize several years later.  At the very least, judge for yourself: monitor for the presence of the fish and observe their preferential feeding on diseased colony areas, and then record these same individuals moving and picking at healthy tissues (which a week later will likely be diseased).  But I personally would not wait for the obvious negative outcome.
> >
> > Perhaps overfishing of butterfly fish predators might be a factor in the spread of this disease in the Caribbean, and if so, the ecologically balanced reefs with the lowest abundance of four-eyed butterfly fish will retain some pillar coral colonies?
> >
> > Here in the Pacific, we have had horrific problems with Melon or Redfin Butterflyfish stripping all the tissues off of Acropora corals when we transplanted Acropora corals to reefs where the corals were absent, or present only within Stegastes farmerfish territories (the farmerfish chase the butterflyfish away).  We speared out the butterflyfish to good effect.
> > But then we found that over-abundant Parrotfish were also a horrific problem, in addition to COTS.  The farmerfish were found to effectively chase all three of these predators away.  In spite of some negative costs associated with Stegastes on Acropora corals, we are now looking into using farmerfish as "guard dogs" to protect the corals, as we work to re-establish Acropora corals on ecologically imbalanced reefs.  Dead reefs very low in coral cover, on the other hand, do not harbor these three coral dependent predators, nor do they harbor diseased corals, but these reefs are often impacted by algal overgrowth, so small outplants fare poorly. So we developed new approaches using "nucleation patches" and planting corals to structures that quickly restore fish abundance, which in turn reboot natural processes (links below).
> >
> > Regards,
> >
> > Austin
> >
> >
> > Austin Bowden-Kerby, PhD
> > Corals for Conservation
> > P.O. Box 4649 Samabula, Fiji Islands
> > https://www.corals4conservation.org
> > Publication on C4C's coral-focused climate change adaptation strategies:
> > https://www.mdpi.com/2673-1924/4/1/2/pdf
> > Film on our "Reefs of Hope" coral restoration for climate change adaptation
> > strategies:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BG0lqKciXAA
> > https://www.globalgiving.org/projects/emergency-response-to-massive-coral-bleaching/
> > <https://www.globalgiving.org/projects/emergency-response-to-massive-coral-bleaching/>
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > <https://www.avast.com/sig-email?utm_medium=email&utm_source=link&utm_campaign=sig-email&utm_content=webmail>
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> >
> > On Tue, Jul 25, 2023 at 3:11 AM Steve Mussman via Coral-List < coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov> wrote:
> >
> > >
> > > Hi Mel,
> > >
> > > I don’t know how there could be any science-based evidence that
> > > disinfecting scuba equipment is slowing or preventing the spread of
> > > SCTLD especially considering the fact that the specific pathogen
> > > involved has yet to be identified. However, my critique of the
> > > protocols affecting divers is also not founded on science. Mine is
> > > just a visceral reaction based solely on how I see divers interacting
> > > with infected corals and observations involving how the disinfection
> > > protocols are carried out in situ. There are just too many variables involved for this process to inspire confidence.
> > > While there is little known about the potential for scuba divers to
> > > serve as vectors of coral disease, there are a number of studies like this one:
> > > “Considering Commercial Vessels as Potential Vectors of Stony Coral
> > > Tissue Disease”
> > > https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmars.2021.709764/full.
> > >
> > > Simply put, we don’t know how this disease is spreading, but I would
> > > assert that we do know that it is at least reasonable to assume that
> > > ships are potential vectors - therefore why all the focus on divers
> > > (an untested
> > > entity) while cruise ships arriving from other known-to-be-infected
> > > islands are continuing to be allowed to tie up close to shore
> > > virtually on top of some of Bonaire’s shallow reefs close to where the
> > > disease was first detected?
> > >
> > > Regards,
> > >
> > > Steve
> > >
> > > Sent from EarthLink Mobile mail
> > >
> > > On 7/23/23, 9:30 PM, Melbourne Briscoe <mel at briscoe.com> wrote:
> > >
> > > There is a lot of discussion on the Bonaire forum of ScubaBroad about
> > > the presumed futility of restricting divers in order to slow the
> > > progressions of SCTLD there. Is there any evidence that this is
> > > actually helpful, or is it simply a precautionary approach based on hope?
> > >
> > > - Mel Briscoe
> > >
> > > On Sun, Jul 23, 2023 at 7:55 PM Steve Mussman via Coral-List <
> > > coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov
> > > (mailto:coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov)>
> > > wrote:
> > >
> > > I have several recent photos of SCTLD infected corals from the reefs
> > > of Bonaire if anyone is interested, they are available to share.
> > >
> > > I also came across several pillar coral colonies that I’ve been
> > > informally monitoring over the years that have seemingly withstood
> > > multiple stressors including (so far) SCTLD. I’ve read that Dendrogyra
> > > cylindrus have been almost totally wiped out by SCTLD in Florida
> > > waters so I am wondering why they don’t suffer a similar fate on
> > > Bonaire. I’m guessing it has something to do with the fact that
> > > Bonaire’s waters have not yet warmed like Florida’s have. ( I have
> > > several pictures of what appear to be healthy pillar coral from Bonaire as well).
> > >
> > > Considering that paper on SCTLD and butterflyfish - what about other
> > > species as potential vectors? I have a good shot of a lizardfish
> > > laying directly upon a healthy star coral. It seems that there are
> > > multitudes of possible suspects. Although I faithfully disinfected my
> > > scuba gear as directed, I couldn’t help but feel like I was
> > > participating in a modern day version of a rain dance ritual.
> > >
> > > On a more positive note, a welcomed respite, there were no cruise
> > > ships barging in on Bonaire the entire week.
> > >
> > > Regards,
> > >
> > > Steve Mussman
> > >
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