[Coral-List] Could foreign coral save dying reefs?
JJ
jeremybcjackson at gmail.com
Wed Jan 17 15:44:27 UTC 2024
Very nice to read rational responses to yet again another ridiculous and
dangerous proposal. Thanks!
On Wed, Jan 17, 2024 at 9:47 AM Risk, Michael via Coral-List <
coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov> wrote:
> Hi Steve.
>
> Those of us privileged to view the Fungia's happily (?) roaming around
> the north slope of Jamaica could also answer that question with "Hell,
> no!!"
>
> The initial premise, about differences between Caribbean and
> Indo-Pacific corals, also seems to have been crafted by people unaware
> of Paul Sammarco's pioneering work on this very subject.
>
> You have hit the nail on the head-and I note, with some asperity, that
> you are not a coral biologist. THEY are the ones who have dropped the
> ball here, and you have had to call them out. Not a week goes by
> without some new scheme to "save the reefs", in which some of our
> colleagues get to enjoy their 15 minutes of fame.
>
> Coral reef biology has, by and large, avoided dealing with root causes.
> This may be a question of survival-we all have stories about
> researchers who ran up against Big Something, and lost. I don't know
> the reasons, and it troubles me. I mention, again, that there have
> (only) been two studies of what happens to a dying reef when the WQ
> improves: Hawaii, and Barbados. In both cases, the corals improved
> quickly.
>
> Whatever happened to "First, clean up the water"?
>
> Mike
> __________________________________________________________________
>
> From: Coral-List <coral-list-bounces at coral.aoml.noaa.gov> on behalf of
> Steve Mussman via Coral-List <coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov>
> Sent: Tuesday, January 16, 2024 7:40 AM
> To: Douglas Fenner via Coral-List <coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov>
> Cc: coral list <coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov>
> Subject: Re: [Coral-List] Could foreign coral save dying reefs?
>
> Caution: External email.
> Hi Doug,
> Can foreign corals save a dying reef?
> I would suggest that the simple answer to that question is an emphatic
> "NO".
> One of the scientists in the Nature article is quoted as lamenting "How
> far do you go? When do we just give up?" she says. "I don't know."
> All this angst leads me to pose a responsive question.
> When will the coral sciences stop focusing on trying to find or develop
> corals that can survive in increasingly adverse conditions and finally
> realize that the only real solution is to address causation?
> Stop wringing your hands and focus on what we all know are the central
> issues at play; water quality, over-fishing and climate change.
> Such an approach might not create as many exciting opportunities to
> experiment with the manipulation the natural world, but it is becoming
> increasingly obvious that it is the last best chance we have to save
> it.
> Regards,
> Steve Mussman
> Sent from EarthLink Mobile mail
> On 1/15/24, 8:16 PM, Douglas Fenner via Coral-List
> <coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov> wrote:
> "Scientists are considering a desperate attempt to use non-native coral
> to
> restore long-struggling reefs in the Caribbean that were devastated by
> last
> year's heatwave. It's a controversial proposal
> that
> comes after efforts to rescue reefs with native corals have failed.
> Certain
> Indo-Pacific coral species easily colonize reefs, and might be able to
> survive pollution, heat extremes and diseases. But they could also
> disturb
> the local ecology in unpredictable ways. "It's an 11th-hour solution,"
> says
> coral geneticist Mikhail Matz, who presented the idea at a conference.
> "And
> it is now 11:45."" Nature Briefing
> Radical idea sparks debate
> [1]https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-024-00102-y
> open-access
> Cheers, Doug
> Lynker Technologies, LLC, Contractor
> NOAA Fisheries Service
> Pacific Islands Regional Office
> Honolulu
> and:
> Coral Reef Consulting
> PO Box 997390
> Pago Pago, American Samoa 96799-6298 USA
> Costanza, R. 2023. To build a better world, stop chasing economic
> growth.
> Nature 624: 519-521.
> [2]https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-04029-8
> Fossil fuel air pollution kills 5 million people world-wide per year
> [3]https://www.yahoo.com/news/research-shows-disturbing-between-million
> s-200000257.html
> World's richest 1% emit as much as 5 billion people
> [4]https://makerichpolluterspay.org/climate-equality-report/
> Huge expansion of fossil fuels planned, will be very destructive
> [5]https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/nov/08/insanity-petrost
> ates-planning-huge-expansion-of-fossil-fuels-says-un-report
> "without policy changes, the world will heat up enough by the end of
> the
> century that more than 2 billion people will live in life-threatening
> hot
> climates" Will you be in that area???
> [6]https://www.yahoo.com/news/scientists-sounding-alarm-dangerous-probl
> em-123000792.html
> World subsidies for fossil fuels reached an all-time high of over $1
> TRILLION in 2022, the last year for which data is available. The
> subsidies
> MUST end.
> [7]https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/fossil-fuel-subsid
> ies-must-end/
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>
> References
>
> 1. https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-024-00102-y
> 2. https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-04029-8
> 3.
> https://www.yahoo.com/news/research-shows-disturbing-between-millions-200000257.html
> 4. https://makerichpolluterspay.org/climate-equality-report/
> 5.
> https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/nov/08/insanity-petrostates-planning-huge-expansion-of-fossil-fuels-says-un-report
> 6.
> https://www.yahoo.com/news/scientists-sounding-alarm-dangerous-problem-123000792.html
> 7.
> https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/fossil-fuel-subsidies-must-end/
> 8. https://coral.aoml.noaa.gov/mailman/listinfo/coral-list
> 9. https://coral.aoml.noaa.gov/mailman/listinfo/coral-list
> _______________________________________________
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--
Jeremy Jackson
Author: *Breakpoint: Reckoning with America's Environmental Crises
<https://www.amazon.com/Breakpoint-Reckoning-Americas-Environmental-Crises/dp/0300179391/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1523815680&sr=8-1&keywords=jackson+breakpoint>*
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