Disclaimer

Phillip Dustan pdustan at zeus.cofc.edu
Tue Aug 26 09:08:45 EDT 1997


        I would second JudyLang's thoughts and add that I felt that Liz(
Science) diluted the Caribbean and western Atlantic with the Pacific.  I
spoke with her at length about the Caribbean and western Atlantic but the
issues of nutrification, lack of herbivory, bleaching, coral diseases,
watershed effluent, and nested levels of stress that are so important for
this region somehow seemed to get lost and bound into a quote about '''"if
you stop the stress the reefs will heal themselves (or some such). And
anyway, the Pacific is OK so its still an open issue... right?
        Anyone who has been diving inthe Florida Keys, Jamaica, or a host
of other locales throughout the Caribbean cannot ignore their own
observations but might want to ignore Science. 
         My hat is off to Dr. Bob who came up with the idea of IYOR and to
Gregor who has pushed so hard for ReefCheck.  But lets also get real and
stop kidding ourselves that everything is OK.
                                Phil Dustan


Phil Dustan		pdustan at zeus.cofc.edu
Department of Biology	telephone 803-953-8086
University of Charleston	fax  803 953-5453
Charleston S.C. 29424



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