From hans at psych.stanford.edu Mon Jun 1 22:36:14 1998 From: hans at psych.stanford.edu (Hans Hofmann) Date: Mon, 1 Jun 1998 19:36:14 -0700 Subject: fish food measurments Message-ID: Hello, I am planning a field trip to Lake Tanganyika in Africa where I want to study the behavior of certain cichlid fish. Since I am new to the water and to fish (I used to work on crickets) I was wondering if anyone can help me with the following problem: I'd like to measure and compare the food content at different locations of a given habitat (near the shore and in shore pools). The fish I am interested in is Astatotilapia/Haplochromis burtoni. They eat detritus, insects and everything that is not too big. Do I measure plankton and assume this is a good monitor? Is light transmission a good indicator? What about the food on the ground? Any hints are greatly appreciated! Thank you! Hans Hofmann * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Hans Hofmann Stanford University Department of Psychology Jordan Hall, Bldg. 420 Stanford, CA 94305-2130 phone: (650) 725-6362 (work) 366-4837 (home) fax: 723-0881 e-mail: hans at psych.stanford.edu From eakin at ogp.noaa.gov Tue Jun 2 09:06:09 1998 From: eakin at ogp.noaa.gov (Mark Eakin) Date: 2 Jun 1998 09:06:09 U Subject: NSF International Announcements Message-ID: Subject: Time: 9:00 AM NSF International Announcements Date: 6/2/98 FYI. Please contact the people listed in the message as I am only forwarding this off of a bulletin board. Mark -------------------------------------- From: NSF Custom News Service Subj: NSF Program Deadlines Date: Mon, 01 Jun 1998 12:04:38 -0400 June 15, 1998-- U.S.-France Cooperative Science Program. Annual Deadline for U.S. Proposals to NSF. (Brochure NSF 96-14.) Supports cooperative research and joint workshops. A French collaborator must submit a parallel proposal to the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) by June 15, 1998. Contact Ms.Rose Bader Gombay in the Division of International Programs by phone, 306-1702, or by e-mail, rgombay at nsf.gov. [P.T.34,42; K.W.0112045.] U.S.-Germany Cooperative Research Co-Sponsored by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD). Annual Deadline. (Brochure NSF 96-14.) Supports cooperative research and joint workshops with researchers at German universities. A German collaborator must submit a parallel proposal to the DAAD. Contact Dr. Mark Suskin in the Division of International Programs by phone, 306-1702, or by e-mail, msuskin at nsf.gov. [P.T.26,34; K.W.0112050.] U.S.-Japan Cooperative Research and Joint Seminars. Annual Deadline. (Brochure NSF 96-14.) This program accepts proposals for cooperative research projects and joint seminar activities. Contact the Division of International Programs by phone, 306-1701, or by e-mail, jkpinfo at nsf.gov. [P.T.34,42; K.W.0112070.] July 1, 1998-- U.S.-Korea Cooperative Science Program. Annual Deadline. (Brochure NSF 96-14.) Supports cooperative research and joint seminars. A Korean collaborator must submit a parallel proposal to the Korea Science and Engineering Foundation (KOSEF). Contact the Division of International Programs by phone, 306-1701, or by e-mail, jkpinfo at nsf.gov. [P.T.34; K.W.0112074.] September 1, 1998-- Cooperative Activities with Africa, the Near East, and South Asia. Semi-Annual Deadline. (Brochure NSF 96-14.) Cooperative research and joint workshops involving partners in countries in these regions, and dissertation enhancement proposals (for fieldwork at a site in most of these countries). Support for planning visits is limited, and proposed visits should be discussed with the program manager prior to submission. Request for support of an international collaborative activity may be included as an integral part of proposals to Foundation-wide programs such as POWRE, CAREER, and REU, and such proposals should be submitted to those programs at their respective deadlines. Contact the Division of International Programs by phone, 306-1707, or by e-mail, tlbutler at nsf.gov. A component of this program is the U.S.-India Cooperative Research activity. NSF's new joint program with the Department of Science and Technology (DST) supports the linkage costs for cooperative research projects and workshops that meet NSF and DST criteria. Proposals must be submitted simultaneously to DST by the Indian collaborator and to NSF by the U.S. researcher. Contact Dr. Marjorie Lueck in the Division of International Programs by phone, 306-1707, or by e-mail, mlueck at nsf.gov. [P.T.34,40,42;K.W.0101000,0103000,0103003,0103007,0112 061.] From avk.uneprcuja at toj.com Tue Jun 2 08:44:19 1998 From: avk.uneprcuja at toj.com (Alessandra Vanzella-Khouri) Date: Tue, 02 Jun 1998 09:44:19 -0300 Subject: Symposium reminder Message-ID: <3.0.3.32.19980602094419.006af170@mail.toj.com> Dear Coral listers: This is the second reminder for the ITMEMS Symposium in Australia in November 1998. If interested please read and in particular for tentative participants from the Wider Caribbean Region: ICRI: Reminder on ITMEMS As you are probably aware the International Tropical Marine Ecosystems Management Symposium (ITMEMS) will be held in Townsville, Australia, 23-26 November 1988 ITMEMS will provide a forum for the review and evaluation of the implementation of the International Coral Reef Initiative (ICRI). The review will be conducted within a framework of the four ICRI cornerstones: Integrated Management, Capacity Building, Monitoring and Review. The Symposium will also provide an opportunity to identify shortcomings in the global ICRI strategy and for delegates to give guidance to the Secretariat and ICRI partners on the future direction of the initiative. ITMEMS will complement the International Coral Reef Symposia (ICRS, which take place every four years) by bringing together coral reef management practitioners and policy makers from around the world to discuss their concerns. The Symposium structure is designed to meet the particular needs of management. It is based around the priority issues and needs for conservation and sustainable use of coral reefs and associated ecosystems as identified through the ICRI process. These will provide the focus for a series of interactive, action-oriented workshops that are designed to share practical experiences and draw lessons through case study examples from around the world. The capacity of tropical marine ecosystem managers and policy makers to develop and implement management initiatives for coral reefs and associated ecosystems will be enhanced through this process. ITMEMS will make a major contribution to ocean management in 1998 and will be one of the premier events during the United Nations International Year of the Ocean. Symposium Objectives ? To review actions taken to date on a global and regional basis to implement the objectives of ICRI as outlined in the Call to Action and Framework for Action ? To identify gaps in the global approach of ICRI to stop the degradation of coral reefs and related ecosystems ? To provide direction for the future implementation of ICRI ? To share experiences and lessons amongst coral reef managers and policy makers of recent developments in the conservation and sustainable use of coral reefs and related ecosystems. Results ? An understanding of progress made since the Dumaguete City workshop to stop the global degradation of coral reefs ? A renewed commitment on a continuing global basis, to apply the four ICRI elements: Integrated Management, Capacity Building, Monitoring and Review ? Enhanced capacity to develop and implement coral reef management initiatives. Products ? Symposium documentation, including status reports and case study examples from each of the ICRI regions ? Working Group summaries of lessons learned and future challenges arising from the case studies ? An agreed action statement and communique for ICRI global direction over the next four years. Participation from the Wider Caribbean UNEP's Regional Co-ordinating Unit for the Caribbean Environment Programme as regional contact point for ICRI is assisting in coordinating regional participation at ITMEMS and securing funding for this purpose. If you are interested in attending and/or in presenting a case study from the region please contact: Alessandra Vanzella-Khouri, UNEP, 14-20 Port Royal Street, Kingston, Jamaica, Ph (876) 922-9267, Fax (876) 922-9292, Email: avk.uneprcuja at toj.com For further information on ITMEMS contact: Symposium Management Company HARVEY EVENTS GROUP PTY LTD P.O. Box 1811 Attkenvale Qld 4814 Australia Telephone: (61) 0747715755 Facsimilie: (61) 0747715455 ICRI Web: http;//www.gbrmpa.gov.au/~icri/secretariat/itmems From mariam at ap.net.hk Wed Jun 3 08:16:33 1998 From: mariam at ap.net.hk (Maria) Date: Wed, 3 Jun 1998 12:16:33 GMT Subject: Marine Protected Areas Message-ID: <199806031216.MAA04285@coral.aoml.noaa.gov> Hi coral-listers, I am looking for information about any GOOD conferences or workshops that anyone might know about on the subject of Marine Protected Areas, with a coral reef slant. Any info most gratefully received. Thanks. My email is mariam at ap.net.hk. Regards Maria -- ------------------------------------ Maria Milicich, PhD Rm 902, Kai Wong Commercial Building, 222-226 Queens Rd Central, Sheung Wan Hong Kong Ph: (852) 2543 4550 Fax: (852) 2543 4550 Mobile: 93020053 From 106422.2221 at compuserve.com Thu Jun 4 12:01:31 1998 From: 106422.2221 at compuserve.com (Simon Wilson) Date: Thu, 4 Jun 1998 12:01:31 -0400 Subject: Bleaching in Southern Arabia Message-ID: <199806041201_MC2-3F29-7F9B@compuserve.com> BLEACHING IN DHOFAR PROVINCE, SOUTHERN OMAN, ARABIAN SEA BACKGROUND The greatest development of coral communities along this mainland coast of southern Oman occur at the Mirbat peninsular centred at Rahaa (N16? 56.6 E054? 48.3) where incipient fringing reefs have formed. Elsewhere in Dhofar, coral communities grow on rocky substrates without accreting reef framework. This region is affected by intense upwelling of cold, nutrient-rich water during the SE monsoon season between June and September when surface temperatures drop as low as 18?. The Dhofar region supports the greatest diversity of corals in Oman waters, where a total of 42 genera are known to occur. BLEACHING Extensive bleaching was observed at eight sites around the Mirbat peninsula between 22nd and 26th May 1998 just prior to the onset of the SE monsoon season. Recorded surface sea water temperatures at these sites varied between 29.5 and 31.5?C. Approximately 40 kilometres to the east at Sudh (approx N16? 59.5 E055? 10.5) surface sea water temperature was recorded at 25?C during the same period. No bleaching was observed at this site or any other site (N=6) in this area where surface seawater temperatures varied between 25 and 25.5?C. Genera affected included Acropora, Porites, Favia, Favites, Goniopora, Coscinarea, Pavona, Montipora, Pocillopora, Leptastrea, Cyphastrea and Stylophora. Water depths to a maximum of 5 metres were surveyed. Stylophora appears to be one of the most abundant of coral genera growing in shallow waters (1-2 metres depth) in the area. All colonies of this genus were found to be bleached. Between 75% and 95% of all other coral genera observed were bleached. 50% of large colonies (>1m diameter) of Porites were partially bleached. Epiphytic algal growth was observed on recently dead Porites, Acropora and Cyphastrea colonies. Approximately 95% of coral colonies examined were still living despite the expulsion of zooxanthellae. No bleaching has been observed or reported in the Muscat Area, Gulf of Oman (N23? 37.7 E058? 34.9, approx 1000km to the NE) where surface seawater temperatures at 2 sites on 4th June were recorded as 30.5 and 30 ?C. Robert Baldwin and Simon Wilson PO Box 2531 CPO 111 Seeb OMAN From tsocci at usgcrp.gov Fri Jun 5 16:04:45 1998 From: tsocci at usgcrp.gov (Tony Socci) Date: Fri, 5 Jun 1998 16:04:45 -0400 Subject: June 11th US Global Change Research Program Seminar: "Development of Asian Mega-Cities: Environmental, Economic, Social, and Health Implications" Message-ID: U.S. Global Change Research Program Seminar Series Development of Asian Mega-Cities: Environmental, Economic, Social, and Health Implications What are the current and projected trends in Asian mega-cities with respect to greenhouse gas emissions, ground-level ozone pollution, energy use, sulfur dioxide aerosols, and population in the next 20, 50, and 100 years? Should air pollution and climate change be treated as separate issues? How much of a risk does air pollution currently pose to human health in Asia? What are the prospects for the future? Are there an array of cost-effective options available to simultaneously address the issues of human-induced climate change and air pollution? Public Invited Thursday, June 11, 1998, 3:15-4:45 PM NEW LOCATION - Dirksen Senate Office Bldg., Room 628, Washington, DC Reception Following INTRODUCTION Dr. Jack A. Kaye, Manager, Atmospheric Chemistry Modeling and Analysis Program, Office of Earth Science, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Washington, DC SPEAKERS Dr. Gregory R. Carmichael, Department of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering, and Co-Director of the Center for Global & Regional Environmental Research, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA Dr. F. Sherwood Rowland, Recipient of the 1995 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, and the Donald Bren Research Professor of Chemistry and Earth System Science, University of California, Irvine, CA OVERVIEW Asia and, in particular, Asian mega-cities, are some of the most dynamic and diverse regions of the world. As the poorer regions strive to catch up to the more developed ones, the environment is often caught in the middle, and in some cases given cursory attention. Awareness is mounting of the need for cooperation at local, regional, and international levels in addressing many of Asia's environmental problems, because Asian development will have profound impacts on the environment, in Asia and well beyond. Fueled by high population growth and vibrant economies, energy consumption in Asia currently represents ~20% of the world total, and it is estimated that its share will grow to 30% by 2015. Because fossil fuels will provide much of this energy, emissions of greenhouse gases and air pollutants such as sulfur and nitrogen oxides and particulates are projected to dramatically increase. During 1990-1996, total energy-related carbon emissions in East Asia grew at an average rate of 4.5% per year compared to the world average of 0.6% per year. Over the last two decades, China's SO2 (sulfur dioxide) emissions have grown by more than a factor of three, and this trend is expected to continue, with Asia-wide emissions projected to increase by another factor of two to three between now and 2020. Asian Development and the Environment The impacts of Asia's growth in emissions will have wide-ranging consequences. Acid precipitation is an illustrative example. China's National Environmental Protection Agency (NEPA) recently released a report indicating that economic losses due to acid rain damage to forests and farmland are now estimated at $13.25 billion annually, five times higher than initially assessed in 1996. The long range transport and fate of pollutants away from Asia is an area of increasing scientific interest and political concern because countries are receiving increasing amounts of pollutants from neighboring and even distant countries. The recent episodes of severe smoke and haze throughout Southeast Asia underscore this point. Another key dynamic in Asia is the urban environment. As subsistence workers migrate from rural areas to the cities in search of relief, urban populations are growing faster than the national averages. Asia presently has ~1 billion urban dwellers, and this number is expected to rise to nearly 3 billion in 2025. The ten Mega Cities (populations greater than 10 million) will then account for ~40% of their country's GNP (gross national product). Though reliable monitoring and health effects data are lacking in many cases, indications are that damage to human health and well-being from poor air quality (both in and out of doors) is extensive. Without strong intervention the situation will inevitably worsen. The emissions of chlorofluorocarbons and carbon dioxide contribute to well known global atmospheric problems. However, when local pollution problems are numerous enough, they can grow to create global problems. The increase in tropospheric ozone (low- or ground-level ozone) concentrations provides a particularly clear example of this globalization of pollution. The basic ingredients in the formation of ozone in the urban atmosphere are now well-established: partially-burned hydrocarbons, nitrogen oxides, and sunlight. The motorization of urban environments all around the world has produced local smog, including ground-level ozone, in hundreds of cities. Ozone formation continues in the urban plumes extending downwind from the cities in which emissions occur, until the components are diluted below critical concentration levels. However, when the dilution has not been completed by the time the plume enters the next city, the pollution is converted from a local problem into a regional problem. The growth in emissions in eastern Asia, in particular, has now advanced so that the regional problems are coalescing further into zonal problems affecting all locations within a particular latitude zone, e.g., between 25 degrees N and 50 degrees N latitudes. A similar zonal problem exists in the southern hemisphere, driven largely by the extensive burning there of forests and agricultural wastes. While projections based on current growth and present environmental protection and practices paint a very pessimistic picture, the growth in emissions in Asia will most certainly not follow these projections. There has already been a (temporary) downturn in several of the "Tiger" economies (with the result that growth in regional carbon emissions may slow to 2% in 1998) and countries such as China are introducing experimental emission control systems and are beginning to establish regulations to more aggressively curb emissions of some pollutants. There are also ways to decouple energy growth from economic and population growth. Economic growth will not be equal across economic sectors, and the energy-intensive industrial sector is projected to grow less rapidly than the service sector, which has lighter energy demands. Growth in the transportation sector in Asia is very rapid, and, as a result, photochemical smog problems in Asian cities are on the rise. Without intervention the contribution of motor vehicles to energy use and emissions will rise dramatically. Energy efficiency improvements are also important. In Asia, it is estimated that energy efficiency has the potential to reduce the growth in energy use and emissions in 2020 by 30%; even with these improvements in energy efficiency emissions will still double by the year 2020. Efficient, low-polluting technologies for the combustion of fossil fuels and for the treatment of effluent gases offer a substantial opportunity over the next 20 to 30 years to help meet the expanding energy needs and to help limit the environmental damage. The use of advanced control technologies, for example, could reduce the emissions of SO-2 below current levels, albeit at high cost (~$90 billion annually). The pressing environmental problems of urban pollution and climate change in Asia are closely linked problems sharing common causes and solutions. The fact that air pollution problems and greenhouse gas emissions arise largely from fossil fuel combustion and the important role of aerosols in both air pollution and climate change are illustrative examples. In Asia, it will be particularly important to develop energy/emissions policies which recognize the need for near-term benefits and that choices made in changing energy usage may have different climate change and health outcomes. In the urban environments of Asia, efforts to reduce emissions and to use less energy can have significant health benefits at rather low per capita costs ($10 to $50 per person protected). From a health perspective the benefits of a one-ton reduction in particulate emissions from household stoves are estimated to be at least 40 times greater than those from coal-fired power plants. Furthermore, shifting from coal fired power plants to natural gas has larger health benefits than climate benefits, while shifting from coal power to hydroelectric results in the same percentage reduction in health effects and greenhouse gas emissions reductions. There are a variety of steps that can be taken to help reduce the environmental impacts of Asian development. While no single action will be sufficient, the diversity of Asia offers substantial potential for improvement by focusing strategies on specific fuels, technologies, economic sectors, emission sources and ecologically sensitive ecosystems. The expansion and replacement of the energy infrastructure that will be required to meet projected Asian development also offers great opportunities to implement these strategies. The differences in cost-effective emission reductions in Asia (e.g., $3,600 per ton of SO2 reduced in Japan and $400-$500 per ton in China) also offer a mechanism for the region as a whole, for coordinating emission control strategies. Biographies Dr. Gregory R. Carmichael is a professor in the Department of Chemical & Biochemical Engineering, and is Co-Director of the Center for Global & Regional Environmental Research at the University of Iowa. His main research interests are the development and application of models for the analysis of long-range transport of acidic and photochemical pollutants on urban, regional and global scales. He has worked extensively on issues of long range transport of pollutants in Asia, and the impact of Asian development on the environment. He has received support for his work on Asia from the National Science Foundation (NSF), NASA, NOAA (Global Change Program), DOE, The World Bank, and the Asian Development Bank. Dr. Carmichael has over 120 refereed journal publications, serves on numerous editorial boards, is past chair of the American Meteorological Society's Committee on Atmospheric Chemistry, and serves as a consultant to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) on issues related to Asia. He is presently working with WMO on issues related to the recent Indonesian forest fires and acid deposition. Dr. F. Sherwood Rowland is the Donald Bren Research Professor of Chemistry at the University of California at Irvine, where he arrived in 1964 as the first chair of the Department of Chemistry. Since 1994, Dr. Rowland has also been serving as the elected Foreign Secretary of the National Academy of Sciences. Prior to his arrival at UC-Irvine, Dr. Rowland had held faculty positions at Princeton University and the University of Kansas. He earned his bachelor's degree from Ohio Wesleyan University and his master's and doctoral degrees from the University of Chicago. More than 50 scientists have received Ph.D. degrees under his direction. Dr. Rowland's research specialty is atmospheric chemistry and radiochemistry. With colleague Dr. Mario Molina, he was the first scientist to warn that chlorofluorocarbons released into the atmosphere were depleting the Earth's stratospheric ozone layer. Research on CFCs and stratospheric ozone eventually led, in 1987, to the United Nations Montreal Protocol, the first international agreement for controlling and ameliorating environmental damage to the global atmosphere. The terms of the Montreal Protocol were later strengthened in 1992 to attain a complete phaseout of further CFC production by the year 1996. Dr. Rowland has also been investigating the impact of methane gas (CH-4) on the atmosphere. Methane is another potent greenhouse gas whose atmospheric concentration has doubled in the past two centuries. Presently, Dr. Rowland's research group is investigating the hydrocarbon and halocarbon composition of the atmosphere both from aircraft in remote locations and on the surface in heavily polluted cities. Dr. Rowland is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 1983, he and Dr. Molina received both the Tyler World Prize in Ecology and Energy, and the Award for Creative Advances in Environmental Science and Technology of the American Chemical Society. In 1987, Dr. Rowland received the Charles A. Dana Award for Pioneering Achievements in Health, and in 1988, he was made a member of the Global 500, the Honor Roll of the United Nations Environment Programme. In 1989, he received the Japan Prize in Environmental Science and Technology, and in 1994 he received the Albert Einstein Prize of the World Cultural Council. From 1991-1993, he served successive one-year terms as President-Elect, President, and Chairman of the Board of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. In 1993 Dr. Rowland was awarded the American Chemical Society's Peter Debye Medal in Physical Chemistry, and in 1994, he was awarded the Roger Revelle Medal of the American Geophysical Union. In 1995, he shared the Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Mario Molina and Paul Crutzen. The Next Seminar is tentatively scheduled for Monday, July 20, 1998 Planned Topic: Ozone Depletion and the Montreal Protocol: Historic Trends, Present Status, and Future Projections. For more information please contact: Anthony D. Socci, Ph.D., U.S. Global Change Research Program Office, 400 Virginia Ave. SW, Suite 750, Washington, DC 20024; Telephone: (202) 314-2235; Fax: (202) 488-8681 E-Mail: TSOCCI at USGCRP.GOV. Additional information on the U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP) and this Seminar Series is available on the USGCRP Home Page at: http://www.usgcrp.gov. A complete archive of seminar summaries can also be found at this site. Normally these seminars are held on the second Monday of each month. From emueller at mote.org Sun Jun 7 00:31:00 1998 From: emueller at mote.org (Erich Mueller) Date: Sat, 6 Jun 1998 21:31:00 -0700 (PDT) Subject: Tortugas Ecological Reserve Message-ID: Dear colleagues with an interest in the Dry Tortugas, As you may be aware, the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary has begun the process of establishing an Ecological Reserve (no take) in the Dry Tortugas area. This would extend beyond the Dry Tortugas N.P., most likely in the Tortugas Bank area. As a member of the Tortugas 2000 Working Group representing the research community (by virtue of a similar mandate on teh Sanctuary Advisory Council), I would like to solicit input from those interested in this process, especially those who have worked, or plan to, in this area. I would appreciate hearing your thoughts and ideas concerning the Reserve such as areas that would be particularly valuable to include. For example, fish spawning areas or critical habitat. There are no "lines on the map" yet and this is your opportunity to have input into the Reserve definition. The location of research sites is of great interest along with a brief desciption of work done there. If you feel that any locations are particularly sensitive and should NOT be generally disclosed, please indicate that and such information will be treated accordingly. Thank you for your consideration, Erich Mueller <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Erich Mueller, Ph.D., Director Phone: (305) 289-4282 Mote Marine Laboratory FAX: (305) 289-9664 Pigeon Key Marine Research Center Email: emueller at mote.org P.O. Box 500895 Marathon, FL 33050 Web pages: http://www.mote.org/~emueller/pkmrc.html http://www.mote.org Remarks are personal opinion and do not reflect institutional policy unless so indicated. <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> From jware at erols.com Sun Jun 7 14:25:23 1998 From: jware at erols.com (John Ware) Date: Sun, 07 Jun 1998 14:25:23 -0400 Subject: What is a coral reef? Message-ID: <357ADB13.2FCBE108@erols.com> Dear Coral Listers, I am in the process of collecting definitions of the term 'coral reef' or the more restrictive term: 'tropical coral reef'. Clearly this is a problem that has bothered coral-reef people for years and most of the time we simply ignore it. The subject came up briefly in Boston, and we really don't seem to have any reasonable definition. I think that, if I can collect enough definitions from enough people, I may be able to form a 'membership' function based on ideas and concepts taken from fuzzy logic. This would allow one to evaluate some object and compute its membership in the class of objects which we would call 'coral reefs' or 'tropical coral reefs'. The membership function would range from 0 (not even a little bit like a coral reef) to 1 (a bona fide, real-life, absolutely-no-question) coral reef. I would appreciate hearing from anyone with their particular definition, or definitions which they have found in the literature. (For example, your definition might be a syllogism: I am a coral-reef scientist. The things I study are coral reefs. Therefore, this thing I am studying is a coral reef.) It would be nice (but not necessary) if the definitions included some quantitative attribute, for example size, calcification rate, species composition or some such. I don't mean that I am looking for numbers, just things that are potentially quantifiable. If I receive sufficient responses, I will provide a digest of definitions to the list. Thanks in advance. Please respond directly to: jware at erols.com John Ware SeaServices, Inc. From epheconf at univ-perp.fr Mon Jun 8 03:50:32 1998 From: epheconf at univ-perp.fr (E.P.H.E.) Date: Mon, 8 Jun 1998 10:50:32 +0300 Subject: Student Travel Award Message-ID: <199806081251.MAA05540@coral.aoml.noaa.gov> Announcement : I.S.R.S. STUDENT TRAVEL AWARD PROGRAM (STAP) At the 8th International Coral Reef Symposium, held in Panama 24-28 June 1996, the Council of the International Society for Reef Studies (ISRS) approved a - STUDENT TRAVEL AWARD PROGRAM ( STAP) for the South (India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Maldives and Bangladesh) and South East Asia (Indonesia, Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam) area. Awards for other reef areas may also be provided in future years. The ISRS European meeting, to be held in Perpignan, France, 1-4 September 1998 has been selected as the first meeting to receive travel funds under the STUDENT TRAVEL AWARD PROGRAM (STAP) STUDENT TRAVEL AWARD PROGRAM (STAP) ANNOUNCEMENT : A- Round trip airfare (up to US $1200) will be covered by ISRS, with student food/lodging/fees covered by the meeting host. B- Applicants must respond by 10th July 1998 to meeting host and include abstract of oral paper or poster (no more than 500 words, including presentation title, name of author and address) that will be presented at the meeting. C- Applicants should also arrange for two letters of recommendation from their major professors relative to their graduate student status and active current involvement with coral reef research in the field and/or laboratory. Such letters also to reach meeting host no later than 10th July 1998. D- For this first ISRS Travel Award, only the students from the South (India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Maldives and Bangladesh) and South East Asia (Indonesia, Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam) area can apply. E- Please answer to the meeting host : Rene GALZIN Convenor ISRS European Meeting Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes Universit=E9 de Perpignan 66860 Perpignan Cedex, France Telephone : (33) 4 68 66 20 55 Fax : (33) 4 68 50 36 86 Email : epheconf at univ-perp.fr Thank you, Rene GALZIN Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes Universit=E9 de Perpignan 52, Av. de Villeneuve 66860 - Perpignan Cedex FRANCE Tel. : (33) 4 68 66 20 55 Fax : (33) 4 68 50 36 86 e-mail : epheconf at univ-perp.fr From rginsburg at rsmas.miami.edu Mon Jun 8 19:25:38 1998 From: rginsburg at rsmas.miami.edu (rginsburg at rsmas.miami.edu) Date: Mon, 08 Jun 1998 19:25:38 -0400 Subject: 'Blue' coral Message-ID: <3.0.5.32.19980608192538.008965f0@oj.rsmas.miami.edu> >From: "Patrick Mitchell-Jones" >Organization: CDS Group >Date: Fri, 5 Jun 1998 09:16:11 +0000 >Subject: Re: 'Blue' coral >Reply-to: patmj at cdstecsv.demon.co.uk >X-Confirm-Reading-To: patmj at cdstecsv.demon.co.uk > > >Whilst diving in the Maldives (North Ari Atoll) recently, I >commented on the large number of 'Blue' and Blue tipped' coral >growths which have previously been white/cream. Some appeared to be >turning pale blue from the tip downwards, others had patches of blue. > These coral colonies appeared to be random (various depths and >sites) and not limited to a single species. The local dive rep stated >that he had been informed that these corals went blue prior to death. >If this is the case, there are a large number of deaths about to >take place! I suspect that the colouration is more to do with the >lifecycle of the polyps, perhaps their spawning but I have been >unable to find any informatiion on this. Can you provide any? > >Many thanks in anticipation, > > >Patrick Mitchell-Jones. >patmj at cdstecsv.demon.co.uk Robert N. Ginsburg Professor of Marine Geology Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science University of Miami 4600 Rickenbacker Cswy. Miami, FL 33149 Phone: (305) 361-4875 FAX: (305) 361-4094 or 4632 From cbingman at netcom.com Mon Jun 8 21:12:58 1998 From: cbingman at netcom.com (Craig Bingman) Date: Mon, 8 Jun 1998 18:12:58 -0700 (PDT) Subject: 'Blue' coral In-Reply-To: <3.0.5.32.19980608192538.008965f0@oj.rsmas.miami.edu> Message-ID: Host autofluorescent pigments (some of which are blue) are more easily observed when the symbiotic dinoflagellate population of the coral is reduced, as in "bleaching" from high temperature or high irradiance. This is one possible explaination for the observation. There may be others. > >Whilst diving in the Maldives (North Ari Atoll) recently, I > >commented on the large number of 'Blue' and Blue tipped' coral > >growths which have previously been white/cream. Some appeared to be > >turning pale blue from the tip downwards, others had patches of blue. > >Patrick Mitchell-Jones. > >patmj at cdstecsv.demon.co.uk > > Robert N. Ginsburg From hans at psych.stanford.edu Mon Jun 8 22:32:02 1998 From: hans at psych.stanford.edu (Hans Hofmann) Date: Mon, 8 Jun 1998 18:32:02 -0800 Subject: spectrometer Message-ID: Hello, We are planning a field trip to Lake Tanganyika in Africa where we want to study the behavior of the cichlid fish Astatotilapia/Haplochromis burtoni. Since we would like to measure and compare light spectra at different sites of the habitat and in varying water depths, we are contemplating on renting/borrowing an underwater spectroradiometer (ca. 350 to 700 nm, up to 10 m water depth). Any hints are greatly appreciated. Thank you! Hans Hofmann * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Hans Hofmann Stanford University Department of Psychology Jordan Hall, Bldg. 420 Stanford, CA 94305-2130 phone: (650) 725-6362 (work) 366-4837 (home) fax: 723-0881 e-mail: hans at psych.stanford.edu From reefmonitor at eureka.lk Tue Jun 9 01:38:56 1998 From: reefmonitor at eureka.lk (reefmonitor at eureka.lk) Date: Tue, 09 Jun 1998 10:38:56 +0500 Subject: 'Blue' coral Message-ID: <1.5.4.32.19980609053856.0071f9d8@eureka.lk> Regarding the 'blue' colouration you observed in corals in the Maldives - we have observed this a lot recently in association with the extensive bleaching over the past two months. It seems likely that the bluish colour is the residual colour of the polyp tissue after zooxanthellae have been expelled. If so, mortality in these corals is not necessarily a foregone conclusion as your dive rep suggested. We hope to be able to report rates of mortality/recovery following bleaching at sites in Maldives and Sri Lanka within a few weeks. Sincerely, -------------- Jason Rubens Regional Co-ordinator GCRMN South Asia IOC-UNESCO/ UNEP/ IUCN 48 Vajira Road Colombo 5 Sri Lanka Tel: + 94 74 511166 Fax: + 94 1 580202 From KorrubelJ at science.unp.ac.za Tue Jun 9 03:09:23 1998 From: KorrubelJ at science.unp.ac.za (Jan Korrubel) Date: Tue, 09 Jun 1998 09:09:23 +0200 Subject: 'Blue' coral -Reply Message-ID: Dear fellow coral'lers, >> Patrick Mitchell-Jones wrote: >> >> Whilst diving in the Maldives (North Ari Atoll) recently, I >> commented on the large number of 'Blue' and Blue tipped' coral >> growths which have previously been white/cream. Some appeared to >> be turning pale blue from the tip downwards, others had patches >> of blue. > Craig Bingman replied: > > Host autofluorescent pigments (some of which are blue) are more > easily observed when the symbiotic dinoflagellate population of the > coral is reduced, as in "bleaching" from high temperature or high > irradiance. > > This is one possible explaination for the observation. There may be > others. I would be most interested to hear more about this. While diving in Sodwana Bay (northern east coast of South Africa) very recently (last week), we too observed this "blue phenomenon". As mentioned above, the blue can be light in colour or very bright, affecting the entire colony. In addition to the blue, we also noticed numerous _Porites_ colonies with a luminescent/flourescent pink border - can this be attributed to the same phenomenon? Jan Korrubel Michael Samways Invertebrate Conservation Research Center University of Natal Pietermaritzburg South Africa From yfadlal at kfupm.edu.sa Tue Jun 9 07:48:25 1998 From: yfadlal at kfupm.edu.sa (Yusef Fadlalla) Date: Tue, 09 Jun 1998 14:48:25 +0300 Subject: 'Blue' coral -Reply References: Message-ID: <357D2109.A18B34CB@kfupm.edu.sa> > Dear fellow coral'lers, > > >> Patrick Mitchell-Jones wrote: > >> > >> Whilst diving in the Maldives (North Ari Atoll) recently, I > >> commented on the large number of 'Blue' and Blue tipped' coral > >> growths which have previously been white/cream. Some appeared to > >> be turning pale blue from the tip downwards, others had patches > >> of blue. > > > Craig Bingman replied: > > > > Host autofluorescent pigments (some of which are blue) are more > > easily observed when the symbiotic dinoflagellate population of the > > coral is reduced, as in "bleaching" from high temperature or high > > irradiance. > > > > This is one possible explaination for the observation. There may be > > > others. > Jan Korrubel added: > >I would be most interested to hear more about this. While diving in > >Sodwana Bay (northern east coast of South Africa) very recently (last > > >week), we too observed this "blue phenomenon". As mentioned above, > >the blue can be light in colour or very bright, affecting the entire > >colony. > > >In addition to the blue, we also noticed numerous _Porites_ colonies > >with a luminescent/flourescent pink border - can this be attributed > to > >the same phenomenon? > > In the Gulf (Saudi Arabia) we at first (many years ago) thought that a species of Porites (cf compressa) had no less than five different color morphs, including blue and pink. We are now certain that these colors appear under stressing conditions (extreme cold or warm waters). Colonies of Porites in the Gulf normally appear brown/beige/drab yellow. When they apparently lose their algal symbionts, these same colonies would appear either bright off-white (light tissue pigmentation) or bright off-white with the blue or pink hues that have been described by other observers. In the majority of occurrences, the corals suffer limited or no mortality and would eventually recover their typical brown colors. Yusef Fadlallah Research Institute King Fahd University Dhahran 31261 Saudi Arabia From cnidaria at earthlink.net Tue Jun 9 08:05:52 1998 From: cnidaria at earthlink.net (James M. Cervino) Date: Tue, 9 Jun 1998 05:05:52 -0700 (PDT) Subject: Epizootic? Message-ID: Reguarding the Blue and Pink Pigment. Is it possible that you are seeing the Porites Ring/Blotch Disease. Sort of a raised increased mass of tissue above the normal tissue line (hyperplasia?) forming a Blotch of bluish pink ring?? This ring develops into a depressed lesion on the tops as well as the base or sides. This is what we are noticing at most of the sites we dived in the Philippines. Laurie Ramundo of Cornell University has also observed similar lesions on Porites sp. at her study sites, although her photos reveal white blotchs or spots during the early signs. Our observations were made outside of bleaching events. Reports of this syndrome have been coming in in the past 12 months, while in Papaua New Guinea after the 95 bleaching event the Porites seemed in perfect health. The soft coral Gonipora sp.will also exhibit this blue pigmentation on the tops of the polyps, while the rest of the tissue is white, is this also due to BLEACHING and the LOSS of zooxanthellae?? We will be back in PNG this Aug. to monitor and re-collect data from those same sites. Thanks, James M. Cervino ************************************ James M. Cervino Marine Biologist Global Coral Reef Alliance 124-19 9th ave. College Point New York, N.Y. 11356 Phone/Fax-(718) 539-8155 ************************************ From frank at zoo.uni-jena.de Tue Jun 9 10:48:45 1998 From: frank at zoo.uni-jena.de (Uri Frank) Date: Tue, 9 Jun 1998 16:48:45 +0200 Subject: Blue corals Message-ID: Dear Coral Listers, The described phenomenon of "blue corals" were observed in the northern Red Sea by T. Lieberman, N. Shashar, I. Brickner, B. Rinkevich and myself in "stressed" areas of the following species: Acropora eurystoma, A. hemprichi, A. hyacintus, A. scandens, Cyphastrea chalcidicum, Fungia sp, and Porites sp.. It may probably occur in other species as well, but there it is masked by other pigments.Y. Barki observed Nephthea planulae turning pink shortly before they died. We have experimentally "stressed" colonies of the above species by inflicting superficial tissue lesions and by putting colony fragments into contact with intra- and interspecific counterparts. Reddish-purple colorations of the involved areas were evident several weeks till months later. This coloration was observed also around barnacles (in C. chalcidicum), at the adge of the colonies' feet, near growing tubeworms (e.g. Spirobranchus giganteus) and in tissues flanking naturally occurring lesions. Furthermore, during algal blooms in the spring, many colonies turned blue-purple. As mentioned by Y. Fadlalla, this phenomenon usually does not cause partial or complete mortality of the corals and disappears. We tried to extract the pigment using polar and non-polar solvents, unfortunately without success. TEM preparations of "blue" tissues did not reveal any unequivocal findings. The pigment is very stable even after drying the samples. They remain blue for years. The pigment is definitely in the tissues and not in the skeletons, as water-pick treatment completely removes it. Corals do not exhibit this blue clorations in the Caribbean as far as I know. -Uri Frank ********************************** Uri Frank Zoolocical Institute University of Jena 1 Erbert St. 07743 Jena Germany Phone:+49-3641-949161/6 Fax:+49-3641-949162 http://www.zoo.uni-jena.de/~frank ********************************** From KorrubelJ at science.unp.ac.za Tue Jun 9 10:47:04 1998 From: KorrubelJ at science.unp.ac.za (Jan Korrubel) Date: Tue, 09 Jun 1998 16:47:04 +0200 Subject: 'Blue' and pink corals -Reply and suggestion...... Message-ID: On the blue coral issue, Yusef Fadlalla had this to say: In the Gulf (Saudi Arabia) we at first (many years ago) thought that a species of Porites (cf compressa) had no less than five different color morphs, including blue and pink. We are now certain that these colors appear under stressing conditions (extreme cold or warm waters). >> OK - I can extend my knowledge to encompass _some_ of the instances of the blue corals I saw to believe in tissue colouration (there certainly seems to be signs of bleaching going on or recently having taken place in the Sodwana Bay area). This is why I initially asked for more information as some of the _Montipora_ colonies I saw exhibited (light) blue polyps when fully extended. But only some of the instances - others were just 'too blue'....how come it's never been seen before? >> Also, w.r.t. the pink colouration - when I say pink, I mean PINK. Jeez, it was lumo-deluxe. I have never seen anything like it in nature. The _Porites_ colonies didn't seem to be too affected by it. I am therefore also not (yet) convinced by James Cervino's suggestion of Ring Disease. >> Anybody else that made reports of strange colourations take any photos at the time?? We sure did, but I can't comment on how the pics turned out as yet as I haven't seen the results (keeping my fingers crossed). Perhaps we can setup a common "bulletin board" to check out each others pics....??? How's about a page at the CHAMP site or a page at Harry McCarty and Esther Peters' Coral Disease Site at . Cheers, Jan Korrubel Michael Samways Invertebrate Conservation Research Centre University of Natal South Africa. From Deborah_G_DANAHER at umail.umd.edu Tue Jun 9 10:57:00 1998 From: Deborah_G_DANAHER at umail.umd.edu (dd76) Date: Tue, 09 Jun 98 10:57 EDT Subject: smurf coral Message-ID: <199806091457.KAA24774@umailsrv2.umd.edu> Folks who regularly dive the Caribbean have probably seen Siderastrea spp. that, when bleached, have a blue (Smurf blue, if you will) tone as opposed to whitish appearance like many other corals that have lost their symbionts for whatever reason. In fact, it seems reasonable to suggest that coral species which have been less frequently seen to bleach are probably species which carry a high animal pigment load. As a result, they would be less likely to be labled 'bleached' until zoox loss was very significant. Deborah Danaher Univ of Maryland dd76 at umail.umd.edu From Deborah_G_DANAHER at umail.umd.edu Tue Jun 9 11:18:00 1998 From: Deborah_G_DANAHER at umail.umd.edu (dd76) Date: Tue, 09 Jun 98 11:18 EDT Subject: 'Blue' coral -Reply In-Reply-To: Message-ID: <199806091519.LAA25763@umailsrv2.umd.edu> ----------- Begin Forwarded Message ------------ Date: Tue, 09 Jun 98 11:18 EDT From: Deborah_G_DANAHER at umail.umd.edu (dd76) Subject: Re: 'Blue' coral -Reply To: "Jan Korrubel" cc: cbingman at netcom.com In-Reply-To: I've observed this phenomenon in Porites app. as well as Agaricia spp. at several sites around the Caribbean including the silty Red Bouy area of Discovery Bay, but most notably off the Habana City waterfront. I was fortunate to have been able to dive there in 1995. The reef profile along the waterfron is low relief spur 'n groove, with long narrow spurs running a long, low gradient down and leveling at 30 m or so. All of the pollution in Cuba is confined to river outflows and the underwater scene on the waterfront is like a war zone. Few living corals shallower that about 20 m, but happier reef relief deeper than that. The Porites and Agaricids are stunning with their flourescent pink edges that I believe represent bacterial associations flourishing in the high nutrient load. I've also worked extensively with the Caribbean Mussids which are the most dramatically pigmented corals in the region. I've regularly observed flourescent pigments in them and have several samples fixed in prep for TEM to see if bacterial populations are localized intra/intercellularly. But I don't currently hav funding for this. Deborah Danaher dd76 at umail.umd.edu >In addition to the blue, we also noticed numerous _Porites_ >with a luminescent/flourescent pink border - can this be attributed to >the same phenomenon? > >Jan Korrubel >Michael Samways > >------------ End Forwarded Message ------------- From l823836 at goliath.cnnet.clu.edu Tue Jun 9 12:48:12 1998 From: l823836 at goliath.cnnet.clu.edu (Hernandez Edwin A) Date: Tue, 9 Jun 1998 12:48:12 -0400 (AST) Subject: "Blue" corals Message-ID: During a mild bleaching event ocurred in the eastern coast of the island of Puerto Rico, Caribbean Sea (approx. 18N, 65W) during 1992, I observed a 60 cm diameter colony of Siderastrea siderea with a pale grey coloration and showing nearly round 5 cm diameter blue spots. This ocurred at Candelero Beach, Humacao, at 1.5 m depth. The coral recovered its normal color within two months approximately. By that moment, I was told by the late Dr. Carlos Goenaga (University of Puerto Rico, Dept. Biology, Mayaguez Campus) that he did also see several colonies of S. siderea showing similar blue spots. During a routine dive on September 1997, while monitoring coral reefs at Cayo Diablo, a small key located at 11 km off NE Puerto Rico, within the boundaries of La Cordillera Natural Reserve, I saw two colonies 70-80 cm in diameter of S. siderea showing a similar pattern as described above. The interesting aspect of that event was that the colonies first started showing a pale coloration. Two weeks later they became even more paler (pale grey) and were showing these blue tones. Both of them receovered their normal color. This also happened during a mild bleaching event which affected several other scleractinians and Millepora. Both coral heads were located at approx. 7 m in depth. By the end of April and early May of this year we detected what appears to be the early signs of a bleaching event. Some S. siderea colonies have started to become pale within or very close to one of our monitoring quadrat grids in Culebra Island, located 27 km off eastern Puerto Rico. However, there were no signs of blue tones. These are located at depths ranging from 4 to 8 m. I'm not sure where do this blue color comes from but I suspect it might be a kind of residual color of the polyp tissue following the loss of zooxanthellae or the loss of other pigments. Particularly, it would be interesting to study the possibility that this might be due to autofluorescent pigments????? These are fairly common in deep water colonies and their basic job is to convert deep blue and purple wavelengths (common at deeper habitats) to other wavelengths that can be readily used by zooxanthellae (just as if the corals were living in shallower environments). Are these pigments more resistant to bleaching??? This should be something very interesting to document. Please, keep me posted on this. Good luck! Sincerley, Edwin A. Hernandez University of Puerto Rico Department of Biology Coral Reef Research Group P.O. Box 23360 San Juan, Puerto Rico 00931-3360 From KBB at ibl.bm Tue Jun 9 23:18:48 1998 From: KBB at ibl.bm (Keep Bermuda Beautiful) Date: Tue, 9 Jun 1998 23:18:48 -0400 Subject: zooxanthellae expulsion Message-ID: Dear Coral listers, Like all of you, I have read much mail and literature about expulsion during bleaching. I have two questions: 1. Range of tollerance for zoos. Who is looking into this area? Briefly, what has been discovered? 2. Is expulsion the correct term? Are we looking at death due to temperature increase and phagocytosis by the host? I'd like to run some very basic experiments in this area for a course I'm currently in and would appreciate any references to ongoing studies or papers in the area. Thanks and kind regards, Vanese Flood PS please reply directly to kbb at ibl.bm From eakin at ogp.noaa.gov Wed Jun 10 09:07:34 1998 From: eakin at ogp.noaa.gov (Mark Eakin) Date: 10 Jun 1998 09:07:34 U Subject: Blue Coral Photos Message-ID: Subject: Time: 7:55 AM Blue Coral Photos Date: 6/10/98 As many people have indicated, corals frequently take on this blue coloration when bleached or partially bleached. I have seen this in the Caribbean and Pacific. Such blue coloration is continuous or semi-continuous across the colony, not the blotch or ring type of blue coloration described by Dr. Cervino. I have seen that in both Carribean and Pacific corals as well. We recently observed this in some Porites lobata colonies in Panama. Photos of a large (ca. 2m) P. lobata that had turned entirely blue can be found at: http://www.ogp.noaa.gov/misc/coral/98bleaching/uvam98.html The story on the bleaching event along with many photos is found at: http://www.ogp.noaa.gov/misc/coral/98bleaching Cheers, Mark From abaker at rsmas.miami.edu Tue Jun 9 12:45:12 1998 From: abaker at rsmas.miami.edu (Andrew Baker) Date: Tue, 9 Jun 1998 12:45:12 -0400 Subject: Not all blue corals are blue... Message-ID: <199806161007.KAA01067@coral.aoml.noaa.gov> Hello blue-coral-listers Just a quick note to say that some bleached corals, for example Siderastrea siderea in the Caribbean, appear blue when they are observed on the reef. However, if you take any photos with a strobe, or bring the corals out of the water, they are in fact pink. This observation probably does not apply to all the blue coral discussion in the last 24 hours, but I think it certainly applies to some cases. Its interesting to me that the same two colors appear to be cropping up in our discussions: blue and pink (or purple, which I think might just reflect higher concentrations of the (animal) pigment). I wonder how many of our observations have been made in full sunlight - might some of the variation we are reporting simply be an outcome of the differential attenuation of wavelengths with depth? Andrew ****************************************************************************** Andrew Baker Division of Marine Biology & Fisheries Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science University of Miami 4600 Rickenbacker Causeway Miami, Florida 33149, USA Voice: +1 (305) 361 4145 Fax: +1 (305) 361 4600 Email: abaker at rsmas.miami.edu From coral at aoml.noaa.gov Tue Jun 16 06:00:38 1998 From: coral at aoml.noaa.gov (Coral Health and Monitoring Program) Date: Tue, 16 Jun 1998 06:00:38 -0400 (EDT) Subject: AOML & CHAMP computers down Message-ID: Greetings Coral-Listers, Unfortunately, all computing facilities at the Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratories, NOAA, were down from June 10 until late yesterday. Hence, all Coral Health and Monitoring Programs (CHAMP) sponsored activities, including coral-list; the Web pages for CHAMP, the Atlantic and Gulf Reef Assessment, and the Globabl Coral Reef Monitoring Network; the SEAKEYS/C-MAN data acquisition program, and the Coral Reef Early Warning System were inoperable. We extend our apologies for any inconvenience. Things should be back to normal today. Cheers, Jim Hendee CHAMP Administrator From wetsuit at hotmail.com Tue Jun 9 17:20:00 1998 From: wetsuit at hotmail.com (Rodrigo Garza-Perez) Date: Tue, 09 Jun 1998 14:20:00 PDT Subject: Blue Coral in Alacranes Reef!! Message-ID: <199806161010.KAA01125@coral.aoml.noaa.gov> Hi corallers!! I just read the Blue Coral posts... and yes as a metter of fact i=B4ve always wondered why those corals were blue... since the pictures in the field handbooks weren=B4t like that... i think the coral in the pic is a porites... but not sure... for checking out the pic go to the following URL: http://www.geocities.com/RainForest/2754/alacranes.htm if can=B4t get direct connection try without the /alacranes.htm there=B4s a link for the alacranes reef in mexico... sorry if the websites is a bit scarce but i=B4m in the process of building it up... Oh! the pic is in the second pege of the alacranes pages. and the direct link for the pic is: http://www.geocities.com/RainForest/2754/morecoral.jpg as a note the Hue in the pic is not very good BUT the coral IS blue!! the pic was taken last year around august... hope you like it!! Biologo Marino J. Rodrigo Garza P. Biologo Marino Joaquin Rodrigo Garza Perez Mexico e mail: wetsuit at hotmail.com rodgarza at pibil.finred.com From hammond at motherjones.com Tue Jun 9 19:00:28 1998 From: hammond at motherjones.com (Keith Hammond) Date: Tue, 9 Jun 1998 16:00:28 -0700 Subject: CORAL REEF ACTION ATLAS Message-ID: <199806161019.KAA01232@coral.aoml.noaa.gov> Hi Jim, Thanks again for posting my photo request to your listserv; the response was great. I'd like to thank everyone who replied -- I've just updated the final CORAL REEF ACTION ATLAS with some three dozen photos, most of them from scientists who responded to your posting. So now I'd like to invite everyone on the list to check out the Action Atlas at http://www.motherjones.com/coral_reef/ and let me know your opinions. As lay journalists, we would really appreciate the "peer review" of you experts. We'll be revising the Atlas periodically, so any feedback you can provide will be most helpful. Thanks again and good luck to all who are working to save the coral reefs. Keith Hammond ______________________________________________________________ Keith Hammond Mother Jones magazine News Editor 731 Market Street, Suite 600 The MoJo Wire San Francisco, CA 94103 www.motherjones.com (415) 665-6637, fax -6696 ______________________________________________________________ "I don't make jokes. I just watch the government and report the facts." -- Will Rogers (1879-1935) "I hope we shall crush in its birth the aristocracy of our monied corporations which dare already to challenge our government to a trial of strength, and bid defiance to the laws of our country." -- Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) From pkylstra at oce.orst.edu Mon Jun 15 20:26:06 1998 From: pkylstra at oce.orst.edu (Pam Kylstra) Date: Mon, 15 Jun 1998 17:26:06 -0700 (PDT) Subject: International Coral Conference In-Reply-To: Message-ID: Hello All, About a week ago there was a posting regarding an international coral conference to be held in France. Included in the posting was information on travel and accommodation awards for students from SE Asia. I inadvertently deleted the message and cannot retrieve it. Any information would be most appreciated. Thank You, Pam ******************************************************************************** Pam Kylstra Marine Resource Management College of Oceanic and Atmospheric Sciences 104 Ocean Admin Building Corvallis, Oregon 97331 office: (541)737-2359 email: pkylstra at oce.orst.edu ******************************************************************************** From crmpriau at pbaru.wasantara.net.id Sat Jun 13 05:19:44 1998 From: crmpriau at pbaru.wasantara.net.id (Coremap BAPPEDA Tk.I Riau) Date: Sat, 13 Jun 1998 16:19:44 +0700 Subject: Used Tires as artificial reef Message-ID: <01bd96ac$677c90c0$LocalHost@default> Dear coral listers, I am looking for opinion or advise about usage or impact of used tires for artificial reef. a. Is there any impact if the artificial reef seatled in 100 metres away from reef ? b. Is there any impact if the articial reef seatled at sand flate. c. Is there any programmes in Coremap related to artificial reef. d. Is there any influence to the dead coral (DC) if the artificial reef seatled on it. Thank you for your respons, FADIL NANDILA crmpriau at pbaru.wasantara.net.id -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://coral.aoml.noaa.gov/pipermail/coral-list-old/attachments/19980613/66ccc51e/attachment.html From lesk at bio.bu.edu Fri Jun 12 15:33:37 1998 From: lesk at bio.bu.edu (Les Kaufman) Date: Fri, 12 Jun 1998 15:33:37 -0400 (EDT) Subject: What is a coral reef? In-Reply-To: <357ADB13.2FCBE108@erols.com> Message-ID: Hi, John. I think there are two ways to go on this. 1. The honest way. A coral reef is a bioherm in which the plurality of active calcification is attributable to scleractinians. 2. The more useful way. A coral reef is a bioherm in which scleractinians are a conspicuous element. Either of these sorts of definitions allows us to include most of what your average reef scientist would consider working on, to be subdivided later. It may continue to offend algologists, however. Les Kaufman Boston University Marine Program lesk at bio.bu.edu 617-353-5560 office 617-353-6965 lab 617-353-6340 fax From howzit at turtles.org Fri Jun 12 20:18:42 1998 From: howzit at turtles.org (Ursula Keuper-Bennett) Date: Fri, 12 Jun 1998 20:18:42 -0400 Subject: Seeking environmental information... Message-ID: <3.0.32.19980612201841.00e70150@pop.vex.net> Hi Coral Researchers, Hope you are well. I am a layperson who is fortunate enough to dive with the same group of sea turtles every summer at a place called Honokowai, West Maui. In just two weeks we will see them again. Some friends we have known all the way back to 1989-90. These include Kaula ("The Seer") who we first sighted in 1989, and Nui ("Big"), Aikane ("Friendly"), Tutu ("grandmother") all from 1990. It turned out Tutu was a bit of a misnomer. She only LOOKED old! Since 1990 we has made three nesting migrations. She is one of four tagged females we have come to know. When any of these four turtles aren't sighted after two weeks we ask the National Marine Fisheries Service where they put them. We are reassured by this agency the ladies are in fact nesting at the French Frigate Shoals. Over the ten summers we have dived at our location we have identified about 250 turtles. About 75% of these were sick with a disease called fibropapilloma. Of the turtles we regard as "regulars" the prevalence jumps to 90%. I hope this establishes my reason for hanging around your CORAL-L mailing list. I believe the high prevalence of disease at our dive site is the result of environmental conditions there. Just recently I read a paper about fibropapilloma in Indonesia. Turtles captured from two places tended to have higher incidence of this disease. The first, Jakarta I don't have to ask about. Jakarta Bay is like the poster child of reef degradation. The other place mentioned was Surabaya (112' to 115'E, 6' to 8'S). I tried surfing the Net for information and have a pretty good idea of general conditions of reefs around Indonesia. ("Approximately 60% of Indonesia's population lives in coastal areas. Their impact on the marine ecosystem derives from both the removal of resources and the introduction of increasing quantities of sewage and industrial pollution." Major Indonesian marine resource management issues include the growth in mining of coral reefs and the over exploitation of living coral sites; the increase in phosphate, nitrate and sediment loading of marine estuaries from upstream intensive paddy cultivation;") What I need now is information about the corals and reefs around Surabaya specifically. I would appreciate any environmental information you can provide or email addressed of the researchers studying this area. Many thanks ---------------------------------------------------- ^ Ursula Keuper-Bennett 0 0 Email: howzit at turtles.org /V^\ /^V\ /V Malama na honu V\ http://www.turtles.org / \ "She is the size, shape and color of a large boulder. Her shell alone is over a yard long, remarkably smooth and flecked with small patches of barnacles and a few threads of green algae. For once the common name lacks the grace of the scientific one. 'Green sea turtle' is blandly descriptive. 'Chelonia mydas' fairly sings." \ / --Osha Gray Davidson / \ / \ The Enchanted Braid /__| V |__\ Turtle Trax CELEBRATING THE 25TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE FFS TAGGING PROGRAM From P.J.Mumby at sheffield.ac.uk Tue Jun 16 07:08:11 1998 From: P.J.Mumby at sheffield.ac.uk (Peter J. Mumby) Date: Tue, 16 Jun 1998 12:08:11 +0100 Subject: recipe for marine cement? Message-ID: <16E1AD34532@ashopton.shef.ac.uk> Dear Coral-listers Does anyone have a recipe for marine cement - e.g. for attaching field equipment underwater? Many thanks Peter ------------------------------------------------ Dr Peter J. Mumby Research Fellow Department of Geography University of Sheffield Winter Street Sheffield S10 2TN United Kingdom tel: + 44 (0)114 222 7970 fax: + 44 (0)114 279 7912 e-mail: p.j.mumby at sheffield.ac.uk From Patrick.Mitchell-Jones at cds-group.com Tue Jun 16 08:32:09 1998 From: Patrick.Mitchell-Jones at cds-group.com (Patrick Mitchell-Jones) Date: Tue, 16 Jun 1998 12:32:09 +0000 Subject: Blue Corals in the Maldives Message-ID: <11E3BD84BFB@cds-group.com> Many thanks to you all for the responses to my query regarding 'Blue Coral'. I have read all replies and would add the following: - The most noticeable colour is indeed an iridescent pale blue which is almost translucent up close. I suppose that it does look like the colour in the polyps themselves rather than the usual opaque coloration of the corals. I noticed the blue, a purple blue and some pink colours as also seen by Jan Korrubel in Sodwana Bay. Craig Bingman writes that the loss of the symbiont population in bleaching caused by stress can be as a result of high irradiance or high temperature. I would surmise that, as the irradiation will decrease with depth and the corals I noted were at various depths and not particularly noticeable on the reef top but rather on the outside, this would be a less likely cause than temperature. Indeed, with the current relative turbidity of some areas this would also reduce the irradiation. Certainly the temperature of the water was several degrees higher than I noted in the same area in December. Bob Allison asks for more details of the sites. Here goes Dive sites were as follows.... Temperatures are subjective as my computer doesn't record them. Quoted as between 28?c and 33?c Kuramati House reef (Outside). Just to the west of the pier. Numerous blue tinged staghorn with some blue/purple and occasional pink. These were at variable depth. None seen on the inside. There were areas of high temperature. I was told as high as 33?c Rasdoo House Reef. Some visible here but the water seems slightly cooler. Maaya Thila. None seen. Water cooler and at a constant temperature Fesdu House reef (outside). Some here. Temperature variable. Veligandu North. Again, some evidence here but not as much as in the shallower Kuramati area Ukulas Thila. No evidence here. The corals most affected with this type of colouration were the Staghorns with the most intense colouration around the tips. The Elkhorns (palmate type corals), which were generally a little deeper than the Staghorns, seemed to present in a different manner. The colouration did not seem to be a pale translucent type but an intense royal blue. This occurred in patches and in one case the whole coral was intense blue. I don't know if they are both caused by the same thing but they certainly look different. Sorry if my terminology is not correct, I am a microbiologist and not familiar with all the scientific names of the corals. Patrick Mitchell-Jones From Bugwotro at upandang.wasantara.net.id Mon Jun 15 14:44:37 1998 From: Bugwotro at upandang.wasantara.net.id (BWH) Date: Tue, 16 Jun 1998 02:44:37 +0800 Subject: Coral Bleaching -- INDONESIA References: <199805061713.NAA27655@orbit8i.nesdis.noaa.gov> Message-ID: <35856B95.CD77CF57@Upandang.wasantara.net.id> In addition to a previous message on coral bleaching at Lombok island by the JARI Foundation, I can report the occurrance of fatal bleaching at the westernmost point of Bali island (west of Lombok) and at its east coast (May 1998). Many soft corals were white and disintegrating. There was almost no bleaching at Nusa Lembongan, southeast off Bali (where usually cold currents occur) but still some at the north coast of the neighbouring Nusa Penida. Mr. Ketut Sarjana Putra, marine scientist at the Bali office of WWF-Indonesa Programme has noticed that in March 1998 there was much more bleaching at one site at Nusa Penida. The apparent quick recovery seems to reflect occupation by large fast-growing xeniid soft corals of substrata that became vacant during the bleaching. The water at this site was observed to reach low temperatures (20-22 degrees C) during westward tidal currents, while during eastward currents the water was less cold (25-27 degrees C). The cold water currents at Nusa Penida and Nusa Lembongan are probably related to upwelling. Bert W. Hoeksema Program Buginesia WOTRO-UNHAS PO Box 1624 Ujung Pandang 90016 Indonesia astrong at nesdis.noaa.gov wrote: > Passing this recent information from Lombok Island in Indonesia on to > others who > may have an interest or may wish to share further observations. > > Al Strong > > <---- Begin Forwarded Message ----> > From: "Taufik Hizbul Haq" > To: astrong at nesdis.noaa.gov > Subject: Coral Bleaching > Date: Tue, 05 May 1998 21:00:53 PDT > > First of all, let me introduce ourselves. We are a Marine Foundation, > named Yayasan JARI. We're based in Mataram, Lombok Island, West Nusa > Tenggara Province - Indonesia. > > During this last four months, the coral reef around Lombok Island is > suffering from bleaching process. And it is happening almost around > Lombok Island (next to Bali). The bleaching process is happening until > > 80 feet depth, and also we have cold and hot current[s] on the surface > and > [at] depth. All the coral is getting white and it is very sad. [Does] > this > event has something to do with the El-Nino phenomenon? Cause we have > information that coral in the Great Barrier Reef is bleaching, and > also > Taka Bone Rate National Park in South Sulawesi and Bunaken National > Park > in North Sulawesi... > > Juanita Mandagi > Marine Foundation -- Yayasan JARI > Mataram, Lombok Island > West Nusa Tenggara Province > Indonesia From drifter at sea.org Wed Jun 10 14:51:09 1998 From: drifter at sea.org (drifter at sea.org) Date: Wed, 10 Jun 1998 11:51:09 -0700 Subject: "Blue coral" enigma solved Message-ID: <199806161209.MAA01983@coral.aoml.noaa.gov> Dear coral reefers, I have noticed a lot of what appear to be 'blue' Porites heads off the coast of Somalia and I am wondering if they could in fact be UN helmets discarded during the 1995 fiasco. Can anyone help me with this? From JAAP_W at epic7.dep.state.fl.us Tue Jun 16 11:38:01 1998 From: JAAP_W at epic7.dep.state.fl.us (Walt Jaap STP) Date: Tue, 16 Jun 1998 11:38:01 -0400 (EDT) Subject: recipe for marine cement? Message-ID: <199806161610.QAA03576@coral.aoml.noaa.gov> Marine epoxy works quite well. There are various types and strength capabilities. We have found that Liquid Rock 500 works quite well for moorings and attaching marker stakes in the reef platform. We drill a 12 inch deep hole in the reef platform with a hydraulic drill; flush out the residue, fill the hole with epoxy, and insert the stainless steel stake. The epoxy sets up in an hour. Hydraulic cement will work but it is a bit messy and you must be careful in applying. You can speed setting time by adding a slight amount of molding plaster to Portland type II mortar mix. Mix on surface, put the mixture in a plastic bag or bowel and take under water. Portland does not work well in strong currents or in a heavy wave surge. From PGlynn at rsmas.miami.edu Tue Jun 16 14:27:12 1998 From: PGlynn at rsmas.miami.edu (Peter Glynn) Date: Tue, 16 Jun 1998 14:27:12 -0400 Subject: Corals that are blue Message-ID: <199806161827.OAA27417@umigw.miami.edu> I have a comment in addition to Mark Eakin's dialog about bleached blue Porites lobata in the eastern Pacific of Panama. There is at least one Porites lobata colony at this same location that is located in about 20ft. of water at the bottom of a basalt outcropping, which has been completely blue every time I have been at this site. It does not appear bleached as did the colony in photos that Mark presented, which had patches of white and light blue areas. The colony that I am describing is rich in color and stands next to another color morph of Porites (amber, also not bleached). Therefore, it is possible that this blue color is its natural color. The colony in Mark's photos, however, is located at a shallower depth, in an area that gets much direct sunlight. I do not remember what it's unbleached coloration is but I will have to look into my photo library for it, I think I have a picture. Best regards to all, Susan B. Colley Theodosiou From eakin at ogp.noaa.gov Tue Jun 16 15:23:26 1998 From: eakin at ogp.noaa.gov (Mark Eakin) Date: 16 Jun 1998 15:23:26 U Subject: Used Tires as artificial reef Message-ID: Subject: Time: 10:36 AM RE>Used Tires as artificial reef Date: 6/16/98 I strongly recommend that tires NOT be used for artificial reefs unless you are in an area where you can garantee that there will be no storm surge that reaches reef depth. Tropical cyclone generated waves can readily rip apart the tire mats, allowing individual tires to be readily moved about. A tire reef I know of in Florida was torn apart by a Hurricane near miss in the late 1970s. The tires were transported from 500 - 1500 m off shore, onto the beach. Most were cleaned up subsequent to the storm, but some had been wedged into boulder rip-rap and remain to this day. Artificial reefs need to rely on materials too heavy to be transported by storm waves. Cheers, Mark From lesk at bio.bu.edu Tue Jun 16 15:59:20 1998 From: lesk at bio.bu.edu (Les Kaufman) Date: Tue, 16 Jun 1998 15:59:20 -0400 Subject: Corals that are blue Message-ID: <199806161948.PAA25400@bio.bu.edu> Of course, Porites branneri (tropical west Atlantic) is usually bright blue, or blue-violet. So this color is not outside the capacity of a Porites to produce. Les Kaufman Boston University Marine Program Department of Biology Boston University 5 Cummington Street Boston, MA 02215 e-mail: lesk at bio.bu.edu phone: 617-353-5560 fax: 617-353-6340 "I believe we are on an irreversible trend toward more freedom and democracy... but that could change." -Vice President Dan Quayle, 5/22/89 From d.fenner at aims.gov.au Tue Jun 16 21:50:30 1998 From: d.fenner at aims.gov.au (Doug Fenner) Date: Wed, 17 Jun 1998 11:50:30 +1000 Subject: coralist: coral colors Message-ID: <3.0.1.32.19980617115030.006b20fc@email.aims.gov.au> Coralisters, I've noticed that Porites branneri in the Caribbean is bright blue when viewed in sunlight, but if you take a picture with flash, it turns into a pinkish-purple (as seen on p. 93 of Paul Humann's "Reef Coral Identification"). If you take a photo in natural light, it looks a very dark blue. Also, there are a few individual Mussa cubensis (traditionally called Scolymia cubensis- see Fenner, 1993) that are a brilliant red-orange (flourescent?), but when you take a photo they come out looking brown. Same pigment seems to be in radial stripes on some Mussa angulosa and what has been traditionally been called Scolymia lacera but which are single polyps of Mussa angulosa. I would guess that these colors would be left after bleaching- anybody know? -Doug Fenner, D. P. 1993. Species distinctions among several Caribbean stony corals. Bull. Mar. Sci. 53: 1099-1116. Douglas Fenner, Ph.D. Coral Taxonomist Australian Institute of Marine Science PMB No 3 Townsville MC Queensland 4810 Australia phone 07 4753 4241 e-mail: d.fenner at aims.gov.au From astrong at nesdis.noaa.gov Tue Jun 16 15:55:17 1998 From: astrong at nesdis.noaa.gov (astrong at nesdis.noaa.gov) Date: Tue, 16 Jun 1998 15:55:17 -0400 Subject: Florida Keys -- Bleaching Message-ID: <199806161955.PAA29069@orbit8i.nesdis.noaa.gov> HotSpots have enveloped the Florida Bay and the Keys on today's chart: http://psbsgi1.nesdis.noaa.gov:8080/PSB/EPS/SST/data/hotspotw.6.16.1998.gif With any continued absence of cloud cover [and light winds] areas of the Caribbean may be in for an increase in water temperatures and possible bleaching. Much of the Caribbean is within 0.5 deg C of levels critical for initiating coral reef bleaching. [Ref: pinks & blues in the HotSpot charts]. Luckily, winds have been pretty brisk south of 20N: http://140.90.191.231/dataimages/ssmi/day/ssmi_ave578/ssmi98166_ave.gif Cheers, Al **** <>< ******* <>< ******* <>< ******* <>< ******* <>< ******* <>< ***** Alan E. Strong Phys Scientist/Oceanographer Adj Assoc Res Professor NOAA/NESDIS/ORA/ORAD -- E/RA3 US Naval Academy NOAA Science Center -- RM 711W Oceanography Department 5200 Auth Road Annapolis, MD 21402 Camp Springs, MD 20746 410-293-6550 Alan.E.Strong at noaa.gov 301-763-8102 x170 FAX: 301-763-8108 http://manati.wwb.noaa.gov/orad From hendee at aoml.noaa.gov Wed Jun 17 08:41:30 1998 From: hendee at aoml.noaa.gov (Jim Hendee) Date: Wed, 17 Jun 1998 08:41:30 -0400 (EDT) Subject: Florida Keys Bleaching & CREWS In-Reply-To: <199806161955.PAA29069@orbit8i.nesdis.noaa.gov> Message-ID: Dear Coral-Listers, As corroborating evidence of Al Strong's message on the possibility (probability) of coral bleaching in the Florida Keys, our Coral Reef Early Warning System (CREWS, a marine environmental expert system which utilizes data from the Florida Institute of Oceanography's [NOAA-sponsored] SEAKEYS network) at URL: http://coral.aoml.noaa.gov/sferpm/seakeys/es/ has predicted/reported conditions conducive to coral bleaching at Sombrero Key (based on temps > 29degC and "low winds") since June 1, and Walt Jaap (personal communication) has just recently noted that "...the signs of bleaching were evident." Dive shop owners have also reported bleaching signs. The temperatures have just reached 32degC. We (Chris Humphrey, Trent Moore [FIO] and I) will hopefully be checking on the reef again this week. Please see the URL for reports since June 1 (and daily, after 6:30am EST) and feel free to offer any feedback to further fine-tune the system, which still has quite a bit of refinement ahead. If you'd like to be sent the automated bleaching alert reports, please drop a line. Reports are only sent if the "production rules" have been triggered within the last seven days. New sensors to be installed next month at Sombrero Key will include Photosynthetically Active Radiation (PAR), fluorometry and transmissometry, and these readings (as well as satellite data, hopefully) will be incorporated into CREWS, as well as into other marine environmental near real-time interpretations. For more information on SEAKEYS, see URL: http://coral.aoml.noaa.gov/sferpm/seakeys/ Cheers, Jim Hendee +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~+ | James C. Hendee | Internet: hendee at aoml.noaa.gov| | Coral Health and | | | Monitoring Program | Voice: 305 361-4396 | | Ocean Chemistry Division | Fax: 305 361-4392 | | NOAA/AOML | | | 4301 Rickenbacker Causeway | | | Miami, FL 33149-1026 | http://coral.aoml.noaa.gov | +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~+ On Tue, 16 Jun 1998 astrong at nesdis.noaa.gov wrote: > Date: Tue, 16 Jun 1998 15:55:17 -0400 > From: astrong at nesdis.noaa.gov > To: coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov > Subject: Florida Keys -- Bleaching > > HotSpots have enveloped the Florida Bay and the Keys on today's chart: > http://psbsgi1.nesdis.noaa.gov:8080/PSB/EPS/SST/data/hotspotw.6.16.1998.gif > > With any continued absence of cloud cover [and light winds] areas of the > Caribbean may be in for an increase in water temperatures and possible > bleaching. Much of the Caribbean is within 0.5 deg C of levels critical for > initiating coral reef bleaching. [Ref: pinks & blues in the HotSpot charts]. > > Luckily, winds have been pretty brisk south of 20N: > http://140.90.191.231/dataimages/ssmi/day/ssmi_ave578/ssmi98166_ave.gif > > Cheers, > Al > **** <>< ******* <>< ******* <>< ******* <>< ******* <>< ******* <>< ***** > Alan E. Strong > Phys Scientist/Oceanographer Adj Assoc Res Professor > NOAA/NESDIS/ORA/ORAD -- E/RA3 US Naval Academy > NOAA Science Center -- RM 711W Oceanography Department > 5200 Auth Road Annapolis, MD 21402 > Camp Springs, MD 20746 410-293-6550 > Alan.E.Strong at noaa.gov > 301-763-8102 x170 FAX: 301-763-8108 > http://manati.wwb.noaa.gov/orad > From BPrecht at kennesaw.Lawco.com Wed Jun 17 10:28:18 1998 From: BPrecht at kennesaw.Lawco.com (Precht,Bill) Date: Wed, 17 Jun 1998 10:28:18 -0400 Subject: Used Tires as artificial reef Message-ID: <831C92FC9CDFD1118B3B00A0C9AB304F02AB1C@miami-1.wins.lawco.com> I am in total agreement with Mark. However, I would not limit this to specific depths etc.. We need to stop using reef areas as a dumping ground for trash, especially old tires! I dont want to get into the ethics of what should or should not be used in artificial reefs. The agencies responsible for permitting these structures must evaluate the pros and cons of these on a case by case basis. The lesson learned in south Florida (Dade County) from Hurricane Andrew (Aug. 24, 1992) should tell us to avoid artificial reef structures altogether in these habitats. Of course the exception would be in cases of reef restoration (damage repair), where the employment of "artificial" structures are 'woven' into the 'fabric' of the reef. This integration must be done to design specifications that can withstand a 1/100 yr. storm. It's time to stop using coral reefs and associated areas as a landfill and confusing this with the creation of "new" habitat for divers and fisherman. > -----Original Message----- > From: Mark Eakin [SMTP:eakin at ogp.noaa.gov] > Sent: Tuesday, June 16, 1998 11:23 AM > To: Recipients of coral-list > Subject: Re: Used Tires as artificial reef > > Subject: Time: > 10:36 AM > RE>Used Tires as artificial reef Date: > 6/16/98 > > I strongly recommend that tires NOT be used for artificial reefs > unless you are in an area where you can garantee that there will be no > storm surge that reaches reef depth. Tropical cyclone generated waves > can readily rip apart the tire mats, allowing individual tires to be > readily moved about. A tire reef I know of in Florida was torn apart > by a Hurricane near miss in the late 1970s. The tires were > transported from 500 - 1500 m off shore, onto the beach. Most were > cleaned up subsequent to the storm, but some had been wedged into > boulder rip-rap and remain to this day. > > Artificial reefs need to rely on materials too heavy to be transported > by storm waves. > > Cheers, > Mark From fthomas at jaguar1.usouthal.edu Wed Jun 17 14:24:57 1998 From: fthomas at jaguar1.usouthal.edu (Flo Thomas) Date: Wed, 17 Jun 1998 13:24:57 -0500 Subject: Temporary Position Announcement Message-ID: <199806171831.NAA28979@wahoo.mobile.gulf.net> TECHNICIAN POSITION AVAILABLE A technician position is available in an active marine science laboratory with research interests ranging from invertebrate reproduction to community scale nutrient transport processes. The work will include both laboratory and field research. Field research is conducted on coral reefs and seagrass communities. The technician will be responsible for laboratory management, data acquisition and analysis. The work in the lab is very diverse. Therefore, a wide range of skills and interests could fit within the needs of the lab. Desired skills include: A B.S. in marine science, oceanography, biology, engineering, zoology or environmental science (an M.S. degree is desirable); computer skills; field experience; scuba diving; TEM and SEM; image analysis; experience in biogeochemistry, biomechanics, or hydrodynamics; writing skills and statistics. The successful candidate will be expected to have some but not all of the above skills. The position is located at the Dauphin Island Sea Lab located on a barrier Island on the Northern Gulf of Mexico. The pay range starts at $25,000+ and is dependent on experience and skills. If you are interested please send a Curriculum Vitae, 3 letters of recommendation, and a letter stating your research experience and interest. If you have any questions please contact Dr. Florence Thomas, P.O. Box 369 Dauphin Island, Alabama, 36528, email: fthomas at jaguar1.usouthal.edu, (334-861-7544). From owner-coral-list-digest at aoml.noaa.gov Wed Jun 17 15:42:36 1998 From: owner-coral-list-digest at aoml.noaa.gov (owner-coral-list-digest at aoml.noaa.gov) Date: Wed, 17 Jun 1998 19:42:36 GMT Subject: coral-list-digest V1 #17 Message-ID: <199806171942.TAA10420@coral.aoml.noaa.gov> coral-list-digest Wednesday, 17 June 1998 Volume 01 : Number 017 In this issue: AOML & CHAMP computers down Blue Coral in Alacranes Reef!! International Coral Conference Not all blue corals are blue... Used Tires as artificial reef CORAL REEF ACTION ATLAS Re: What is a coral reef? Seeking environmental information... recipe for marine cement? Blue Corals in the Maldives Re: Coral Bleaching -- INDONESIA "Blue coral" enigma solved Re: recipe for marine cement? Corals that are blue Re: Used Tires as artificial reef Re: Corals that are blue Florida Keys -- Bleaching HOW DO I GET OFF THIS LISTSERVE coralist: coral colors Re: Florida Keys Bleaching & CREWS RE: Used Tires as artificial reef Re: Temporary Position Announcement Tech position Re: Tech position ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Coral Health and Monitoring Program Date: Tue, 16 Jun 1998 06:00:38 -0400 (EDT) Subject: AOML & CHAMP computers down Greetings Coral-Listers, Unfortunately, all computing facilities at the Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratories, NOAA, were down from June 10 until late yesterday. Hence, all Coral Health and Monitoring Programs (CHAMP) sponsored activities, including coral-list; the Web pages for CHAMP, the Atlantic and Gulf Reef Assessment, and the Globabl Coral Reef Monitoring Network; the SEAKEYS/C-MAN data acquisition program, and the Coral Reef Early Warning System were inoperable. We extend our apologies for any inconvenience. Things should be back to normal today. Cheers, Jim Hendee CHAMP Administrator ------------------------------ From: "Rodrigo Garza-Perez" Date: Tue, 09 Jun 1998 14:20:00 PDT Subject: Blue Coral in Alacranes Reef!! Hi corallers!! I just read the Blue Coral posts... and yes as a metter of fact i=B4ve always wondered why those corals were blue... since the pictures in the field handbooks weren=B4t like that... i think the coral in the pic is a porites... but not sure... for checking out the pic go to the following URL: http://www.geocities.com/RainForest/2754/alacranes.htm if can=B4t get direct connection try without the /alacranes.htm there=B4s a link for the alacranes reef in mexico... sorry if the websites is a bit scarce but i=B4m in the process of building it up... Oh! the pic is in the second pege of the alacranes pages. and the direct link for the pic is: http://www.geocities.com/RainForest/2754/morecoral.jpg as a note the Hue in the pic is not very good BUT the coral IS blue!! the pic was taken last year around august... hope you like it!! Biologo Marino J. Rodrigo Garza P. Biologo Marino Joaquin Rodrigo Garza Perez Mexico e mail: wetsuit at hotmail.com rodgarza at pibil.finred.com ------------------------------ From: Pam Kylstra Date: Mon, 15 Jun 1998 17:26:06 -0700 (PDT) Subject: International Coral Conference Hello All, About a week ago there was a posting regarding an international coral conference to be held in France. Included in the posting was information on travel and accommodation awards for students from SE Asia. I inadvertently deleted the message and cannot retrieve it. Any information would be most appreciated. Thank You, Pam ******************************************************************************** Pam Kylstra Marine Resource Management College of Oceanic and Atmospheric Sciences 104 Ocean Admin Building Corvallis, Oregon 97331 office: (541)737-2359 email: pkylstra at oce.orst.edu ******************************************************************************** ------------------------------ From: abaker at rsmas.miami.edu (Andrew Baker) Date: Tue, 9 Jun 1998 12:45:12 -0400 Subject: Not all blue corals are blue... Hello blue-coral-listers Just a quick note to say that some bleached corals, for example Siderastrea siderea in the Caribbean, appear blue when they are observed on the reef. However, if you take any photos with a strobe, or bring the corals out of the water, they are in fact pink. This observation probably does not apply to all the blue coral discussion in the last 24 hours, but I think it certainly applies to some cases. Its interesting to me that the same two colors appear to be cropping up in our discussions: blue and pink (or purple, which I think might just reflect higher concentrations of the (animal) pigment). I wonder how many of our observations have been made in full sunlight - might some of the variation we are reporting simply be an outcome of the differential attenuation of wavelengths with depth? Andrew ****************************************************************************** Andrew Baker Division of Marine Biology & Fisheries Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science University of Miami 4600 Rickenbacker Causeway Miami, Florida 33149, USA Voice: +1 (305) 361 4145 Fax: +1 (305) 361 4600 Email: abaker at rsmas.miami.edu ------------------------------ From: "Coremap BAPPEDA Tk.I Riau" Date: Sat, 13 Jun 1998 16:19:44 +0700 Subject: Used Tires as artificial reef This is a multi-part message in MIME format. - ------=_NextPart_000_003F_01BD96E7.6F7E4580 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Dear coral listers, I am looking for opinion or advise about usage or impact of used tires = for artificial reef. a. Is there any impact if the artificial reef seatled in 100 metres away = from reef ? b. Is there any impact if the articial reef seatled at sand flate. c. Is there any programmes in Coremap related to artificial reef. d. Is there any influence to the dead coral (DC) if the artificial reef = seatled on it. Thank you for your respons, FADIL NANDILA crmpriau at pbaru.wasantara.net.id - ------=_NextPart_000_003F_01BD96E7.6F7E4580 Content-Type: text/html; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
Dear coral=20 listers,
 
I am looking for = opinion or=20 advise about usage or impact of used tires for artificial = reef.
 
a. Is there any = impact if the=20 artificial reef seatled in 100 metres away from reef ?
b. Is there any = impact if the=20 articial reef seatled at sand flate.
c. Is there any = programmes in=20 Coremap related to artificial reef.
d. Is there any influence to the dead coral = (DC) if the=20 artificial reef seatled on it.
 
Thank you for your=20 respons,
 
 
FADIL=20 NANDILA
crmpriau at pbaru.wasantara.= net.id
 
- ------=_NextPart_000_003F_01BD96E7.6F7E4580-- ------------------------------ From: Keith Hammond Date: Tue, 9 Jun 1998 16:00:28 -0700 Subject: CORAL REEF ACTION ATLAS Hi Jim, Thanks again for posting my photo request to your listserv; the response was great. I'd like to thank everyone who replied -- I've just updated the final CORAL REEF ACTION ATLAS with some three dozen photos, most of them from scientists who responded to your posting. So now I'd like to invite everyone on the list to check out the Action Atlas at http://www.motherjones.com/coral_reef/ and let me know your opinions. As lay journalists, we would really appreciate the "peer review" of you experts. We'll be revising the Atlas periodically, so any feedback you can provide will be most helpful. Thanks again and good luck to all who are working to save the coral reefs. Keith Hammond ______________________________________________________________ Keith Hammond Mother Jones magazine News Editor 731 Market Street, Suite 600 The MoJo Wire San Francisco, CA 94103 www.motherjones.com (415) 665-6637, fax -6696 ______________________________________________________________ "I don't make jokes. I just watch the government and report the facts." -- Will Rogers (1879-1935) "I hope we shall crush in its birth the aristocracy of our monied corporations which dare already to challenge our government to a trial of strength, and bid defiance to the laws of our country." -- Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) ------------------------------ From: Les Kaufman Date: Fri, 12 Jun 1998 15:33:37 -0400 (EDT) Subject: Re: What is a coral reef? Hi, John. I think there are two ways to go on this. 1. The honest way. A coral reef is a bioherm in which the plurality of active calcification is attributable to scleractinians. 2. The more useful way. A coral reef is a bioherm in which scleractinians are a conspicuous element. Either of these sorts of definitions allows us to include most of what your average reef scientist would consider working on, to be subdivided later. It may continue to offend algologists, however. Les Kaufman Boston University Marine Program lesk at bio.bu.edu 617-353-5560 office 617-353-6965 lab 617-353-6340 fax ------------------------------ From: Ursula Keuper-Bennett Date: Fri, 12 Jun 1998 20:18:42 -0400 Subject: Seeking environmental information... Hi Coral Researchers, Hope you are well. I am a layperson who is fortunate enough to dive with the same group of sea turtles every summer at a place called Honokowai, West Maui. In just two weeks we will see them again. Some friends we have known all the way back to 1989-90. These include Kaula ("The Seer") who we first sighted in 1989, and Nui ("Big"), Aikane ("Friendly"), Tutu ("grandmother") all from 1990. It turned out Tutu was a bit of a misnomer. She only LOOKED old! Since 1990 we has made three nesting migrations. She is one of four tagged females we have come to know. When any of these four turtles aren't sighted after two weeks we ask the National Marine Fisheries Service where they put them. We are reassured by this agency the ladies are in fact nesting at the French Frigate Shoals. Over the ten summers we have dived at our location we have identified about 250 turtles. About 75% of these were sick with a disease called fibropapilloma. Of the turtles we regard as "regulars" the prevalence jumps to 90%. I hope this establishes my reason for hanging around your CORAL-L mailing list. I believe the high prevalence of disease at our dive site is the result of environmental conditions there. Just recently I read a paper about fibropapilloma in Indonesia. Turtles captured from two places tended to have higher incidence of this disease. The first, Jakarta I don't have to ask about. Jakarta Bay is like the poster child of reef degradation. The other place mentioned was Surabaya (112' to 115'E, 6' to 8'S). I tried surfing the Net for information and have a pretty good idea of general conditions of reefs around Indonesia. ("Approximately 60% of Indonesia's population lives in coastal areas. Their impact on the marine ecosystem derives from both the removal of resources and the introduction of increasing quantities of sewage and industrial pollution." Major Indonesian marine resource management issues include the growth in mining of coral reefs and the over exploitation of living coral sites; the increase in phosphate, nitrate and sediment loading of marine estuaries from upstream intensive paddy cultivation;") What I need now is information about the corals and reefs around Surabaya specifically. I would appreciate any environmental information you can provide or email addressed of the researchers studying this area. Many thanks - ---------------------------------------------------- ^ Ursula Keuper-Bennett 0 0 Email: howzit at turtles.org /V^\ /^V\ /V Malama na honu V\ http://www.turtles.org / \ "She is the size, shape and color of a large boulder. Her shell alone is over a yard long, remarkably smooth and flecked with small patches of barnacles and a few threads of green algae. For once the common name lacks the grace of the scientific one. 'Green sea turtle' is blandly descriptive. 'Chelonia mydas' fairly sings." \ / --Osha Gray Davidson / \ / \ The Enchanted Braid /__| V |__\ Turtle Trax CELEBRATING THE 25TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE FFS TAGGING PROGRAM ------------------------------ From: "Peter J. Mumby" Date: Tue, 16 Jun 1998 12:08:11 +0100 Subject: recipe for marine cement? Dear Coral-listers Does anyone have a recipe for marine cement - e.g. for attaching field equipment underwater? Many thanks Peter - ------------------------------------------------ Dr Peter J. Mumby Research Fellow Department of Geography University of Sheffield Winter Street Sheffield S10 2TN United Kingdom tel: + 44 (0)114 222 7970 fax: + 44 (0)114 279 7912 e-mail: p.j.mumby at sheffield.ac.uk ------------------------------ From: "Patrick Mitchell-Jones" Date: Tue, 16 Jun 1998 12:32:09 +0000 Subject: Blue Corals in the Maldives Many thanks to you all for the responses to my query regarding 'Blue Coral'. I have read all replies and would add the following: - The most noticeable colour is indeed an iridescent pale blue which is almost translucent up close. I suppose that it does look like the colour in the polyps themselves rather than the usual opaque coloration of the corals. I noticed the blue, a purple blue and some pink colours as also seen by Jan Korrubel in Sodwana Bay. Craig Bingman writes that the loss of the symbiont population in bleaching caused by stress can be as a result of high irradiance or high temperature. I would surmise that, as the irradiation will decrease with depth and the corals I noted were at various depths and not particularly noticeable on the reef top but rather on the outside, this would be a less likely cause than temperature. Indeed, with the current relative turbidity of some areas this would also reduce the irradiation. Certainly the temperature of the water was several degrees higher than I noted in the same area in December. Bob Allison asks for more details of the sites. Here goes Dive sites were as follows.... Temperatures are subjective as my computer doesn't record them. Quoted as between 28=B0c and 33=B0c Kuramati House reef (Outside). Just to the west of the pier. Numerous blue tinged staghorn with some blue/purple and occasional pink. These were at variable depth. None seen on the inside. There were areas of high temperature. I was told as high as 33=B0c Rasdoo House Reef. Some visible here but the water seems slightly cooler. Maaya Thila. None seen. Water cooler and at a constant temperature Fesdu House reef (outside). Some here. Temperature variable. Veligandu North. Again, some evidence here but not as much as in the shallower Kuramati area Ukulas Thila. No evidence here. The corals most affected with this type of colouration were the Staghorns with the most intense colouration around the tips. The Elkhorns (palmate type corals), which were generally a little deeper than the Staghorns, seemed to present in a different manner. The colouration did not seem to be a pale translucent type but an intense royal blue. This occurred in patches and in one case the whole coral was intense blue. I don't know if they are both caused by the same thing but they certainly look different. Sorry if my terminology is not correct, I am a microbiologist and not familiar with all the scientific names of the corals. Patrick Mitchell-Jones ------------------------------ From: BWH Date: Tue, 16 Jun 1998 02:44:37 +0800 Subject: Re: Coral Bleaching -- INDONESIA In addition to a previous message on coral bleaching at Lombok island by the JARI Foundation, I can report the occurrance of fatal bleaching at the westernmost point of Bali island (west of Lombok) and at its east coast (May 1998). Many soft corals were white and disintegrating. There was almost no bleaching at Nusa Lembongan, southeast off Bali (where usually cold currents occur) but still some at the north coast of the neighbouring Nusa Penida. Mr. Ketut Sarjana Putra, marine scientist at the Bali office of WWF-Indonesa Programme has noticed that in March 1998 there was much more bleaching at one site at Nusa Penida. The apparent quick recovery seems to reflect occupation by large fast-growing xeniid soft corals of substrata that became vacant during the bleaching. The water at this site was observed to reach low temperatures (20-22 degrees C) during westward tidal currents, while during eastward currents the water was less cold (25-27 degrees C). The cold water currents at Nusa Penida and Nusa Lembongan are probably related to upwelling. Bert W. Hoeksema Program Buginesia WOTRO-UNHAS PO Box 1624 Ujung Pandang 90016 Indonesia astrong at nesdis.noaa.gov wrote: > Passing this recent information from Lombok Island in Indonesia on to > others who > may have an interest or may wish to share further observations. > > Al Strong > > <---- Begin Forwarded Message ----> > From: "Taufik Hizbul Haq" > To: astrong at nesdis.noaa.gov > Subject: Coral Bleaching > Date: Tue, 05 May 1998 21:00:53 PDT > > First of all, let me introduce ourselves. We are a Marine Foundation, > named Yayasan JARI. We're based in Mataram, Lombok Island, West Nusa > Tenggara Province - Indonesia. > > During this last four months, the coral reef around Lombok Island is > suffering from bleaching process. And it is happening almost around > Lombok Island (next to Bali). The bleaching process is happening until > > 80 feet depth, and also we have cold and hot current[s] on the surface > and > [at] depth. All the coral is getting white and it is very sad. [Does] > this > event has something to do with the El-Nino phenomenon? Cause we have > information that coral in the Great Barrier Reef is bleaching, and > also > Taka Bone Rate National Park in South Sulawesi and Bunaken National > Park > in North Sulawesi... > > Juanita Mandagi > Marine Foundation -- Yayasan JARI > Mataram, Lombok Island > West Nusa Tenggara Province > Indonesia ------------------------------ From: drifter at sea.org Date: Wed, 10 Jun 1998 11:51:09 -0700 Subject: "Blue coral" enigma solved Dear coral reefers, I have noticed a lot of what appear to be 'blue' Porites heads off the coast of Somalia and I am wondering if they could in fact be UN helmets discarded during the 1995 fiasco. Can anyone help me with this? ------------------------------ From: Walt Jaap STP Date: Tue, 16 Jun 1998 11:38:01 -0400 (EDT) Subject: Re: recipe for marine cement? Marine epoxy works quite well. There are various types and strength capabilities. We have found that Liquid Rock 500 works quite well for moorings and attaching marker stakes in the reef platform. We drill a 12 inch deep hole in the reef platform with a hydraulic drill; flush out the residue, fill the hole with epoxy, and insert the stainless steel stake. The epoxy sets up in an hour. Hydraulic cement will work but it is a bit messy and you must be careful in applying. You can speed setting time by adding a slight amount of molding plaster to Portland type II mortar mix. Mix on surface, put the mixture in a plastic bag or bowel and take under water. Portland does not work well in strong currents or in a heavy wave surge. ------------------------------ From: Peter Glynn Date: Tue, 16 Jun 1998 14:27:12 -0400 Subject: Corals that are blue I have a comment in addition to Mark Eakin's dialog about bleached blue Porites lobata in the eastern Pacific of Panama. There is at least one Porites lobata colony at this same location that is located in about 20ft. of water at the bottom of a basalt outcropping, which has been completely blue every time I have been at this site. It does not appear bleached as did the colony in photos that Mark presented, which had patches of white and light blue areas. The colony that I am describing is rich in color and stands next to another color morph of Porites (amber, also not bleached). Therefore, it is possible that this blue color is its natural color. The colony in Mark's photos, however, is located at a shallower depth, in an area that gets much direct sunlight. I do not remember what it's unbleached coloration is but I will have to look into my photo library for it, I think I have a picture. Best regards to all, Susan B. Colley Theodosiou ------------------------------ From: "Mark Eakin" Date: 16 Jun 1998 15:23:26 U Subject: Re: Used Tires as artificial reef Subject: Time: 10:36 = AM RE>Used Tires as artificial reef Date: = 6/16/98 I strongly recommend that tires NOT be used for artificial reefs unless = you are in an area where you can garantee that there will be no storm = surge that reaches reef depth. Tropical cyclone generated waves can = readily rip apart the tire mats, allowing individual tires to be readily = moved about. A tire reef I know of in Florida was torn apart by a = Hurricane near miss in the late 1970s. The tires were transported from = 500 - 1500 m off shore, onto the beach. Most were cleaned up subsequent = to the storm, but some had been wedged into boulder rip-rap and remain to = this day. Artificial reefs need to rely on materials too heavy to be transported by = storm waves. Cheers, Mark ------------------------------ From: lesk at bio.bu.edu (Les Kaufman) Date: Tue, 16 Jun 1998 15:59:20 -0400 Subject: Re: Corals that are blue Of course, Porites branneri (tropical west Atlantic) is usually bright blue, or blue-violet. So this color is not outside the capacity of a Porites to produce. Les Kaufman Boston University Marine Program Department of Biology Boston University 5 Cummington Street Boston, MA 02215 e-mail: lesk at bio.bu.edu phone: 617-353-5560 fax: 617-353-6340 "I believe we are on an irreversible trend toward more freedom and democracy... but that could change." - -Vice President Dan Quayle, 5/22/89 ------------------------------ From: astrong at nesdis.noaa.gov Date: Tue, 16 Jun 1998 15:55:17 -0400 Subject: Florida Keys -- Bleaching HotSpots have enveloped the Florida Bay and the Keys on today's chart: http://psbsgi1.nesdis.noaa.gov:8080/PSB/EPS/SST/data/hotspotw.6.16.1998.gif With any continued absence of cloud cover [and light winds] areas of the Caribbean may be in for an increase in water temperatures and possible bleaching. Much of the Caribbean is within 0.5 deg C of levels critical for initiating coral reef bleaching. [Ref: pinks & blues in the HotSpot charts]. Luckily, winds have been pretty brisk south of 20N: http://140.90.191.231/dataimages/ssmi/day/ssmi_ave578/ssmi98166_ave.gif Cheers, Al **** <>< ******* <>< ******* <>< ******* <>< ******* <>< ******* <>< ***** Alan E. Strong Phys Scientist/Oceanographer Adj Assoc Res Professor NOAA/NESDIS/ORA/ORAD -- E/RA3 US Naval Academy NOAA Science Center -- RM 711W Oceanography Department 5200 Auth Road Annapolis, MD 21402 Camp Springs, MD 20746 410-293-6550 Alan.E.Strong at noaa.gov 301-763-8102 x170 FAX: 301-763-8108 http://manati.wwb.noaa.gov/orad ------------------------------ From: Gisele McAuliffe Date: Tue, 16 Jun 1998 11:07:16 -0400 Subject: HOW DO I GET OFF THIS LISTSERVE Dear All, I have officially unsubscribed and more, but I'm still on this listserve. Can anyone offer me any direct contacts or other information so I can get off? It would be much appreciated. ------------------------------ From: Doug Fenner Date: Wed, 17 Jun 1998 11:50:30 +1000 Subject: coralist: coral colors Coralisters, I've noticed that Porites branneri in the Caribbean is bright blue when viewed in sunlight, but if you take a picture with flash, it turns into a pinkish-purple (as seen on p. 93 of Paul Humann's "Reef Coral Identification"). If you take a photo in natural light, it looks a very dark blue. Also, there are a few individual Mussa cubensis (traditionally called Scolymia cubensis- see Fenner, 1993) that are a brilliant red-orange (flourescent?), but when you take a photo they come out looking brown. Same pigment seems to be in radial stripes on some Mussa angulosa and what has been traditionally been called Scolymia lacera but which are single polyps of Mussa angulosa. I would guess that these colors would be left after bleaching- anybody know? -Doug Fenner, D. P. 1993. Species distinctions among several Caribbean stony corals. Bull. Mar. Sci. 53: 1099-1116. Douglas Fenner, Ph.D. Coral Taxonomist Australian Institute of Marine Science PMB No 3 Townsville MC Queensland 4810 Australia phone 07 4753 4241 e-mail: d.fenner at aims.gov.au ------------------------------ From: Jim Hendee Date: Wed, 17 Jun 1998 08:41:30 -0400 (EDT) Subject: Re: Florida Keys Bleaching & CREWS Dear Coral-Listers, As corroborating evidence of Al Strong's message on the possibility (probability) of coral bleaching in the Florida Keys, our Coral Reef Early Warning System (CREWS, a marine environmental expert system which utilizes data from the Florida Institute of Oceanography's [NOAA-sponsored] SEAKEYS network) at URL: http://coral.aoml.noaa.gov/sferpm/seakeys/es/ has predicted/reported conditions conducive to coral bleaching at Sombrero Key (based on temps > 29degC and "low winds") since June 1, and Walt Jaap (personal communication) has just recently noted that "...the signs of bleaching were evident." Dive shop owners have also reported bleaching signs. The temperatures have just reached 32degC. We (Chris Humphrey, Trent Moore [FIO] and I) will hopefully be checking on the reef again this week. Please see the URL for reports since June 1 (and daily, after 6:30am EST) and feel free to offer any feedback to further fine-tune the system, which still has quite a bit of refinement ahead. If you'd like to be sent the automated bleaching alert reports, please drop a line. Reports are only sent if the "production rules" have been triggered within the last seven days. New sensors to be installed next month at Sombrero Key will include Photosynthetically Active Radiation (PAR), fluorometry and transmissometry, and these readings (as well as satellite data, hopefully) will be incorporated into CREWS, as well as into other marine environmental near real-time interpretations. For more information on SEAKEYS, see URL: http://coral.aoml.noaa.gov/sferpm/seakeys/ Cheers, Jim Hendee +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~+ | James C. Hendee | Internet: hendee at aoml.noaa.gov| | Coral Health and | | | Monitoring Program | Voice: 305 361-4396 | | Ocean Chemistry Division | Fax: 305 361-4392 | | NOAA/AOML | | | 4301 Rickenbacker Causeway | | | Miami, FL 33149-1026 | http://coral.aoml.noaa.gov | +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~+ On Tue, 16 Jun 1998 astrong at nesdis.noaa.gov wrote: > Date: Tue, 16 Jun 1998 15:55:17 -0400 > From: astrong at nesdis.noaa.gov > To: coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov > Subject: Florida Keys -- Bleaching > > HotSpots have enveloped the Florida Bay and the Keys on today's chart: > http://psbsgi1.nesdis.noaa.gov:8080/PSB/EPS/SST/data/hotspotw.6.16.1998.gif > > With any continued absence of cloud cover [and light winds] areas of the > Caribbean may be in for an increase in water temperatures and possible > bleaching. Much of the Caribbean is within 0.5 deg C of levels critical for > initiating coral reef bleaching. [Ref: pinks & blues in the HotSpot charts]. > > Luckily, winds have been pretty brisk south of 20N: > http://140.90.191.231/dataimages/ssmi/day/ssmi_ave578/ssmi98166_ave.gif > > Cheers, > Al > **** <>< ******* <>< ******* <>< ******* <>< ******* <>< ******* <>< ***** > Alan E. Strong > Phys Scientist/Oceanographer Adj Assoc Res Professor > NOAA/NESDIS/ORA/ORAD -- E/RA3 US Naval Academy > NOAA Science Center -- RM 711W Oceanography Department > 5200 Auth Road Annapolis, MD 21402 > Camp Springs, MD 20746 410-293-6550 > Alan.E.Strong at noaa.gov > 301-763-8102 x170 FAX: 301-763-8108 > http://manati.wwb.noaa.gov/orad > ------------------------------ From: "Precht,Bill" Date: Wed, 17 Jun 1998 10:28:18 -0400 Subject: RE: Used Tires as artificial reef I am in total agreement with Mark. However, I would not limit this to specific depths etc.. We need to stop using reef areas as a dumping ground for trash, especially old tires! I dont want to get into the ethics of what should or should not be used in artificial reefs. The agencies responsible for permitting these structures must evaluate the pros and cons of these on a case by case basis. The lesson learned in south Florida (Dade County) from Hurricane Andrew (Aug. 24, 1992) should tell us to avoid artificial reef structures altogether in these habitats. Of course the exception would be in cases of reef restoration (damage repair), where the employment of "artificial" structures are 'woven' into the 'fabric' of the reef. This integration must be done to design specifications that can withstand a 1/100 yr. storm. It's time to stop using coral reefs and associated areas as a landfill and confusing this with the creation of "new" habitat for divers and fisherman. > -----Original Message----- > From: Mark Eakin [SMTP:eakin at ogp.noaa.gov] > Sent: Tuesday, June 16, 1998 11:23 AM > To: Recipients of coral-list > Subject: Re: Used Tires as artificial reef > > Subject: Time: > 10:36 AM > RE>Used Tires as artificial reef Date: > 6/16/98 > > I strongly recommend that tires NOT be used for artificial reefs > unless you are in an area where you can garantee that there will be no > storm surge that reaches reef depth. Tropical cyclone generated waves > can readily rip apart the tire mats, allowing individual tires to be > readily moved about. A tire reef I know of in Florida was torn apart > by a Hurricane near miss in the late 1970s. The tires were > transported from 500 - 1500 m off shore, onto the beach. Most were > cleaned up subsequent to the storm, but some had been wedged into > boulder rip-rap and remain to this day. > > Artificial reefs need to rely on materials too heavy to be transported > by storm waves. > > Cheers, > Mark ------------------------------ From: "Flo Thomas" Date: Wed, 17 Jun 1998 13:24:57 -0500 Subject: Re: Temporary Position Announcement TECHNICIAN POSITION AVAILABLE A technician position is available in an active marine science laboratory with research interests ranging from invertebrate reproduction to community scale nutrient transport processes. The work will include both laboratory and field research. Field research is conducted on coral reefs and seagrass communities. The technician will be responsible for laboratory management, data acquisition and analysis. The work in the lab is very diverse. Therefore, a wide range of skills and interests could fit within the needs of the lab. Desired skills include: A B.S. in marine science, oceanography, biology, engineering, zoology or environmental science (an M.S. degree is desirable); computer skills; field experience; scuba diving; TEM and SEM; image analysis; experience in biogeochemistry, biomechanics, or hydrodynamics; writing skills and statistics. The successful candidate will be expected to have some but not all of the above skills. The position is located at the Dauphin Island Sea Lab located on a barrier Island on the Northern Gulf of Mexico. The pay range starts at $25,000+ and is dependent on experience and skills. If you are interested please send a Curriculum Vitae, 3 letters of recommendation, and a letter stating your research experience and interest. If you have any questions please contact Dr. Florence Thomas, P.O. Box 369 Dauphin Island, Alabama, 36528, email: fthomas at jaguar1.usouthal.edu, (334-861-7544). ------------------------------ From: "Flo Thomas" Date: Wed, 17 Jun 1998 14:01:51 -0500 Subject: Tech position TECHNICIAN POSITION AVAILABLE A technician position is available in an active marine science laboratory with research interests ranging from invertebrate reproduction to community scale nutrient transport processes. The work will include both laboratory and field research. Field research is conducted on coral reefs and seagrass communities. The technician will be responsible for laboratory management, data acquisition and analysis. The work in the lab is very diverse. Therefore, a wide range of skills and interests could fit within the needs of the lab. Desired skills include: A B.S. in marine science, oceanography, biology, engineering, zoology or environmental science (an M.S. degree is desirable); computer skills; field experience; scuba diving; TEM and SEM; image analysis; experience in biogeochemistry, biomechanics, or hydrodynamics; writing skills and statistics. The successful candidate will be expected to have some but not all of the above skills. The position is located at the Dauphin Island Sea Lab located on a barrier Island on the Northern Gulf of Mexico. The pay range starts at $25,000+ and is dependent on experience and skills. If you are interested please send a Curriculum Vitae, 3 letters of recommendation, and a letter stating your research experience and interest. If you have any questions please contact Dr. Florence Thomas, P.O. Box 369 Dauphin Island, Alabama, 36528, email: fthomas at jaguar1.usouthal.edu, (334-861-7544). ------------------------------ From: "Flo Thomas" Date: Wed, 17 Jun 1998 14:29:54 -0500 Subject: Re: Tech position The following position is for 2 years not temporary. Sorry. Flo Thomas > > TECHNICIAN POSITION AVAILABLE > > A technician position is available in an active marine science laboratory > with research interests ranging from invertebrate reproduction to community > scale nutrient transport processes. The work will include both laboratory > and field research. Field research is conducted on coral reefs and > seagrass communities. The technician will be responsible for laboratory > management, data acquisition and analysis. The work in the lab is very > diverse. Therefore, a wide range of skills and interests could fit within > the needs of the lab. Desired skills include: A B.S. in marine science, > oceanography, biology, engineering, zoology or environmental science (an > M.S. degree is desirable); computer skills; field experience; scuba diving; > TEM and SEM; image analysis; experience in biogeochemistry, biomechanics, > or hydrodynamics; writing skills and statistics. The successful candidate > will be expected to have some but not all of the above skills. > The position is located at the Dauphin Island Sea Lab located on a barrier > Island on the Northern Gulf of Mexico. The pay range starts at $25,000+ > and is dependent on experience and skills. If you are interested please > send a Curriculum Vitae, 3 letters of recommendation, and a letter stating > your research experience and interest. If you have any questions please > contact Dr. Florence Thomas, P.O. Box 369 Dauphin Island, Alabama, 36528, > email: fthomas at jaguar1.usouthal.edu, (334-861-7544). > ------------------------------ End of coral-list-digest V1 #17 ******************************* From fthomas at jaguar1.usouthal.edu Wed Jun 17 15:01:51 1998 From: fthomas at jaguar1.usouthal.edu (Flo Thomas) Date: Wed, 17 Jun 1998 14:01:51 -0500 Subject: Tech position Message-ID: <199806171908.OAA29423@wahoo.mobile.gulf.net> TECHNICIAN POSITION AVAILABLE A technician position is available in an active marine science laboratory with research interests ranging from invertebrate reproduction to community scale nutrient transport processes. The work will include both laboratory and field research. Field research is conducted on coral reefs and seagrass communities. The technician will be responsible for laboratory management, data acquisition and analysis. The work in the lab is very diverse. Therefore, a wide range of skills and interests could fit within the needs of the lab. Desired skills include: A B.S. in marine science, oceanography, biology, engineering, zoology or environmental science (an M.S. degree is desirable); computer skills; field experience; scuba diving; TEM and SEM; image analysis; experience in biogeochemistry, biomechanics, or hydrodynamics; writing skills and statistics. The successful candidate will be expected to have some but not all of the above skills. The position is located at the Dauphin Island Sea Lab located on a barrier Island on the Northern Gulf of Mexico. The pay range starts at $25,000+ and is dependent on experience and skills. If you are interested please send a Curriculum Vitae, 3 letters of recommendation, and a letter stating your research experience and interest. If you have any questions please contact Dr. Florence Thomas, P.O. Box 369 Dauphin Island, Alabama, 36528, email: fthomas at jaguar1.usouthal.edu, (334-861-7544). From fthomas at jaguar1.usouthal.edu Wed Jun 17 15:29:54 1998 From: fthomas at jaguar1.usouthal.edu (Flo Thomas) Date: Wed, 17 Jun 1998 14:29:54 -0500 Subject: Tech position Message-ID: <199806171936.OAA29821@wahoo.mobile.gulf.net> The following position is for 2 years not temporary. Sorry. Flo Thomas > > TECHNICIAN POSITION AVAILABLE > > A technician position is available in an active marine science laboratory > with research interests ranging from invertebrate reproduction to community > scale nutrient transport processes. The work will include both laboratory > and field research. Field research is conducted on coral reefs and > seagrass communities. The technician will be responsible for laboratory > management, data acquisition and analysis. The work in the lab is very > diverse. Therefore, a wide range of skills and interests could fit within > the needs of the lab. Desired skills include: A B.S. in marine science, > oceanography, biology, engineering, zoology or environmental science (an > M.S. degree is desirable); computer skills; field experience; scuba diving; > TEM and SEM; image analysis; experience in biogeochemistry, biomechanics, > or hydrodynamics; writing skills and statistics. The successful candidate > will be expected to have some but not all of the above skills. > The position is located at the Dauphin Island Sea Lab located on a barrier > Island on the Northern Gulf of Mexico. The pay range starts at $25,000+ > and is dependent on experience and skills. If you are interested please > send a Curriculum Vitae, 3 letters of recommendation, and a letter stating > your research experience and interest. If you have any questions please > contact Dr. Florence Thomas, P.O. Box 369 Dauphin Island, Alabama, 36528, > email: fthomas at jaguar1.usouthal.edu, (334-861-7544). > From REEF003 at aol.com Wed Jun 17 15:57:52 1998 From: REEF003 at aol.com (REEF003 at aol.com) Date: Wed, 17 Jun 1998 15:57:52 EDT Subject: Carib. Coral Spawning in June Message-ID: Hello All, A quick note of interest to those dealing with coral spawning... On the evenings of June 15 and 16, (two nights ago) male M. cavernosa colonies were seen spawning in Bimini, Bahamas. Ned and Anna DeLoach reported seeing the colonies spawn just after dusk at approx. 8:30 pm. Only male colonies were seen spawning and no M. annularis colonies were seen spawning. The full moon should have been on the evening of June 10th. An unconfirmed report from Cozumel... A REEF member reported seeing Diploria (probably strigosa) spawning on a night dive in Cozumel early on the evening of June 12 or 13. The colony was not large (approx 30cm dia.) and was male. I was skeptical of this report until hearing of the DeLoach's report from Bimini. Just thought this might be of interest, Laddie Akins REEF From buddrw at kgs.ukans.edu Wed Jun 17 14:20:33 1998 From: buddrw at kgs.ukans.edu (Bob Buddemeier) Date: Wed, 17 Jun 1998 13:20:33 -0500 Subject: Singin' the blues Message-ID: <199806180150.BAA11992@coral.aoml.noaa.gov> I can't stand it any longer. The perceived 'color' of an object is the response of a sensor to the spectrum of the light reflected by the object. The strength and quality (wavelength mix) of the signal reaching the sensor is a function of: 1. The spectrum of the source of incident light (e.g., sun, strobe, flashbulb); 2. The pathlength and optical characteristics of the medium that transmits the incident light to the object; 3. The pathlength and optical characteristics of the medium that transmits the reflected light to the sensor. 4. The spectral reflectance characteristics of the object; and 5. Background or scattering contributions to the incident light signal (along both paths). But we're not through. All sensors are not equal. E.g., human eyes -- ever have an argument with your significant other about what tie/shirt/suit looked good together? But especially, film. Most commercial films are tuned to generate a consensus perception that is not too far from what people think they see in air, in sunlight. But the recipes for doing that vary, and so you may get quite different responses-- between films as well as between environments -- in other environments (e.g., flash, or indoor lighting, or low-light, or underwater). Special-purpose films (e.g., ultra high speed) may have special responses. And, the colors in developed film (especially prints) may change with time. Further, now that digital processing and images are coming in, computer adjustment of hues makes it impossible to know how the image relates to what you were looking at in the first place(or at least, to convince anyone else of some objective reality). One point is -- of course the bloody things look different in and out of water, at different depths, in pictures and in life, etc. etc. Another point is -- verbal transmissions, and even comparison of images of unspecified origins, can't possibly resolve most of the things people are talking about. You need (sorry) a quantitative, experimentally repeatable definition of "blue," or at least one which controls for the largest of the major variables listed above. (Photosynthesis types at least specify PAR -- trying to figure out what a blue coral means is tougher, since we haven't really specified the question as far as I can tell.) I have no objection to people using the electronic medium to trade just-so stories, but please designate a satellite list or some node so that they don't wind up in my mailbox until the collection has been edited for public consumption. 2. My own just-so story is that my recollection from a decade (the 70s) in the water at various places around the Pacific is that Porites comes in tan, brown, green, olive-drab, and a range of blues ranging from rather light to near-purple. Take it, and do what you want. 3. One of keenest memories of learning about corals is that once when I started waving my arms about ecology and evolution and other things of which I knew little, Bob Kinzie told me "you have to remember that basically color in corals doesn't mean much of anything." I do not suggest that either of us Bobs would defend that as an absolutely true statement applicable to all issues, but I suspect it's still a pretty good first approximation. 'Nuff? Bob Buddemeier, self-appointed curmudgeon -- Dr. Robert W. Buddemeier Kansas Geological Survey University of Kansas 1930 Constant Ave. Lawrence, KS 66047 (913) 864-3965 w (913) 864-5317 fax buddrw at kgs.ukans.edu From Ron.Hill at noaa.gov Thu Jun 18 08:08:46 1998 From: Ron.Hill at noaa.gov (Ron Hill) Date: 18 Jun 1998 08:08:46 -0400 Subject: Singin' the blues Message-ID: <06C7E3589034E010*/c=US/admd=ATTMAIL/prmd=GOV+NOAA/o=CCNMFS/s=Hill/g=Ron/@MHS> While I agree wholeheartedly with Bob's blue comments, particularly about the film issue (most of us know that various brands of flim are better for photographing a verdant green mountainside or an underwater scene, depending on the color emphasis desired) there is some value in (some of) this discussion if in fact some color differences can be an indication of forthcoming or recently past bleaching. Color morphs in and of themselves may not be significant, ecologically or environmentally, but peculiar color changes attributable to variation in zooxanthellae density may be. Some quantitative analysis of the issue is definitely needed. Ron Hill NOAA/NMFS Office of Habitat Conservation >< <> >< <> >< <> >< <> >< <> >< <> >< <> >< <> >< <> >< <> >< <> >< <> >< <> >< <> >< 1315 East-West Highway Phone: (301) 713-2325 x. 138 SSMC3, #12624, F/HC Fax: (301) 713-1043 Silver Spring, MD 20910 e-mail: ron.hill at noaa.gov USA ____________________Reply Separator____________________ Subject: Re: Singin' the blues Author: buddrw at kgs.ukans.edu Date: 6/17/98 10:03 PM I can't stand it any longer. The perceived 'color' of an object is the response of a sensor to the spectrum of the light reflected by the object. The strength and quality (wavelength mix) of the signal reaching the sensor is a function of: 1. The spectrum of the source of incident light (e.g., sun, strobe, flashbulb); 2. The pathlength and optical characteristics of the medium that transmits the incident light to the object; 3. The pathlength and optical characteristics of the medium that transmits the reflected light to the sensor. 4. The spectral reflectance characteristics of the object; and 5. Background or scattering contributions to the incident light signal (along both paths). But we're not through. All sensors are not equal. E.g., human eyes -- ever have an argument with your significant other about what tie/shirt/suit looked good together? But especially, film. Most commercial films are tuned to generate a consensus perception that is not too far from what people think they see in air, in sunlight. But the recipes for doing that vary, and so you may get quite different responses-- between films as well as between environments -- in other environments (e.g., flash, or indoor lighting, or low-light, or underwater). Special-purpose films (e.g., ultra high speed) may have special responses. And, the colors in developed film (especially prints) may change with time. Further, now that digital processing and images are coming in, computer adjustment of hues makes it impossible to know how the image relates to what you were looking at in the first place(or at least, to convince anyone else of some objective reality). One point is -- of course the bloody things look different in and out of water, at different depths, in pictures and in life, etc. etc. Another point is -- verbal transmissions, and even comparison of images of unspecified origins, can't possibly resolve most of the things people are talking about. You need (sorry) a quantitative, experimentally repeatable definition of "blue," or at least one which controls for the largest of the major variables listed above. (Photosynthesis types at least specify PAR -- trying to figure out what a blue coral means is tougher, since we haven't really specified the question as far as I can tell.) I have no objection to people using the electronic medium to trade just-so stories, but please designate a satellite list or some node so that they don't wind up in my mailbox until the collection has been edited for public consumption. 2. My own just-so story is that my recollection from a decade (the 70s) in the water at various places around the Pacific is that Porites comes in tan, brown, green, olive-drab, and a range of blues ranging from rather light to near-purple. Take it, and do what you want. 3. One of keenest memories of learning about corals is that once when I started waving my arms about ecology and evolution and other things of which I knew little, Bob Kinzie told me "you have to remember that basically color in corals doesn't mean much of anything." I do not suggest that either of us Bobs would defend that as an absolutely true statement applicable to all issues, but I suspect it's still a pretty good first approximation. 'Nuff? Bob Buddemeier, self-appointed curmudgeon -- Dr. Robert W. Buddemeier Kansas Geological Survey University of Kansas 1930 Constant Ave. Lawrence, KS 66047 (913) 864-3965 w (913) 864-5317 fax buddrw at kgs.ukans.edu From astrong at nesdis.noaa.gov Tue Jun 16 15:55:17 1998 From: astrong at nesdis.noaa.gov (astrong at nesdis.noaa.gov) Date: Tue, 16 Jun 1998 15:55:17 -0400 Subject: Florida Keys -- Bleaching Message-ID: <199806161955.PAA29069@orbit8i.nesdis.noaa.gov> HotSpots have enveloped the Florida Bay and the Keys on today's chart: http://psbsgi1.nesdis.noaa.gov:8080/PSB/EPS/SST/data/hotspotw.6.16.1998.gif With any continued absence of cloud cover [and light winds] areas of the Caribbean may be in for an increase in water temperatures and possible bleaching. Much of the Caribbean is within 0.5 deg C of levels critical for initiating coral reef bleaching. [Ref: pinks & blues in the HotSpot charts]. Luckily, winds have been pretty brisk south of 20N: http://140.90.191.231/dataimages/ssmi/day/ssmi_ave578/ssmi98166_ave.gif Cheers, Al **** <>< ******* <>< ******* <>< ******* <>< ******* <>< ******* <>< ***** Alan E. Strong Phys Scientist/Oceanographer Adj Assoc Res Professor NOAA/NESDIS/ORA/ORAD -- E/RA3 US Naval Academy NOAA Science Center -- RM 711W Oceanography Department 5200 Auth Road Annapolis, MD 21402 Camp Springs, MD 20746 410-293-6550 Alan.E.Strong at noaa.gov 301-763-8102 x170 FAX: 301-763-8108 http://manati.wwb.noaa.gov/orad From smiller at gate.net Thu Jun 18 19:05:45 1998 From: smiller at gate.net (Steven Miller) Date: Thu, 18 Jun 1998 16:05:45 -0700 Subject: ISRS/CMS Coral Reef Fellowship Message-ID: <35899D49.4AED@gate.net> International Society for Reef Studies and the Center for Marine Conservation 1999 Graduate Fellowship for Coral Reef Research Introduction Coral reefs are among the most diverse ecosystems on the planet, they are globally distributed, and they support various aspects of coastal economies. Yet coral reefs are widely recognized to be in decline and studies are needed to provide information to manage and understand processes that cause coral reef change. Funds are available, approximately US$13,500, to support one student to work toward a Ph.D. in the general area of coral reef ecosystem research. The focus of the Fellowship is to understand and predict coral reef response to management or disturbance-caused change (human-caused or natural). Research supported by the fellowship should emphasize an ecosystem approach, recognizing the complex interplay among many processes that shape the way coral reefs look and function. For example, projects that focus on factors that control productivity, nutrient dynamics, carbonate accretion or erosion, fisheries recruitment, or the effects of exploitation of coral reef resources are examples of suitable topics. Work is not restricted to these topics, but mechanistic controls should be emphasized because this information is important in construction of models that will predict reef response to disturbance. Who can apply? The Fellowship is available to students, worldwide, who are already admitted to a graduate program at an accredited university. The intent of the fellowship is to help Ph.D. students develop skills and to address problems related to relevant applications of coral reef ecosystem research and management. The fellowship can be used to support salary, travel, fieldwork, or laboratory analyses. Renewal of the fellowship is possible, but is based on annual resubmission. The student can work entirely at the host university, or can split time between developed and developing country universities. Given proposals of equal scientific merit, priority will be based on financial need; strong financial or in-kind support from local sources is also required. Application materials A four page proposal, using 12 Font or larger, in English, is required from prospective fellowship candidates. The proposal should include (1) an overview that places the proposed research in context with existing literature and local needs, (2) a detailed methods section that includes hypotheses and experimental design (as appropriate), (3) expected results, (4) evidence of host country management relevance and coordination (e.g. identification of individuals or programs that will benefit from your results), (5) a detailed budget, and (6) literature cited (the budget and literature cited sections do not count against the four page limit). Eight copies of the proposal must be provided. The student?s major professor is required to submit a CV (maximum length 3 pages) and a support letter, in English, that details cost sharing and facility support. If work will be conducted at a second university, a support letter is required from the sponsoring professor. Applications will be reviewed by a panel with ISRS and Center for Marine Conservation participants; evaluation criteria include scientific merit, feasibility, cost sharing, host country coordination, and relevancy to the Fellowship guidelines. Twenty four applications were received for support in 1997, and twelve were received for 1998. SUBMISSION DEADLINE IS OCTOBER 16, 1998 Administration of the Fellowship The International Society for Reef Studies (ISRS) and the Center for Marine Conservation (CMC) support the Fellowship through professional and administrative contributions. The mission of the ISRS is to promote for the benefit of the public, the production and dissemination of scientific knowledge and understanding concerning coral reefs, both living and fossil. The CMC is committed to protecting ocean environments and conserving the global abundance and diversity of marine life. Through science-based advocacy, research, and public education, CMC promotes informed citizen participation to reverse the degradation of our oceans. Application materials should be submitted, no later than October 16, 1998, to: ISRS Recording Secretary UNCW 515 Caribbean Drive Key Largo, Florida 33037 S.Miller at gate.net From woodley at uwimona.edu.jm Fri Jun 19 11:36:52 1998 From: woodley at uwimona.edu.jm (Jeremy Woodley) Date: Fri, 19 Jun 1998 10:36:52 -0500 (GMT-0500) Subject: Housing for digital Handycam Message-ID: I am prospecting for a housing compatible with the Sony digital Handycam camcorder. I have a quotation on the Amphibico VH-1000. But I recently heard a rumour that these units are not as reliable as earlier models. Does anyone have relevant experience or other recommendations? Jeremy Woodley From CAMPBELL.JED at EPAMAIL.EPA.GOV Fri Jun 19 13:58:16 1998 From: CAMPBELL.JED at EPAMAIL.EPA.GOV (JED CAMPBELL) Date: Fri, 19 Jun 1998 12:58:16 -0500 Subject: Housing for digital Handycam -Reply Message-ID: An embedded and charset-unspecified text was scrubbed... Name: not available Url: http://coral.aoml.noaa.gov/pipermail/coral-list-old/attachments/19980619/a1c87ab2/attachment.pl From reefchck at ust.hk Mon Jun 22 01:54:06 1998 From: reefchck at ust.hk (reefchck at ust.hk) Date: Mon, 22 Jun 1998 13:54:06 +0800 (Taipei Standard Time) Subject: No subject Message-ID: Dear all coral-listers, Here is the June Update for Reef Check 98. Reef Check Update - June 22, 1998 We have lots of good news about Reef Check 1998, the second annual global survey of coral reefs. If you are not familiar with Reef Check or participated last year and would like to help out again, please see our website: www.ust.hk/~webrc/ReefCheck/reef.html The global results for 1997 were stunning, and the value of the data will increase with each year added. 1. Funding for National Coordinators We are very grateful to the Rockefeller Brother's Fund for providing significant funding for Reef Check 1998 in East Asia. In addition we have pledges of support from UNESCO, UNEP and private foundations for modest support for other regions in 1998-9. If you are a marine scientist or NGO staffer living or working in a developing country where we do not have a national coordinator and you would like to form a Reef Check team, we may be able to provide start-up funds and scientific training. Please read the website to check our list of coordinators and then email us for instructions at 2. New Countries Added Our 1998 roster continues to expand with new countries and territories such as the US Virgin Islands, Cambodia, Thailand, China, Sri Lanka, Jordan, Bangladesh among those recently signing on. We need more volunteers from the Caribbean and Africa. 3. GCRMN / Reef Check / Reef Base Summit at the Hawaii Monitoring Workshop The US state of Hawaii has finally decided to set up a coral reef monitoring and management program. As a first step, Jim Maragos coordinated an impressive coral reef monitoring workshop at the East-West Center in Honolulu 9-11 June. There was ample opportunity for participants to review and evaluate many alternative monitoring methods including Reef Check. Of the many discussions that appeared to achieve resolution, two are relevant here: A) In addition to academic scientific research, two types of monitoring are needed - high intensity, detailed taxonomic monitoring at selected sites by government agencies, and lower intensity, "community-based" monitoring at many sites using teams of skin divers, recreational scuba divers and scientists. B) Community-based monitoring, as part of a coastal management plan provides a solution to coral reef problems by building up a sense of stewardship in the community. C) It was agreed that Reef Check methods were suitable for volunteers to use in Hawaii. During the workshop, meetings were held to solidify the already strong relationships among Reef Check, GCRMN and Reef Base. In short, the previous agreement that GCRMN would promote Reef Check as the GCRMN community-based monitoring method in all countries was reaffirmed. In addition, in countries where there is already a sufficient capacity to plan and carry out government level monitoring, Reef Check has agreed to promote a second, more intensive set of methods recommended for use by government and academic teams, based in part on the English et al. Survey Manual for Tropical Marine Resources, but also including other methods as needed. For both protocols, a core set would be recommended for use in all countries with each country and locale adding whatever additional methods were needed. Finally, the decision to supply all Reef Check data to Reef Base was reaffirmed. The clear message from Hawaii is that scientists and managers alike are in no mood for silly arguments about methods. Collaboration, compromise and getting people into the water now are the order of the day. 4. Reef Check Hawaii and Clean Oceans 98 Some of you will recall that in 1997, Reef Check was kicked off in spectacular fashion on the island of Kauai by the environmental group Save Our Seas. This year, from June 11 to 13, Carl Stepath and his wife Teresa put on another Save Our Seas/Reef Check extravaganza, this time on Maui. On the night of 12 June, the Clean Oceans 98 underwater film festival was attended by hundreds, including renowned Maui marine artist Christian Lassen who has brought humpbacked whales and coral reefs into many living rooms around the world. Saturday morning, Carl organized a dawn patrol Reef Check field training at Kapalua Bay and over 25 team leaders and divers attended. Thank you Carl (and Frannie of Maui Community College) for motivating such a good group to take part. At last word, Carl and daughter Sonrisa were planning a full-scale Reef Check attack on at least six of the lower Hawaiian Islands. Alan Fong, Jeff Kuwabara and John Cullinane of Hanauma Bay Marine Park volunteered to get Reef Check started on Oahu. Jim Maragos helped with a much needed review and revision of the Reef Check indicator organisms appropriate for Hawaii. 5. Global Warming 9, Hong Kong Despite a massive downpour that turned HK's streets into rivers, a Reef Check presentation and poster on 9 June at the GW9 Conference at HKUST were well attended. As many will remember, last January, Bob Buddemeier et al. concluded that the biggest threat to coral reefs from global change is a rise in atmospheric CO2 that will, through a complex series of reactions, lead to reduced calcification by reef corals. Taking these conclusions to heart, the question was asked as to how we would detect a global change in coral reefs if there is no global network of monitoring? The presentations suggested that the Reef Check network provides a platform to monitor such changes, and the addition of special methods to detect such changes could be accommodated as required. 6. Meeting reminders: All team scientists are invited to make regional, national or local scale presentations of Reef Check results at the ISRS meeting in Perpignan, France this September 1998 and to participate in the ITMEMS Workshop in Townsville, Australia - November 1998. If there is sufficient demand, a free Reef Check training session will be held at both venues. 7. New Assistant Coordinator in Hong Kong Suzie Geermans, our energetic and multi-talented assistant has decided to return to her native Australia for personal reasons. We wish her and partner John good luck. The new Assistant Coordinator is Keith Kei, a diving instructor with a Master's degree in marine biology. The Reef Check email address remains unchanged at . 8. 1998 Methods and Deadline Reminder 1998 data sets are already flowing into headquarters. We remind all 1997 teams to download the revised 1998 methods and spreadsheets. All teams need to register to participate. Please send us the data ASAP once the survey is finished to avoid QA/QC problems. Remember that the deadline for fieldwork is 30 September, 1998. Please send us brief reports now of your planned and completed Reef Check activities (training, surveys, press reports etc) for inclusion in our next update in July. THE END Regards Keith Kei Assistant Coordinator Institute for Environment and Sustainable Development Applied Technology Centre Hong Kong University of Science and Technology Clearwater Bay Kowloon HONG KONG Tel: (852) 2358-6936 Fax: (852) 2358-1334 e-mail: reefchck at ust.hk web site: http://www.ust.hk/~webrc/ReefCheck/reef.html From helen at coral-sea.com.au Wed Jun 17 19:44:10 1998 From: helen at coral-sea.com.au (Helen Walker) Date: Thu, 18 Jun 1998 09:44:10 +1000 Subject: Marine Books Message-ID: <199806230823.IAA08306@coral.aoml.noaa.gov> Dear Coral Listers For all of you out there who are still searching for particular marine science books, have you seen the Coral Sea Imagery Web page? " http://www.coral-sea.com.au/bookshop" This follows an enquiry from a member last month searching for 'Coral of Australia' by Veron. Coral Sea Imagery will be taking stock of this title very soon but in the mean time have a great selection of other high quality publications on offer. Helen Walker (Distribution Manager) Coral Sea Imagery PO Box 2186 Townsville QLD 4810 Tel: 0747 211633 Fax: 0747 211477 Check out our online catalogue " http://www.coral-sea.com.au/bookshop" From Steve at coral-sea.com.au Sat Jun 20 12:37:12 1998 From: Steve at coral-sea.com.au (Steve Gardner - Coral Sea Imagery) Date: Sun, 21 Jun 1998 02:37:12 +1000 Subject: Housing for digital Handycam Message-ID: <199806230826.IAA08349@coral.aoml.noaa.gov> The Amphibico housings have problems with the buttons which can & do snap off or pop out causing the housing to flood. I know of several accounts where this has happened including two instances where this happened to me on the same shoot with two different housings. Stingray housings do seem to have many testimonies as being reliable workhorse units.. Dr. Erik Meesters at the Johannes Gutenberg University in Germany recently compiled information and reports on various housings for DV cameras which was posted on the internet... I don't seem to have the URL on my laptop but you could contact Erik through the coral-list. Hope this helps... Cheers Steve Steve Gardner Underwater Cameraman Coral Sea Imagery Townsville Australia Tel: +61 747 211633 Fax: +61 747 211477 Email: Steve at coral-sea.com.au -----Original Message----- From: Jeremy Woodley [SMTP:woodley at uwimona.edu.jm] Sent: Saturday, 20 June 1998 1:37 To: coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov Subject: Housing for digital Handycam I am prospecting for a housing compatible with the Sony digital Handycam camcorder. I have a quotation on the Amphibico VH-1000. But I recently heard a rumour that these units are not as reliable as earlier models. Does anyone have relevant experience or other recommendations? Jeremy Woodley From helen at coral-sea.com.au Thu Jun 18 20:03:28 1998 From: helen at coral-sea.com.au (Helen Walker) Date: Fri, 19 Jun 1998 10:03:28 +1000 Subject: International Coral Conference Message-ID: <199806230824.IAA08336@coral.aoml.noaa.gov> Dear Coral Listers Could anyone tell me the dates of the International Coral Conference in France and exactly where it is being held. Thanks! Helen Walker (Distribution Manager) Coral Sea Imagery PO Box 2186 Townsville QLD 4810 Tel: 0747 211633 Fax: 0747 211477 Check out our online catalogue " http://www.coral-sea.com.au/bookshop" From JAAP_W at epic7.dep.state.fl.us Mon Jun 22 13:21:17 1998 From: JAAP_W at epic7.dep.state.fl.us (Walt Jaap STP) Date: Mon, 22 Jun 1998 13:21:17 -0400 (EDT) Subject: Housing for digital Handycam Message-ID: <199806230821.IAA08294@coral.aoml.noaa.gov> I have the TRV7 Amphibico for the Sony CCD TRV7 digital camera and it has performed very well. We have used Amphibico housings for ten years and have been very satisfied with performance and service from the company. They have always given us great service. A certain other company that I won't mention by name has service that is not satisfactory. From claudia at wri.org Mon Jun 22 12:28:16 1998 From: claudia at wri.org (Claudia Tejada) Date: Mon, 22 Jun 1998 12:28:16 -0400 Subject: ** New from World Resources Institute: Reefs at Risk ** Message-ID: <199806230820.IAA08284@coral.aoml.noaa.gov> NEW FROM WORLD RESOURCES INSTITUTE ================================== REEFS AT RISK: A Map-based Indicator of Potential Threats to the World's Coral Reefs (June 23, 1998). During this International Year of the Ocean, the World Resources Institute (WRI) presents a startling new report that highlights the biological and economic value of coral reefs. This first detailed map-based global assessment, produced through a partnership with the International Center for Living Aquatic Resource Management (ICLARM), the World Conservation Monitoring Centre (WCMC), and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), is the first global assessment of coral reefs to map areas at risk from human activity, ranging from coastal development and over fishing to inland and marine pollution. The Reefs at Risk study finds that nearly 60 percent of the earth's coral reefs are threatened by human activity, leaving much of the world's marine biodiversity at risk. In addition, the report concludes that while reefs provide billions of people and hundreds of countries with food, tourism revenue, coastal protection and new medications for increasingly drug-resistant diseases -- worth about $375 billion each year -- they are among the least monitored and protected natural habitats in the world. Visit the Reefs at Risk website at: http://www.wri.org/wri/indicatrs/reefrisk.htm * to download maps, text and coral reef images * listen to the RealAudio broadcast of the June 23 news conference (9:30 a.m. E.S.T.) * connect to coral reef resources on the internet. To order Reefs at Risk, call 1-800-822-0504 or visit http://www.wri.org/wri/ -------------------------- The mission of World Resources Institute (WRI) is to move human society to live in ways that protect the Earth's environment and its capacity to provide for the needs and aspirations of current and future generations. From philippe.coyault at oceanopolis.galeode.fr Tue Jun 23 14:37:11 1998 From: philippe.coyault at oceanopolis.galeode.fr (Philippe Coyault) Date: Tue, 23 Jun 1998 14:37:11 -0400 (EDT) Subject: No subject Message-ID: <199806231757.RAA10657@coral.aoml.noaa.gov> Dear readers, Oceanopolis, a Scientific, Technical and Industrial Centre dedicated to the sea, located at the far end of Brittany, in France, presents since 1990 aquariums showing the marine animal-life and flora of the North-East Atlantic marine ecosystems. Some exhibitions and many multimedia products complete these presentations. The educational vocation of our equipment is very marked for we welcome many school groups. During the spring of the year 2000, Oceanopolis will open two new wings, one about the tropical ecosystems, the other one concerning the polar ecosystems, and will thus become the first European Leisure and Science Park dedicated to the sea. Our request takes place in this context. So as to complete our presentation of the tropical ecosystems, we intend to show our public numerous multimedia documents. This project is carried out in collaboration with scientific institutes such as the ORSTOM, at Brest (about the tropical wing). That is why we would be very interested in finding some films, animated films, videos or pictures concerning the following subjects : - life in coral reefs, - geology, - biology of the marine species... If you have got things that could meet our needs, or if you happen to know someone who could get in touch with us and be of some help, please contact us at this address : philippe.coyault at oceanopolis.galeode.fr Many thanks in advance! Best regards, Philippe Coyault Responsible for the audiovisual department of Oceanopolis From ericroach at hotmail.com Tue Jun 23 17:32:47 1998 From: ericroach at hotmail.com (eric roach) Date: Tue, 23 Jun 1998 14:32:47 PDT Subject: underwater GPS? Message-ID: <19980623213247.1480.qmail@hotmail.com> Does anyone possess product information for any sort of underwater GPS or any ideas of how to make one? Eric Roach ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com From kubicki at wavetech.net Tue Jun 23 17:53:28 1998 From: kubicki at wavetech.net (kubicki at wavetech.net) Date: Tue, 23 Jun 1998 16:53:28 -0500 Subject: Please take us off the list Message-ID: <359023D8.27D9@wavetech.net> For those of you who have written to Brian and not heard from him it is because he is in Costa Rica. He is there to study glass frogs and will be working with the Univ. Of C.R. in San Jose to help them set up tanks in their new Marine Dept. If you need to get a hold of him you can still e-mail at his current e-mail address and I can forward it to him. To the Coral List: Could you please take us off the list while Brian is away? Thank you. Brian's mom From sobelj%dccmc at cenmarine.com Tue Jun 23 19:50:47 1998 From: sobelj%dccmc at cenmarine.com (sobelj%dccmc at cenmarine.com) Date: Tue, 23 Jun 1998 19:50:47 -0400 Subject: Reefs At Risk Message-ID: A report entitled "Reefs at Risk" was released at a National Press Club press conference today by the World Resources Institute, ICLARM, WCMC, and UNEP. In addition to this impressive group of producers, the National Press Club event was introduced by NOAA's Terry Garcia, Asst Sec. for Oceans and Atmosphere, Sylvia Earle wrote the opening section, and the contributing authors and reviewers include a virtual who's who of coral reef researchers and personalities. The attractive report does a good job of identifying the major threats to coral reefs: overexploitation (fishing, etc.), pollution (especially land-based), and coastal development (which contributes to the others). Nonetheless, I can't help but question some of the report's conclusions, findings, and assumptions. These include: (1) The reefs of the Florida Keys face only moderate threat overall? (2) The reefs of the Windward and Leeward islands face greater threat than those of the Florida Keys? (3) The reefs of Southern Belize face greater threat than those of the Florida Keys? (4) Overexploitation is only a threat to those reefs in countries whose per capita GNP is < $10,000/year or whose per capita fish consumption is > 50 Kilograms/person/year? #4 seems particularly disturbing to me as it seems to be an unjustified assumption that while noted, is not explained, and may be responsible in part for the erroneous conclusions reached in #1,#2, and #3, and perhaps others. This unjustified assumption lead to overexploitation being ignored as a contributing factor to reef degradation in the United States, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Hong Kong, Israel, and the Bahamas. Since I participated in the initial methodology workshop for this report back in August of 1997, I know that the contribution of overexploitation/fishing to reef degradation was flagged and highlighted at that workshop by numerous reviewers. Since no explanation is given in the report for exempting these countries from consideration of fishing impacts, one might speculate that political considerations were involved. Am I missing something? What do others think? ************************************************************************** ******************************************* Jack Sobel, Director Ecosystem Protection Center for Marine Conservation Washington, DC 20036 (202)429-5609 or (202)857-5552 Fax: (202)872-0619 Email: jsobel @cenmarine.com "The last word in ignorance is the man who says of an animal or plant: 'What good is it?'. If the land mechanismas a whol is good, then every part is good, whether we understand it or not. If the biota, in the course of eons, has built something we like, but do not understand, then who but a fool would discard seemingly useless parts? To keep every cog and wheel is the first precaution of intelligent tinkering." Aldo Leopold, Round River, 1953. ************************************************************************** ****************************************** From kava at bu.edu Tue Jun 23 21:17:03 1998 From: kava at bu.edu (Kathryn Kavanagh) Date: Tue, 23 Jun 1998 21:17:03 -0400 Subject: DNA degradation -- summary Message-ID: <1.5.4.32.19980624011703.00956ba8@bio.bu.edu> Dear Listmembers-- Awhile back I asked for ideas about problems we had with degraded DNA from the pomacentrid fish _Acanthochromis polyacanthus_. Thanks to all the many people who replied -- it generated a lot of interest! I have summarized and pasted relevant parts of the replies below. For those not interested, sorry for the long message! Again, thanks to everyone for the help. Kathy ----DNA degradation problems with other species----: Butterflyfish from the Red Sea. Squid. Perch. Parrotfish. -----Suggestions for methods-----: 1) I am a graduate student working with triggerfish DNA, and I initially thought I had encountered this same problem. I extracted DNA from fin clippings (however, first transferred to SED preservative) and frozen tissue with success using a Qiagen kit, and various methods, respectively. I am by no means an expert in this field, but I hope I can offer some clues. I was wondering on what basis are you determining that your DNA is degraded? 2) This may not be your problem, but here is the situation I encountered when I was getting highly degraded DNA from squid. I do extractions somewhat similarly to what you do; the major difference may be that I do them in 1.5 ml tubes. There are three things that I found necessary to avoid the degradation: (1) use very small pieces of tissue (on average about 10-15 mg and only 1 mm thick); (2) crush them immediately in the grinding buffer (i.e., crush the tissue from one specimen before taking tissue from the next specimen); and (3) have the buffer already hot (tubes in the hot block at 55 C with condensation having formed under the lid). If I skipped any of these points, the quality of the DNA prep would be lessened; but, it was especially critical not to use too much tissue. Given that you are doing phenol-type preps, you should consider using "phase-lock gel tubes". They do a wonderful job of sequestering the phenol below the gel phase and the buffer above the gel... so there is no need to avoid getting the precipitated protein transferred. Also, I do the entire extraction (the phenol etc. steps) in one tube and never have to pipette... just decant. 3) what form of extraction buffer are you using i.e. does it contain EDTA or any chemical which will inhibit the action of DNAses during the digestion of the tissue. I ask this because I once tried using a buffer composed of Tris, KCl and Tween, and found huge levels of degredation. The addition of EDTA largely overcame this. 4) About your DNA problem the only thing I can tell you is that I am using the same method as you, I mean the phenol/chloroform extraction and I tried that on tissue, gills and fin clips too. I didn't have any big problem. It is true that with the fin clips I always had to extract more than with tissues (4-5 times instead of 2-3 usually with gills) but I suppose this is due a lots of tanin and proteins. Some peole in the lab who have experienced dirt extraction and problems with PCR afterwards use dialysis to obtain DNA and not precipitation with ammoniac acetyl as I do (and as you maybe do) and it is true that you obtain a very clean DNA for just one day more of time. I am personnaly happy with the phenol extraction and ammoniac acetyl precipitation and did not have any big problem with the Pomacentrids I have extracted until now, except the 3 specimens I have from Amphiprion Perideraion, but I have to try again. 5) I am working with shrimp. I have not encountered any suchproblen yet. I use CsCl gradient for extraction of both RNA and DNA from same sample. For DNA extraction I do proteinase K treatment followed by Phe: Chl extraction and routinely obtain good quality of DNA. In your case some how you seem to have DNase contamination or the tissues you are using might have gone apoptosis. You may like to see a recent article in Marine Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, 1996, 5($): 295-298 where they have used fins and scale of fishes to extract DNA. Also see many cross referred articles. 6) Degradation. ugghhh. I use fin clips and liver, but I have used the kit from Bio 101, and the protocol calls for a 30-120 minute incubation. I use less time if I think the samlple is going to be degraded (~30min). After following the protocol I spin down the DNA and resuspend in 25uL of H20. The advantage of the protocol is that it only takes about an hour and you can run your results on a gel right away to dtermine your amount of degradation. If you are trying to amplify a small area (I'm using 12S mtDNA) and the area if so small degradation isnt really a problem for PCR. Also, you might try storing your fin clips in a buffer like NET* to help avoid degredation. 7) I noticed your request for ideas to extract DNA and remembered that we had a similar problem with perch DNA. We solved it by increasing the lysis buffert concentration of EDTA from 10 mM to 50 mM and increasing SDS from 0.5 to 2 %. Except for these two ingredients our lysis buffert contains Tris-Hcl ph 8.5 100 mM and NaCl 20mM. 8)I experienced the same problem extracting DNA from dried blood, larvae and fin clippings of parrotfish. Apparently fish have a high level of endonuclease activity. Adding 0.5 % SDS (sodium dodecyl sulfate)to the lysis buffer and incubation with proteinase K at 55C in stead of 37C did the trick in my case. Here's the first part of my fish DNA extraction protocol: Day 1 (late afternoon): 1 put larva or fin clip in 2,2 ml eppendorf tube, containing 1 ml TES; 0,5% SDS 2 add 10 m l prote?nase K, mix well 3 incubate overnight at 55EC 9)We have had similar problems with consistently obtaining high-quality DNA from fish tissues. In particular, we have found that while many preps will work to get DNA of sufficient quality for PCR, mapping, etc., the DNA is not of high molecular weight for some other more demanding protocols. In fact, we have often extracted mouse DNA in parallel trials with the fish using such gentle methods as Recoverease, Qiagen columns, etc. only to find the fish DNA can be highly degraded. Fortunately, we have come up with a couple methods that result in very good quality DNA and will be happy to pass them on. However, I would like more details from various researchers that have had some problems with the fish DNA. There really does appear to be something to the observation that "fish don't keep" and DNA degradation. 10) regarding your DNA degradation problems...my experience is that as long as you have fragments greater than the size of your expected PCR product, the shearing you are talking about should not be a problem. I like to use a 'silica matrix' or DAEA DNA extraction format (GENECLEAN or QIAGEN). I get less shearing because, I believe, there is less vortexing involved. Excessive pipetting will also result in shearing. 11) I'm a PhD student at the University of Tasmania, doing some molecular phylogenetic and population genetic work on cirrhitoid fishes. You have an interesting question. By degradation I assume that you have extracted the DNA, treated it with RNase, run it out on a gel, and only observed low molecular weight material. I guess you're confident of your material. Fin clip from live fish should be good, but frozen can be highly degraded, even if handled by protein electrophoresis people that should be careful. That leaves the extraction technique. Your proteinase K should knock out DNases, so that shouldn't be a problem, and some people don't prot K and get away with it. Other potential sources of degradation.....vortexing during phenol-chloroforms or shaking really vigorously can cause mechanical degradation. Also, check your phenol. If oxidised, or not equilibrated properly it could be chewing the DNA a bit. Other than that, I'm stumped. Maybe really high DNase levels/activities? Try side-by-side DNA extraction with material that has been extracted "sucessfully" previously, or a different technique (ask qiagen or whoever for a free sample of their tissue prep kit). [that's all!] From pdustan at zeus.cofc.edu Wed Jun 24 11:32:56 1998 From: pdustan at zeus.cofc.edu (Phillip Dustan) Date: Wed, 24 Jun 1998 08:32:56 -0700 Subject: Reefs At Risk Message-ID: <3.0.32.19980624083255.0075d9cc@zeus.cofc.edu> Don't worry Jack- the reefs of the Florida Keys as we once knew them will be gone soon so no one will have to worry about the problem unless we get mobilized ASAP and really do something beside monitor and "keep a smiley face on it" for the sake of the economy. Phil. At 07:50 PM 6/23/98 -0400, sobelj%dccmc at cenmarine.com wrote: >A report entitled "Reefs at Risk" was released at a National Press Club >press conference today by the World Resources Institute, ICLARM, WCMC, >and UNEP. In addition to this impressive group of producers, the >National Press Club event was introduced by NOAA's Terry Garcia, Asst >Sec. for Oceans and Atmosphere, Sylvia Earle wrote the opening section, >and the contributing authors and reviewers include a virtual who's who of >coral reef researchers and personalities. The attractive report does a >good job of identifying the major threats to coral reefs: >overexploitation (fishing, etc.), pollution (especially land-based), and >coastal development (which contributes to the others). > >Nonetheless, I can't help but question some of the report's conclusions, >findings, and assumptions. These include: > >(1) The reefs of the Florida Keys face only moderate threat overall? >(2) The reefs of the Windward and Leeward islands face greater threat >than those of the Florida Keys? >(3) The reefs of Southern Belize face greater threat than those of the >Florida Keys? >(4) Overexploitation is only a threat to those reefs in countries whose >per capita GNP is < $10,000/year or whose per capita fish consumption is >> 50 Kilograms/person/year? > >#4 seems particularly disturbing to me as it seems to be an unjustified >assumption that while noted, is not explained, and may be responsible in >part for the erroneous conclusions reached in #1,#2, and #3, and perhaps >others. This unjustified assumption lead to overexploitation being >ignored as a contributing factor to reef degradation in the United >States, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Hong Kong, Israel, and the >Bahamas. Since I participated in the initial methodology workshop for >this report back in August of 1997, I know that the contribution of >overexploitation/fishing to reef degradation was flagged and highlighted >at that workshop by numerous reviewers. > >Since no explanation is given in the report for exempting these countries >from consideration of fishing impacts, one might speculate that political >considerations were involved. Am I missing something? What do others >think? >************************************************************************** >******************************************* >Jack Sobel, Director >Ecosystem Protection >Center for Marine Conservation >Washington, DC 20036 >(202)429-5609 or (202)857-5552 >Fax: (202)872-0619 >Email: jsobel @cenmarine.com > >"The last word in ignorance is the man who says of an animal or plant: >'What good is it?'. If the land mechanismas a whol is good, then every >part is good, whether we understand it or not. If the biota, in the >course of eons, has built something we like, but do not understand, then >who but a fool would discard seemingly useless parts? To keep every cog >and wheel is the first precaution of intelligent tinkering." >Aldo Leopold, Round River, 1953. >************************************************************************** >****************************************** > > From pmuller at seas.marine.usf.edu Wed Jun 24 12:45:44 1998 From: pmuller at seas.marine.usf.edu (Pam Muller) Date: Wed, 24 Jun 1998 12:45:44 -0400 (EDT) Subject: Reefs At Risk In-Reply-To: Message-ID: Re: Jack Sobel's specific questions: Please see page 51 of the "Reefs at Risk" report: "Comments on the Reefs at Risk Indicator" Items 1 and 2 under Tropical Americas specifically deal with the potential underestimate of the threat classification for the Florida Keys and the overestimate for the reefs off southern Belize. Threats to Florida Keys reefs are also discussed on page 32 in the section "Twelve Reefs at Risk". Pamela Hallock Muller Department of Marine Science University of South Florida 140 Seventh Avenue South St. Petersburg, FL 33701 USA pmuller at marine.usf.edu Phone: 813-553-1567 FAX: 813-553-1189 "Discovery consists of seeing what everybody has seen and thinking what nobody has thought." - Albert Szent-Gyorgyi - On Tue, 23 Jun 1998 sobelj%dccmc at cenmarine.com wrote: > A report entitled "Reefs at Risk" was released at a National Press Club > press conference today by the World Resources Institute, ICLARM, WCMC, > and UNEP. In addition to this impressive group of producers, the > National Press Club event was introduced by NOAA's Terry Garcia, Asst > Sec. for Oceans and Atmosphere, Sylvia Earle wrote the opening section, > and the contributing authors and reviewers include a virtual who's who of > coral reef researchers and personalities. The attractive report does a > good job of identifying the major threats to coral reefs: > overexploitation (fishing, etc.), pollution (especially land-based), and > coastal development (which contributes to the others). > > Nonetheless, I can't help but question some of the report's conclusions, > findings, and assumptions. These include: > > (1) The reefs of the Florida Keys face only moderate threat overall? > (2) The reefs of the Windward and Leeward islands face greater threat > than those of the Florida Keys? > (3) The reefs of Southern Belize face greater threat than those of the > Florida Keys? > (4) Overexploitation is only a threat to those reefs in countries whose > per capita GNP is < $10,000/year or whose per capita fish consumption is > > 50 Kilograms/person/year? > > #4 seems particularly disturbing to me as it seems to be an unjustified > assumption that while noted, is not explained, and may be responsible in > part for the erroneous conclusions reached in #1,#2, and #3, and perhaps > others. This unjustified assumption lead to overexploitation being > ignored as a contributing factor to reef degradation in the United > States, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Hong Kong, Israel, and the > Bahamas. Since I participated in the initial methodology workshop for > this report back in August of 1997, I know that the contribution of > overexploitation/fishing to reef degradation was flagged and highlighted > at that workshop by numerous reviewers. > > Since no explanation is given in the report for exempting these countries > from consideration of fishing impacts, one might speculate that political > considerations were involved. Am I missing something? What do others > think? > ************************************************************************** > ******************************************* > Jack Sobel, Director > Ecosystem Protection > Center for Marine Conservation > Washington, DC 20036 > (202)429-5609 or (202)857-5552 > Fax: (202)872-0619 > Email: jsobel @cenmarine.com > > "The last word in ignorance is the man who says of an animal or plant: > 'What good is it?'. If the land mechanismas a whol is good, then every > part is good, whether we understand it or not. If the biota, in the > course of eons, has built something we like, but do not understand, then > who but a fool would discard seemingly useless parts? To keep every cog > and wheel is the first precaution of intelligent tinkering." > Aldo Leopold, Round River, 1953. > ************************************************************************** > ****************************************** > > From smiller at gate.net Wed Jun 24 14:07:55 1998 From: smiller at gate.net (Steven Miller) Date: Wed, 24 Jun 1998 14:07:55 -0400 Subject: Reefs At Risk References: <3.0.32.19980624083255.0075d9cc@zeus.cofc.edu> Message-ID: <3591407A.611488AE@gate.net> Dear Phil, I have a problem with the "chicken little" approach that is often used in public forums to generate support, controversy, or conflict. And even if "the sky is falling" I think that it's important not to oversimplify by suggesting simple solutions (or even any solution) to problems as complex as coral reef condition - especially in Florida. I don't think that anyone disagrees about the decline of reefs in Florida (and throughout the Caribbean), but since you imply that there are more actions to take - what exactly do you think anyone can do to make a difference? Don't you agree that the two biggest factors related to decreased coral cover and increased algae on reefs in Florida and throughout the Caribbean are white band disease and the Diadema dieoff, respectively? If water quality is a problem isn't it more likely related to factors that affect the entire Caribbean basin and Gulf of Mexico (due to river runoff from the Great Rivers of South America and the Mississippi), and not local sewage disposal practices (at least there is no evidence that sewage is causing problems on the reefs in Florida - in canals and enclosed nearshore waters yes, but not offshore)? Further, in Florida we are at the northern geographic limit for active reef growth and the system sees significant natural system variation related to temperature (it can get quite cold in the winter), and perhaps other factors related to the Gulf Stream and upwelling. And there is a lot more to say about complexity; I know that you understand all of this. One solution, already implemented, is to provide no-take protection to reef areas, and the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary has a world-class management program in place (and monitoring program) with many no-take areas. So, again, what exactly do we need to mobilize? And why? I've posted this to the list-server in reply to your first note because I consider this a public forum and not one that is scientific. And everyone is free to rant without review, but you do leave yourself open for rebuttal. Please don't get the wrong idea, I would like to hear the positive steps you think are needed to turn things around - in our lifetime or the next several, since that probably matches up better with processes related to how reefs grow. I ask this for a practical reason too, since I have program management responsibilities for a fairly large and competitively driven coral research program in Florida. I look forward to talking with you, perhaps by phone or directly by email is best. Steven Miller, Ph.D. Associate Director, Florida Program National Undersea Research Center University of North Carolina at Wilmington 305-451-0233 http://www.uncwil.edu/nurc/ http://www.uncwil.edu/nurc/aquarius Phillip Dustan wrote: > Don't worry Jack- the reefs of the Florida Keys as we once knew them will > be gone soon so no one will have to worry about the problem unless we get > mobilized ASAP and really do something beside monitor and "keep a smiley > face on it" for the sake of the economy. > Phil. > > At 07:50 PM 6/23/98 -0400, sobelj%dccmc at cenmarine.com wrote: > >A report entitled "Reefs at Risk" was released at a National Press Club > >press conference today by the World Resources Institute, ICLARM, WCMC, > >and UNEP. In addition to this impressive group of producers, the > >National Press Club event was introduced by NOAA's Terry Garcia, Asst > >Sec. for Oceans and Atmosphere, Sylvia Earle wrote the opening section, > >and the contributing authors and reviewers include a virtual who's who of > >coral reef researchers and personalities. The attractive report does a > >good job of identifying the major threats to coral reefs: > >overexploitation (fishing, etc.), pollution (especially land-based), and > >coastal development (which contributes to the others). > > > >Nonetheless, I can't help but question some of the report's conclusions, > >findings, and assumptions. These include: > > > >(1) The reefs of the Florida Keys face only moderate threat overall? > >(2) The reefs of the Windward and Leeward islands face greater threat > >than those of the Florida Keys? > >(3) The reefs of Southern Belize face greater threat than those of the > >Florida Keys? > >(4) Overexploitation is only a threat to those reefs in countries whose > >per capita GNP is < $10,000/year or whose per capita fish consumption is > >> 50 Kilograms/person/year? > > > >#4 seems particularly disturbing to me as it seems to be an unjustified > >assumption that while noted, is not explained, and may be responsible in > >part for the erroneous conclusions reached in #1,#2, and #3, and perhaps > >others. This unjustified assumption lead to overexploitation being > >ignored as a contributing factor to reef degradation in the United > >States, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Hong Kong, Israel, and the > >Bahamas. Since I participated in the initial methodology workshop for > >this report back in August of 1997, I know that the contribution of > >overexploitation/fishing to reef degradation was flagged and highlighted > >at that workshop by numerous reviewers. > > > >Since no explanation is given in the report for exempting these countries > >from consideration of fishing impacts, one might speculate that political > >considerations were involved. Am I missing something? What do others > >think? > >************************************************************************** > >******************************************* > >Jack Sobel, Director > >Ecosystem Protection > >Center for Marine Conservation > >Washington, DC 20036 > >(202)429-5609 or (202)857-5552 > >Fax: (202)872-0619 > >Email: jsobel @cenmarine.com > > > >"The last word in ignorance is the man who says of an animal or plant: > >'What good is it?'. If the land mechanismas a whol is good, then every > >part is good, whether we understand it or not. If the biota, in the > >course of eons, has built something we like, but do not understand, then > >who but a fool would discard seemingly useless parts? To keep every cog > >and wheel is the first precaution of intelligent tinkering." > >Aldo Leopold, Round River, 1953. > >************************************************************************** > >****************************************** > > > > From eakin at ogp.noaa.gov Wed Jun 24 15:52:10 1998 From: eakin at ogp.noaa.gov (Mark Eakin) Date: 24 Jun 1998 15:52:10 U Subject: underwater GPS? Message-ID: Subject: Time: 10:52 AM RE>underwater GPS? Date: 6/24/98 GPS works using a near-microwave radio signal transmitted from the satellites. These frquencies have no ability to transmit through water. The greatest loss (attenuation) of signal in the atmosphere is due to water vapor. Just think about what happens when you place water in a microwave -- the water gets hot due to exchange of energy from the microwaves to the absorbing material. Most marine GPS units are water resistant and can be used at the surface while snorkeling. The unit could be placed on a surface buoy tethered to a scuba diver. It is POSSIBLE to have a surface antenna with a coaxial cable run to a submerged GPS. However, the signal losses over coaxial cable are so high that this would not be practical. Cheers, Mark -------------------------------------- Date: 6/23/98 6:43 PM To: Mark Eakin From: eric roach Does anyone possess product information for any sort of underwater GPS or any ideas of how to make one? Eric Roach ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com ------------------ RFC822 Header Follows ------------------ Received: by ogp.noaa.gov with ADMIN;23 Jun 1998 18:41:16 U Received: by coral.aoml.noaa.gov (950413.SGI.8.6.12/930416.SGI) for coral-list-outgoing id VAA11535; Tue, 23 Jun 1998 21:32:32 GMT Received: from hotmail.com by coral.aoml.noaa.gov via SMTP (950413.SGI.8.6.12/930416.SGI) for id RAA11530; Tue, 23 Jun 1998 17:32:28 -0400 Received: (qmail 1481 invoked by uid 0); 23 Jun 1998 21:32:47 -0000 Message-ID: <19980623213247.1480.qmail at hotmail.com> Received: from 153.37.72.66 by www.hotmail.com with HTTP; Tue, 23 Jun 1998 14:32:47 PDT X-Originating-IP: [153.37.72.66] From: "eric roach" To: coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov Subject: underwater GPS? Content-Type: text/plain Date: Tue, 23 Jun 1998 14:32:47 PDT Sender: owner-coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov Precedence: bulk From lesk at bio.bu.edu Wed Jun 24 17:29:56 1998 From: lesk at bio.bu.edu (Les Kaufman) Date: Wed, 24 Jun 1998 17:29:56 -0400 Subject: Reefs At Risk Message-ID: <199806242118.RAA12460@bio.bu.edu> Dear Steve and Phil and everybody, Reef decline appears to have been widespread in the tropical west Atlantic over the past two decades. Most prominent is the reduction in prevalence of acroporid corals, and increase, in many places, of macrophytes. Belize was unusual in that when the acroporids began to vanish, there was an endemic agariciid (absent elsewhere in the region) that could serve as a partial functional replacement, and it did. Since the original high-coral coverage condition is more highly valued than what we are seeing more of today, it would undoubtedly be most productive to: 1. appreciate natural trends toward regeneration, and their scaling 2. judge whether natural regeneration is satisfactory 3. develop interventions that facilitate and accelerate regeneration on the largest spatial and smallest temporal scales possible. Let us presume that Step 2, the regeneration rate concommitant with the passive approach to reef conservation, is not sufficient to offset rates of degradation in Florida. Note that whether this is or isn't the periphery of reef growth doesn't matter. All that matters is that reefs can grow here and it is worth some effort to see that they do. Then we must move on to Step 3. Step 3 implies aggressive perturbation (some would call it "restoration") experiments. Looking about, I dont' see a great many such experiments in progress. Kudos to Richmond and Mueller and their people. What are we doing to adapt and expand their methodologies? What capabilities do we need at our disposal? A. ability to upregulate grazing pressure B. ability to downregulate nutrient inputs C. ability to force-recruit corals on a large scale My own guess is that grazing pressure in Florida is pretty high (though perhaps the ability to force-recruit Diadema would be helpful on a local basis); and that if nutrients are a major issue, we are already doing what we can to reduce the inputs. That means, shouldn't we be looking harder and more seriously than we are at option "C?" This option offers a wonderful probe of the resiliency of the system....if healthy live corals appear on the reef but do not survive, then something probably must be done with A or B, or there is a food web problem with coral predators, otherwise give up on reefs altogether for now because it's a large-scale environmental health issue that must be addressed first. Since acroporids and agariciids are the principal corals with response times and growth rates commensurate with human intervention, should they not be the principal focus of efforts toward C? It would be really helpful if we could reach some consensus on this. No one strategy is sufficient to conserve Florida's reefs, but we should be coming up with a clear and articulate definition of the top-priority conservation science and methodologies needed to do the job...and we aren't, unless I've missed something. Monitoring IS important, but only in the context of adaptive management. What are our goals? What shall our complete litany of interventions be? What room have we left ourselves for trial and error? Are the intervention experiments well designed and sufficiently powerful to serve our needs? The alternative is to reduce human impacts as much as possible, and then watch and wait. These are two very different, complementary strategies. What combination of these do we, as a community, advocate? Les Kaufman Boston University Marine Program Department of Biology Boston University 5 Cummington Street Boston, MA 02215 e-mail: lesk at bio.bu.edu phone: 617-353-5560 fax: 617-353-6340 "I believe we are on an irreversible trend toward more freedom and democracy... but that could change." -Vice President Dan Quayle, 5/22/89 From lesk at bio.bu.edu Wed Jun 24 17:32:22 1998 From: lesk at bio.bu.edu (Les Kaufman) Date: Wed, 24 Jun 1998 17:32:22 -0400 Subject: No subject Message-ID: <199806242121.RAA12518@bio.bu.edu> I would be very grateful if anyone could bring to my attention observations of Pacific acroporids exhibiting conditions resembling white plague (the one with tissue exfoliation and polarized coral death) in the tropical west Atlantic acroporids. Les Kaufman Boston University Marine Program Department of Biology Boston University 5 Cummington Street Boston, MA 02215 e-mail: lesk at bio.bu.edu phone: 617-353-5560 fax: 617-353-6340 "I believe we are on an irreversible trend toward more freedom and democracy... but that could change." -Vice President Dan Quayle, 5/22/89 From aszmant at rsmas.miami.edu Wed Jun 24 21:59:40 1998 From: aszmant at rsmas.miami.edu (Alina Szmant) Date: Wed, 24 Jun 1998 21:59:40 -0400 Subject: Reefs At Risk Message-ID: <199806250159.VAA07966@umigw.miami.edu> Les: FYI: (a) We've been working on A palmata settlement and culture both in the lab and field. Progress is steady but slow, because there has been no real funding for such work (e.g. bootlegged). (b) We've also figured out how to culture Diadema in the lab and been seeking funds to scale up the culture methodology, with no success to date. Unfortunately, there is lots of money out there for monitoring and assessment, but not much for develping solutions like those you suggest. Alina At 05:29 PM 6/24/98 -0400, you wrote: >Dear Steve and Phil and everybody, > >Reef decline appears to have been widespread in the tropical west Atlantic >over the past two decades. Most prominent is the reduction in prevalence >of acroporid corals, and increase, in many places, of macrophytes. Belize >was unusual in that when the acroporids began to vanish, there was an >endemic agariciid (absent elsewhere in the region) that could serve as a >partial functional replacement, and it did. > >Since the original high-coral coverage condition is more highly valued than >what we are seeing more of today, it would undoubtedly be most productive >to: > > 1. appreciate natural trends toward regeneration, and their scaling > 2. judge whether natural regeneration is satisfactory > 3. develop interventions that facilitate and accelerate regeneration > on the largest spatial and smallest temporal scales possible. > >Let us presume that Step 2, the regeneration rate concommitant with the >passive approach to reef conservation, is not sufficient to offset rates of >degradation in Florida. Note that whether this is or isn't the periphery >of reef growth doesn't matter. All that matters is that reefs can grow >here and it is worth some effort to see that they do. Then we must move on >to Step 3. > >Step 3 implies aggressive perturbation (some would call it "restoration") >experiments. Looking about, I dont' see a great many such experiments in >progress. Kudos to Richmond and Mueller and their people. What are we >doing to adapt and expand their methodologies? What capabilities do we >need at our disposal? > > A. ability to upregulate grazing pressure > B. ability to downregulate nutrient inputs > C. ability to force-recruit corals on a large scale > >My own guess is that grazing pressure in Florida is pretty high (though >perhaps the ability to force-recruit Diadema would be helpful on a local >basis); and that if nutrients are a major issue, we are already doing what >we can to reduce the inputs. That means, shouldn't we be looking harder >and more seriously than we are at option "C?" This option offers a >wonderful probe of the resiliency of the system....if healthy live corals >appear on the reef but do not survive, then something probably must be done >with A or B, or there is a food web problem with coral predators, otherwise >give up on reefs altogether for now because it's a large-scale >environmental health issue that must be addressed first. > >Since acroporids and agariciids are the principal corals with response >times and growth rates commensurate with human intervention, should they >not be the principal focus of efforts toward C? > >It would be really helpful if we could reach some consensus on this. No >one strategy is sufficient to conserve Florida's reefs, but we should be >coming up with a clear and articulate definition of the top-priority >conservation science and methodologies needed to do the job...and we >aren't, unless I've missed something. > >Monitoring IS important, but only in the context of adaptive management. >What are our goals? What shall our complete litany of interventions be? >What room have we left ourselves for trial and error? Are the intervention >experiments well designed and sufficiently powerful to serve our needs? > >The alternative is to reduce human impacts as much as possible, and then >watch and wait. > >These are two very different, complementary strategies. > >What combination of these do we, as a community, advocate? > >Les Kaufman >Boston University Marine Program >Department of Biology >Boston University >5 Cummington Street >Boston, MA 02215 > >e-mail: lesk at bio.bu.edu >phone: 617-353-5560 >fax: 617-353-6340 > > >"I believe we are on an irreversible trend toward more freedom and >democracy... but that could change." > >-Vice President Dan Quayle, 5/22/89 > > > > ********************************************** Dr. Alina M. Szmant Coral Reef Research Group RSMAS-MBF University of Miami 4600 Rickenbacker Cswy. Miami FL 33149 TEL: (305)361-4609 FAX: (305)361-4600 or 361-4005 E-mail: ASZMANT at RSMAS.MIAMI.EDU ********************************************** From nick at tualang.unimas.my Wed Jun 24 22:32:19 1998 From: nick at tualang.unimas.my (Nicolas James Pilcher) Date: Thu, 25 Jun 1998 10:32:19 +0800 Subject: Artificial reefs in Gulf of Mexico Message-ID: <199806250232.KAA28976@mailhost.unimas.my> Hi folks, greetings from Borneo. Does anyone have any information on the artificial reefs in the Gulf of Mexico and their effect on reef associated animals.....? I'd be grateful for any leads. Thanks and regards, Nick !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Nicolas J. Pilcher Institute of Biodiversity and Environmental Conservation Universiti Malaysia Sarawak 94300 Kota Samarahan Sarawak, Malaysia Tel ++ 60 82 671 000 Ext. 181 Fax ++ 60 82 671903 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! From aszmant at rsmas.miami.edu Wed Jun 24 21:52:40 1998 From: aszmant at rsmas.miami.edu (Alina Szmant) Date: Wed, 24 Jun 1998 21:52:40 -0400 Subject: Reefs At Risk Message-ID: <199806250152.VAA07926@umigw.miami.edu> Dear Phil: I'm too busy to discourse at length about the Florida situation but what to add my support to Steven's excellent reply to your diatribe. In my opinion and having spent a lot of time in the Keys these last 10 years, most of the coral death I have been able to attribute to a specific cause, has been from severe bleaching [regional or global cause, certainly not local], feasting by Corallophila (especially the Acropora's) [possibly a consequence of overfishing or trophic disfunction fo some sort], damselfishes [again possibly a result of overfishing], and overgrowth by Halimeda [more on the deeper offshore reefs than in the inshore ones, thus not easily attributable to local sewage nutrients but more likely to loss of Diadema]. Overfishing is slowing being addressed in the Keys and I dare say that one can see more large groupers and snappers in Fla than almost anywhere else in the Caribbean. The other causes of coral loss appear to be more regional in cause [especially since same symptoms are being seen in remote Bahamas and Dry Tortugas], and thus not likely resolved by any specific "action" by locals in the Keys. Meanwhile, locally high stressors such as sedimentation & abrasion stress caused by the high frequency of severe storms, are likely slowing coral recruitment success. Alina Szmant At 02:07 PM 6/24/98 -0400, you wrote: >Dear Phil, > >I have a problem with the "chicken little" approach that is often used in >public forums to generate support, controversy, or conflict. And even if >"the sky is falling" I think that it's important not to oversimplify by >suggesting simple solutions (or even any solution) to problems as complex as >coral reef condition - especially in Florida. I don't think that anyone >disagrees about the decline of reefs in Florida (and throughout the Caribbean), >but since you imply that there are more actions to take - what exactly do you >think anyone can do to make a difference? > >Don't you agree that the two biggest factors related to decreased coral cover >and increased algae on reefs in Florida and throughout the Caribbean are white >band disease and the Diadema dieoff, respectively? If water quality is a >problem isn't it more likely related to factors that affect the entire >Caribbean basin and Gulf of Mexico (due to river runoff from the Great Rivers >of South America and the Mississippi), and not local sewage disposal practices >(at least there is no evidence that sewage is causing problems on the reefs in >Florida - in canals and enclosed nearshore waters yes, but not offshore)? >Further, in Florida we are at the northern geographic limit for active reef >growth and the system sees significant natural system variation related to >temperature (it can get quite cold in the winter), and perhaps other factors >related to the Gulf Stream and upwelling. And there is a lot more to say >about complexity; I know that you understand all of this. > >One solution, already implemented, is to provide no-take protection to reef >areas, and the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary has a world-class >management program in place (and monitoring program) with many no-take areas. >So, again, what exactly do we need to mobilize? And why? > >I've posted this to the list-server in reply to your first note because I >consider this a public forum and not one that is scientific. And everyone is >free to rant without review, but you do leave yourself open for rebuttal. >Please don't get the wrong idea, I would like to hear the positive steps you >think are needed to turn things around - in our lifetime or the next several, >since that probably matches up better with processes related to how reefs >grow. I ask this for a practical reason too, since I have program management >responsibilities for a fairly large and competitively driven coral research >program in Florida. I look forward to talking with you, perhaps by phone or >directly by email is best. > >Steven Miller, Ph.D. >Associate Director, Florida Program >National Undersea Research Center >University of North Carolina at Wilmington > >305-451-0233 >http://www.uncwil.edu/nurc/ >http://www.uncwil.edu/nurc/aquarius > > > >Phillip Dustan wrote: > >> Don't worry Jack- the reefs of the Florida Keys as we once knew them will >> be gone soon so no one will have to worry about the problem unless we get >> mobilized ASAP and really do something beside monitor and "keep a smiley >> face on it" for the sake of the economy. >> Phil. >> >> At 07:50 PM 6/23/98 -0400, sobelj%dccmc at cenmarine.com wrote: >> >A report entitled "Reefs at Risk" was released at a National Press Club >> >press conference today by the World Resources Institute, ICLARM, WCMC, >> >and UNEP. In addition to this impressive group of producers, the >> >National Press Club event was introduced by NOAA's Terry Garcia, Asst >> >Sec. for Oceans and Atmosphere, Sylvia Earle wrote the opening section, >> >and the contributing authors and reviewers include a virtual who's who of >> >coral reef researchers and personalities. The attractive report does a >> >good job of identifying the major threats to coral reefs: >> >overexploitation (fishing, etc.), pollution (especially land-based), and >> >coastal development (which contributes to the others). >> > >> >Nonetheless, I can't help but question some of the report's conclusions, >> >findings, and assumptions. These include: >> > >> >(1) The reefs of the Florida Keys face only moderate threat overall? >> >(2) The reefs of the Windward and Leeward islands face greater threat >> >than those of the Florida Keys? >> >(3) The reefs of Southern Belize face greater threat than those of the >> >Florida Keys? >> >(4) Overexploitation is only a threat to those reefs in countries whose >> >per capita GNP is < $10,000/year or whose per capita fish consumption is >> >> 50 Kilograms/person/year? >> > >> >#4 seems particularly disturbing to me as it seems to be an unjustified >> >assumption that while noted, is not explained, and may be responsible in >> >part for the erroneous conclusions reached in #1,#2, and #3, and perhaps >> >others. This unjustified assumption lead to overexploitation being >> >ignored as a contributing factor to reef degradation in the United >> >States, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Hong Kong, Israel, and the >> >Bahamas. Since I participated in the initial methodology workshop for >> >this report back in August of 1997, I know that the contribution of >> >overexploitation/fishing to reef degradation was flagged and highlighted >> >at that workshop by numerous reviewers. >> > >> >Since no explanation is given in the report for exempting these countries >> >from consideration of fishing impacts, one might speculate that political >> >considerations were involved. Am I missing something? What do others >> >think? >> >************************************************************************** >> >******************************************* >> >Jack Sobel, Director >> >Ecosystem Protection >> >Center for Marine Conservation >> >Washington, DC 20036 >> >(202)429-5609 or (202)857-5552 >> >Fax: (202)872-0619 >> >Email: jsobel @cenmarine.com >> > >> >"The last word in ignorance is the man who says of an animal or plant: >> >'What good is it?'. If the land mechanismas a whol is good, then every >> >part is good, whether we understand it or not. If the biota, in the >> >course of eons, has built something we like, but do not understand, then >> >who but a fool would discard seemingly useless parts? To keep every cog >> >and wheel is the first precaution of intelligent tinkering." >> >Aldo Leopold, Round River, 1953. >> >************************************************************************** >> >****************************************** >> > >> > > > > > > ********************************************** Dr. Alina M. Szmant Coral Reef Research Group RSMAS-MBF University of Miami 4600 Rickenbacker Cswy. Miami FL 33149 TEL: (305)361-4609 FAX: (305)361-4600 or 361-4005 E-mail: ASZMANT at RSMAS.MIAMI.EDU ********************************************** From Steneck at maine.maine.edu Wed Jun 24 22:37:04 1998 From: Steneck at maine.maine.edu (Bob Steneck) Date: Wed, 24 Jun 98 22:37:04 -0400 Subject: Reefs At Risk Message-ID: <199806250235.WAA18525@coral.aoml.noaa.gov> Dear Les et al., Although the decline of Acropora is wide-spread in the tropical west Atlantic, based on my observations it is more abundant in the Florda Keys than in many regions of the Caribbean where I've worked over the past several decades (e.g., Bahamas, Jamaica, St. Croix, St. Kits, Bonaire, Honduras, and Yucatan coast of Mexico). What I observed several weeks ago during the field trip in the Florida Keys with the Atlantic and Gulf Reef Assessment workshop was a fair amount of Acropora palmata (although some was diseased), evidence of high rates of fish grazing (abundant bite marks), low macroalgal biomass, and high coralline abundance. Bob Ginsburg reported on his rapid assessment of patch reefs of the Keys and the mound corals at least appear to have low rates of mortality. I was not shocked to read Jack Sobel's report on Reefs at Risk. Many reefs I've studied, even in rather remote regions of the Caribbean are in poorer condition than those I've seen in the Florida Keys. However, before we all run off to conduct remedial action, it might be a good idea to objectively determine the patterns of reef decline. Are we faced with a decline in all species or are we primarily reacting to the decline of Acroporids (due to white band disease)? Are patterns of macroalgae resulting from changes in the reef's trophic structure (i.e., loss of grazers) or due to eutrophication or both? Because the answer to these questions were unclear to me, I felt it worthwhile to encourage the development of a comensurable Rapid Assessment Protocol (RAP) that can be used throughout the Atlantic and Gulf reefs of the Americas. The recent AGRA RAP workshop developed just such a protocol and 20 groups have agreed to apply it to their reefs. Plans are being made to reconvene another meeting to consider those assessments and with it perhaps a clearer understanding of the patterns and processes will emerge. I suspect we will find that one size does not fit all. But we should be able to suggest which processes are likely to produce the warning signs you and others know all too well. Finally, the Belize shift from Acroporids to Agaricia tenuifolia is interesting (e.g., Aronson and Precht 1997) but not very many kilometers to the north on the Yucatan barrier reef the abundance of A. tenuifolia is no where near as abundant as was the Acropora once was (as evident from the standing dead A. palmata). So I'm not sure the functional replacement is widespread or at least it has not happened there yet. For me, the bigger take-home message from Aronson and Prect's story for Belize and their subsequent observations is that the natural regenerative capacity of the reef (i.e., the coral recruitment potential) remained high because herbivory remained high presumably keeping macroalgal abundance low. Chuck Birkeland made the same point that algal biomass interferes with coral recruitment in his classic 1977 ICRS paper. It seems to me, understanding the patterns of coral reef condition sufficiently so that plausible forcing-function processes can be identified should be a priority action item for our coral reef research community. I think we do need to collectively consider which reefs are at risk, but we should also identify which reefs are seriously degraded and which ones are relatively pristine. With such information we should be better able to apply our remedial actions intelligently and surgically. Bob Les Kaufman Wrote: Dear Steve and Phil and everybody, Reef decline appears to have been widespread in the tropical west Atlantic over the past two decades. Most prominent is the reduction in prevalence of acroporid corals, and increase, in many places, of macrophytes. Belize was unusual in that when the acroporids began to vanish, there was an endemic agariciid (absent elsewhere in the region) that could serve as a partial functional replacement, and it did. Since the original high-coral coverage condition is more highly valued than what we are seeing more of today, it would undoubtedly be most productive to: 1. appreciate natural trends toward regeneration, and their scaling 2. judge whether natural regeneration is satisfactory 3. develop interventions that facilitate and accelerate regeneration on the largest spatial and smallest temporal scales possible. Let us presume that Step 2, the regeneration rate concommitant with the passive approach to reef conservation, is not sufficient to offset rates of degradation in Florida. Note that whether this is or isn't the periphery of reef growth doesn't matter. All that matters is that reefs can grow here and it is worth some effort to see that they do. Then we must move on to Step 3. Step 3 implies aggressive perturbation (some would call it "restoration") experiments. Looking about, I dont' see a great many such experiments in progress. Kudos to Richmond and Mueller and their people. What are we doing to adapt and expand their methodologies? What capabilities do we need at our disposal? A. ability to upregulate grazing pressure B. ability to downregulate nutrient inputs C. ability to force-recruit corals on a large scale My own guess is that grazing pressure in Florida is pretty high (though perhaps the ability to force-recruit Diadema would be helpful on a local basis); and that if nutrients are a major issue, we are already doing what we can to reduce the inputs. That means, shouldn't we be looking harder and more seriously than we are at option "C?" This option offers a wonderful probe of the resiliency of the system....if healthy live corals appear on the reef but do not survive, then something probably must be done with A or B, or there is a food web problem with coral predators, otherwise give up on reefs altogether for now because it's a large-scale environmental health issue that must be addressed first. Since acroporids and agariciids are the principal corals with response times and growth rates commensurate with human intervention, should they not be the principal focus of efforts toward C? It would be really helpful if we could reach some consensus on this. No one strategy is sufficient to conserve Florida's reefs, but we should be coming up with a clear and articulate definition of the top-priority conservation science and methodologies needed to do the job...and we aren't, unless I've missed something. Monitoring IS important, but only in the context of adaptive management. What are our goals? What shall our complete litany of interventions be? What room have we left ourselves for trial and error? Are the intervention experiments well designed and sufficiently powerful to serve our needs? The alternative is to reduce human impacts as much as possible, and then watch and wait. These are two very different, complementary strategies. What combination of these do we, as a community, advocate? Les Kaufman ---------------------------- Robert S. Steneck Professor, School of Marine Sciences University of Maine Darling Marine Center Walpole, ME 04573 207 - 563 - 3146 e-mail: Steneck at Maine.Maine.EDU The School of Marine Sciences Web site: http://www.ume.maine.edu/~marine/marine.html From marks at wcmc.org.uk Thu Jun 25 05:03:36 1998 From: marks at wcmc.org.uk (Mark Spalding) Date: Thu, 25 Jun 1998 10:03:36 +0100 Subject: Reefs At Risk Message-ID: An embedded and charset-unspecified text was scrubbed... Name: not available Url: http://coral.aoml.noaa.gov/pipermail/coral-list-old/attachments/19980625/49e6d85b/attachment.pl From N.Polunin at newcastle.ac.uk Thu Jun 25 06:19:21 1998 From: N.Polunin at newcastle.ac.uk (Nicholas Polunin) Date: Thu, 25 Jun 1998 10:19:21 +0000 Subject: Reefs At Risk Message-ID: <199806250918.KAA17747@cheviot.ncl.ac.uk> Dear Colleagues In response to messages from Les Kaufman and others, Bob Steneck just wrote: >However, before we all run off to conduct remedial action, it might >be a good idea to objectively determine the patterns of reef >decline. Are we faced with a decline in all species or are we >primarily reacting to the decline of Acroporids (due to white band >disease)? Are patterns of macroalgae resulting from changes in the >reef's trophic structure (i.e., loss of grazers) or due to >eutrophication or both? I shall also remain unhappy with thinly-substantiated reports from environmentalist groups, international environmental agencies and NGOs as to the extent and manner of degradation of Caribbean reefs until I see reliable regional comparisons, and preferably time-series, of condition (not proxy assessments of 'threat' or 'risk'), made and disseminated. As to mechanisms, any geographic patterns discerned need rigorously to be related to the sorts of factors involved. Bob also wrote: >It seems to me, understanding the patterns of coral reef condition >sufficiently so that plausible forcing-function processes can be >identified should be a priority action item for our coral reef >research community. I think we do need to collectively consider >which reefs are at risk, but we should also identify which reefs are >seriously degraded and which ones are relatively pristine. With such >information we should be better able to apply our remedial actions My group's particular approach has been to get an idea of the scope for recovery of the benthic community (based on photoquadrat point-sampling) when fishing is effectively excluded or fish grazing might otherwise be manipulated by: (1) comparing protected and unprotected areas at 5 Caribbean sites; I will give a provisional view of these data at the ISRS meeting in Perpignan this September: __________________________________________________________ Ecological comparisons of fished and protected areas in the Caribbean Polunin, N.V.C. & I.D. Williams, Department of Marine Sciences & Coastal Management, University of Newcastle, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 7RU, UK Concern over reef degradation in the Caribbean and the contention that much of this is caused directly or indirectly by fishing have prompted us to make comparisons between protected (MPAs) and unprotected areas in Jamaica (Montego Bay), Barbados (Folkestone), Belize (Hol Chan), the Caymans (Grand Cayman) and Cuba (Punta Frances), during the period 1997/98. We have broadly categorised the reef benthos from point counts on underwater photographs in six principal categories (macroalgae, turf algae, `bare' substratum, crustose coralline algae, hard coral and other sessile invertebrates) and characterised the large-fish assemblages of the reefs involved using underwater visual point counts of individuals >12 cm in length in six families (Serranidae, Lutjanidae, Balistidae, Scaridae, Acanthuridae and Haemulidae). The data presented here are derived from replicated sampling in 5-6 sites selected at random each from MPA and adjacent unprotected deeper water (ca 15 m depth) reef. Some groups of large fishes which are important fishery targets tended to be more abundant in MPAs than on unprotected reef in all except the Caymans, but we found no evidence that the benthos systematically differed. Since diving tourists in a Jamaican survey indicated greater preference for fish (abundance, variety and size, in that order) than characteristics of the benthos when they dive, it appears that the Caribbean MPAs we have examined are distinctive in the ways diving tourists most appreciate. However, the evidence is also that reef degradation, particularly the domination of macroalgae over hard corals, which has been attributed to reduced grazing by fish as a result of intensive fishing in localities such as on the northern coast of Jamaica, does not stand to be readily reversed in the deep-water sites we have investigated. Furthermore, the high abundance of macroalgae in areas which appear at least to be devoid of nutrient and fishing effects (the Belize and Cuban localities studied) suggests either that some factor other than local nutrient inputs and fishing has been involved, or that long-range effects, such as of nutrient additions through large-scale mixing, must have been important, unless macroalgal domination greatly predates modern developments. Acknowledgements. This study has been funded by the UK Department for International Development, and has been possible by collaboration of many colleagues. In particular we thank: Jill Williams, Maldon Miller, Wayne Hunte, Jorge Angulo, Tim Austin and Miguel Alamilla. _____________________________________________________________ (2) comparing benthic community structure among areas with de facto variations in the abundance of grazing fishes. The results of both approaches will be presented formally at a workshop in Jamaica in July 1999. We are drawing up plans for the workshop now, and welcome suggestions of other input. Possibilities exist for part-funding of some participants, especially from developing countries within the Caribbean region. Nicholas Polunin Dept of Marine Sciences University of Newcastle Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 7RU Tel +44 191 222 6675/6661 Fax +44 191 222 7891 URL http://www.ncl.ac.uk/mscmweb/ From yfadlal at kfupm.edu.sa Thu Jun 25 08:33:28 1998 From: yfadlal at kfupm.edu.sa (Yusef Fadlalla) Date: Thu, 25 Jun 1998 15:33:28 +0300 Subject: Bleaching and Exfoliation in Acropora References: <199806242121.RAA12518@bio.bu.edu> Message-ID: <35924398.2775F55C@kfupm.edu.sa> Les: I have stitched together some text (below) related to a bleaching and mortality event that resulted from extreme hot weather in the summer of 1996 in the western Arabian Gulf (western Indo-Pacific, sort of). At the time I was impressed with the manner in which Acropora mortality occurred. Our experience suggests that if there was 100 percent bleaching, the result was 100 percent mortality (by tissue sloughing - more elgantly, exfoliation) of an Acropora colony - bleached Acropora tissues simply never recover. Now, after reading your posting, I wonder whether we should not be using another term (besides bleaching) to describe the response of Acropora to extreme temperatures. I am not familiar with the literature on "white plague" (is that casued by pathogens?). What is "polarized coral death" ? Does Acropora in the Caribbean ever recover from bleaching ? I have seen reports of Acropora bleaching in the GBR, but I do not know whether that resulted in mortality. Yusef Fadlallah Research Institute King Fahd University Dhahran 31261 Saudi Arabia In the summer of 1996, nearshore seawater temperature held between 33.5 and 37 C for approximately 90 days along the Saudi Gulf coast and elsewhere in the Gulf (postings to the list by Jan Corrubel, Roger Uwate, and Yusef Fadlalla).. As a result, there was widespread multispecific bleaching in nearshore coral communities, and an outbreak of Black Band Disease (BBD) in the Acroporas of one reef, with catastrophic consequences for Acropora, and Stylophora pistillata (where found). Coral mortality followed rapidly. Acropora colonies that bleached lost tissue in a random process, as coral tissue sloughed off in a haphazard manner from all areas of a colony or different locations on the same branch. In contrast, BBD affected Acropora lost tissue as the black bands progressed in an even pace from the bases of branches to the tips. Both processes resulted in catastrophic losses (estimated at over 95% of colonies of Acropora on many reefs). Stylophora pistallata mortality was not characterized by the "tissue sloughing" that was observed in Acropora. Les Kaufman wrote: > I would be very grateful if anyone could bring to my attention > observations > of Pacific acroporids exhibiting conditions resembling white plague > (the > one with tissue exfoliation and polarized coral death) in the tropical > west > Atlantic acroporids. > > Les Kaufman > Boston University Marine Program > Department of Biology > Boston University > 5 Cummington Street > Boston, MA 02215 > > e-mail: lesk at bio.bu.edu > phone: 617-353-5560 > fax: 617-353-6340 > > "I believe we are on an irreversible trend toward more freedom and > democracy... but that could change." > > -Vice President Dan Quayle, 5/22/89 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://coral.aoml.noaa.gov/pipermail/coral-list-old/attachments/19980625/0306e2af/attachment.html From lesk at bio.bu.edu Thu Jun 25 11:26:44 1998 From: lesk at bio.bu.edu (Les Kaufman) Date: Thu, 25 Jun 1998 11:26:44 -0400 Subject: Reefs At Risk Message-ID: <199806251515.LAA28135@bio.bu.edu> I concur fully with my esteemed colleague, Bob Stenneck's comments, with one caveat. The process of developing realistic protocols for enhancement of coral settlement and growth in situ can be conducted in a manner that greatly enhances our understanding of reef regeneration well beyond what we will learn solely through passive monitoring. My plea is for experiments, not massive restoration. That can come later (if ever) once we know what we are looking at. Certainly with very limited resources, we default to standing by and watching strategically, as the next best thing to do. Let's just understand that that is what we are about. It is a sort of tolerable but nontheless highly undesirable paralysis. Les Kaufman Boston University Marine Program Department of Biology Boston University 5 Cummington Street Boston, MA 02215 e-mail: lesk at bio.bu.edu phone: 617-353-5560 fax: 617-353-6340 "I believe we are on an irreversible trend toward more freedom and democracy... but that could change." -Vice President Dan Quayle, 5/22/89 From zakaid at popeye.cc.biu.ac.il Thu Jun 25 11:40:14 1998 From: zakaid at popeye.cc.biu.ac.il (zakai david) Date: Thu, 25 Jun 1998 18:40:14 +0300 Subject: Crown of Thorns over explosion Message-ID: <3.0.5.32.19980625184014.007a4c20@popeye.cc.biu.ac.il> Dear Coral list members, Last week I was diving at the southern Gulf of Aqaba at the Tomas and Jackson reefs. I was very surprise to observed that the reefs where eaten by the Crown of Thorns starfish. I counted 25 starfish in 2 dives of 45 min each, at noon time (the starfish is active in night time). Usually its very rare to meet this starfish in the Gulf of Aqaba so i think that we experiencing a over explosion of this Crown of Thorns in our area. It haven't reached Eilat yet but it may do so soon. Is anyone have experience in controlling such a phenomenon? Are there any action needed to be done before its will reach our area. Thanks David. ===================================================================== David Zakai, Red Sea marine biologist Department of Life Science Nature Reserves Authority of Israel Bar-Ilan University Eilat district, P.O.Box 667 Ramat-Gan Israel, 88105 Israel, 52100 Ph:+972-7-6373988 +972-7-6360117 Fax:+972-7-6375047 +972-7-6375329 Home:+972-7-6330373 Email: zakaid at popeye.cc.biu.ac.il ===================================================================== From jlang at uts.cc.utexas.edu Thu Jun 25 13:38:00 1998 From: jlang at uts.cc.utexas.edu (Judith C. Lang) Date: Thu, 25 Jun 1998 12:38:00 -0500 (CDT) Subject: Reefs At Risk--Help adopt a "Great River"? Message-ID: Hello all, I'd like to follow up on Steve Miller's observation that the "Great Rivers" of the Americas are likely to be contributing to problems of water quality in the western Atlantic. For reasons that include enlightened self-interest, perhaps those of us who care about its reefs should seek out and support with our time and/or money local efforts (in states bordering the Gulf of Mexico, Colombia, Venezuela, etc.) to cleanse these rivers of their excess sediments and pollutants. Judy Lang Texas Memorial Museum 2400 Trinity Austin, TX 78705 (512) 471-4954, -4542 (V) (512) 471-9425 (F) From sjameson at coralseas.com Thu Jun 25 20:31:51 1998 From: sjameson at coralseas.com (Stephen C Jameson) Date: Thu, 25 Jun 98 20:31:51 -0400 Subject: Reefs At Risk Message-ID: <199806260027.UAA11492@radagast.wizard.net> Dear All, On 6/24/98 Bob Steneck wrote: >It seems to me, understanding the patterns of coral reef condition >sufficiently so that plausible forcing-function processes can be >identified should be a priority action item for our coral reef research >community. I think we do need to collectively consider which reefs are >at risk, but we should also identify which reefs are seriously degraded >and which ones are relatively pristine. With such information we should >be better able to apply our remedial actions intelligently and surgically. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will be coming out with a new report on the "Development of Biological Criteria for Coral Reef Ecosystem Assessment" that will address the above and hopefully provide the stimulus for funding a U.S. Coral Reef Biocriteria Program. The entire 90+ page report will be published in the upcoming summer edition of the Smithsonian's Atoll Research Bulletin and has a comprehensive review of coral reef indicator species and other reef monitoring indices - with recommendations for future work. Jameson SC, Erdmann MV, Gibson Jr GR, Potts KW (in press) Development of biological criteria for coral reef ecosystem assessment. Atoll Research Bulletin, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC Best regards, Dr. Stephen C. Jameson, President Coral Seas Inc. - Integrated Coastal Zone Management 4254 Hungry Run Road, The Plains, VA 20198-1715 USA Office: 703-754-8690, Fax: 703-754-9139 Email: sjameson at coralseas.com Web Site: www.coralseas.com From afnacu at skyinet.net Fri Jun 26 02:37:48 1998 From: afnacu at skyinet.net (Alvin F. Nacu) Date: Fri, 26 Jun 1998 14:37:48 +0800 Subject: (no subject) Message-ID: <359341BC.D0007FB5@skyinet.net> Does anybody know about the tolerance of macroalgae and the sea urchin Tripneustes gratilla to an increase in salinity, specifically from a desalination plant outfall? Thank you. Alvin Nacu PO Box 209 University of the Philippines Diliman, Q.C. Philippines -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://coral.aoml.noaa.gov/pipermail/coral-list-old/attachments/19980626/d213ec5a/attachment.html From coral at aoml.noaa.gov Fri Jun 26 09:29:59 1998 From: coral at aoml.noaa.gov (Coral Health and Monitoring Program) Date: Fri, 26 Jun 1998 09:29:59 -0400 (EDT) Subject: ASCII submissions Message-ID: Ladies and Gentlement, For the benefit of those of us (the majority) who don't have mail readers that can automatically interpret and present HTML (Web) code (such as MicroSoft Outlook), it would be best if you could submit your messages to coral-list in plain ASCII, rather than as messages that have embedded HTML code, such as
-type tags. Your mail-reader has functions for exporting as ASCII, rather than HTML-type code. Many thanks for your cooperation. Cheers, coral-list administrator From jbarimo at rsmas.miami.edu Thu Jun 25 14:55:46 1998 From: jbarimo at rsmas.miami.edu (John Barimo) Date: Thu, 25 Jun 1998 14:55:46 -0400 Subject: Coral Bleaching in Florida Message-ID: <199806261320.NAA26212@coral.aoml.noaa.gov> Coral bleaching has been observed on a near shore patch reef (the Rocks), inshore from Hawk Channel, off Key Largo, FL. On June 18, bleaching was noted on a single Siderastrea siderea colony and the diameter of the bleached area increased 10 cm over a 6 day period. On June 24, bleaching was observed on the following scleractinians: Montastraea annularis, M. faveolata, M. cavernosa and S. siderea. Bleaching was also noted on Palythoa sp., Erythropodium caribaeorum and Millepora alcicornis. Surface water temperatures have been in excess of 32=B0C and coral depth is 2-3 m. = =20 John Barimo Rob Carter ****************************************************** =20 John Barimo, M.S. =20 Graduate Student =20 =20 Dept. of Marine Biology and Fisheries =20 Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science University of Miami =20 4600 Rickenbacker Cswy. Miami, FL 33149 =20 =20 phone: (305) 361-4642 =20 fax: (305) 361-4600 =20 email: jbarimo at rsmas.miami.edu =20 ****************************************************** =20 From pdustan at zeus.cofc.edu Fri Jun 26 15:57:26 1998 From: pdustan at zeus.cofc.edu (Phillip Dustan) Date: Fri, 26 Jun 1998 12:57:26 -0700 Subject: Reefs At Risk Message-ID: <3.0.32.19980626125725.00b16e60@zeus.cofc.edu> At 02:07 PM 6/24/98 -0400, you wrote: >Dear Phil, > >I have a problem with the "chicken little" approach that is often used in >public forums to generate support, controversy, or conflict. And even if >"the sky is falling" I think that it's important not to oversimplify by >suggesting simple solutions (or even any solution) to problems as complex as >coral reef condition - especially in Florida. I don't think that anyone >disagrees about the decline of reefs in Florida (and throughout the Caribbean), >but since you imply that there are more actions to take - what exactly do you >think anyone can do to make a difference? > Dear Phil, I have a problem with the "chicken little" approach that is often used in public forums to generate support, controversy, or conflict. And even if "the sky is falling" I think that it's important not to oversimplify by suggesting simple solutions (or even any solution) to problems as complex as coral reef condition - especially in Florida. I don't think that anyone disagrees about the decline of reefs in Florida (and throughout the Caribbean), but since you imply that there are more actions to take - what exactly do you think anyone can do to make a difference? Steven, I think I speak from a slightly better vantage point than Chicken Little. And the "sky" isn't about to fall- in many places large chunks have landed. The reefs I have been working on have changed dramatically in my scientific career- one than spans a very short period when compared to the ecology and geology of reefs. In the northern Florida Keys the corals have dropped like flies- from diseases, boat groundings, sedimentation, and a host of other processes. For example, The fore reef terrace of Carysfort reef has a measured 50 to 65% cover in 1975, now its about 12-13% . Key Largo Dry Rocks has probably done the same, as has Molasses and most of the other reefs in the area. This is not new- the decline has been going on at least since the 70's or earlier. Denial masks many things. Over the last few years, being a member of the EPA Coral Reef Monitoring Project has given me the opportunity to place my observations from Key Largo in context. And to my eyes, much, if not most of the outer reefs along the Keys are in the same shape. I have appended a manuscript I wrote for the World Bank which outlines some large steps that we might want to address, but what can we do in the Keys to "help" the reefs? Judy Lang offers a good point- adopt a river. Address the problems of watershed effluent where they originate- the great rivers. Address the immediate problems facing the corals while we try to figure out whats causing them: Harold Hudson got named the reef doctor because he works towards the health of individual corals. What else could we do you ask? "Don't you agree that the two biggest factors related to decreased coral cover > and increased algae on reefs in Florida and throughout the Caribbean are white > band disease and the Diadema dieoff, respectively?" I suppose we could hold a few more workshops, or start another monitoring effort. Or more seriously we could try to address the problem at the scales it presents: 1. Corals are being killed by algal overgrowth and algal-sediment encroachment at rates that far exceed their growth and/or recruitment rates. Why not get experienced people together (interested naturalists) to tend the reefs like we tend gardens to reduce these stresses. People could play the role of herbivores. This would reduce the algal standing stock (huge at present) and perhaps give the corals some relief. 2. We could do the same at a finer scale around colonial edges. Next time you go diving look closely at the edges of the corals. They are fast being "overgrown" by mats/carpets of filamentus algae and fine sediments. This is not a new problem, but one that seems to be increasing, especially in the keys. Careful hads could clean the edges. 3. While we are administering "first aid" it might be prudent to begin to grow large quantities of diadema and other herbivores in culture. This is not a simple issue, but if we can grow salmon, clownfish, abalone, and other interesting collectibles and delectables, why not important herbivores. And while we're at it, why not stop taking other important herbivores. 4. We could address the problems of watershed effluent- the bleeding of sediments, nutrients, and carbon into the sea. In the keys sewage and nutrients top the list- so why not deal with it straight out- spend the money for sewage treatment. There are lots of interesting "biological systems" as well as the standard systems that could be brought to bear on the problem. But still the land will bleed. People have got to begin to realize that the terrestrial ecosystems are conservative, When we develop them, they leak, like a cut open person. They spill their "guts" into the sea. In the Keys this includes fine sediments, nutrients, carbon, and lots of pollutants. People should try to move the system back to its conservative natural state. Stop using pea gravel and other practices that generate fine sediments, etc. Sure, a lot of the water quality issues come from other places as the Keys are downstream of the whole Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico, but to use this as an excuse for how you treat your home is shameful. 5. I'm sure theer are lots of other "action" things we could do to help with the immediate while we attack the larger issues. I don't think it takes a rocket scientist to figure a lot of this out. Just some practical politics and some consciousness. We presently worry about the reefs and are actively spending money on "restoring" the structure of reefs rather than the system. The reefs are the indicators of larger issues and perhaps, we need to become active at larger scales. And we need to do it fast if we are going to leave more than algal carpeted used-to-be-coral reef for the next generation. When the rains finally do come to Florida, the ash and debris form the fires will create an even greater challenge for the reefs. I, for one, am not convinced that we have to keep a smiley face on the situation to get people to want to help the reefs. I think that a lot of people would rather do something more than watch. Don't you? One last comment however. Unless the increase in the Earth's human population is somehow brought into reasonable limitation, all we do will probable be wasted in the long run. Phil Text of a manuscript in press with the World Bank on the Conservation of Coral Reefs Coral Reefs, harbingers of global change? Phillip Dustan Department of Biology University of Charleston Charleston, SC 29424 on behalf of The Cousteau Society "Evolution produces a very few new species every million years. If we are to assume that nature can cope with our feverish developments, it is probable that mankind would be submitted to the fate of the dinosaurs. Destruction is quick and easy. Construction is slow and difficult." J.Y. Cousteau, 1973. Coral Reefs Coral reefs form in the tropical, equatorial waters of the world's oceans and are the marine analogs of tropical rain forests. They are the oldest, most diverse and productive ecosystems in the sea. Coral reefs are a reservoir for much of the ocean's biodiversity, provide an estimated 10% of the world's fisheries, and their productivity fuels intense biogeochemical activity linking them to the global carbon cycle. Complex reef structures house some of Nature's most amazing creatures while protecting miles of coastline from the full fury of the sea. Coral reefs develop to their greatest expression in clear tropical waters under extremely nutrient-poor conditions. Abundant solar energy fuels photosynthetic activity which is transferred to the food web by a host of grazing herbivores (animals that eat plants). This lush development of reefs under extreme oligotrophic conditions created the "paradox of reef" until the role of symbiosis was fully recognized. Now we know that the high productivity of reefs results from the evolution of many symbiotic associations, mainly coral-algal (zooxanthellae), that increase the retention of limiting nutrients, primarily nitrogen and phosphorus. Reef corals are functionally both animals and plants. Ironically, the same intricate patterns of survival that have developed over an immense span of evolutionary time make the reef vulnerable to changes in environmental conditions, especially temperature, sediment, and nutrient concentrations. Anthropogenic stresses are thought to be contributing to the decline in coral reef ecosystems, notably in the Caribbean and the western Atlantic. Driven by the engine of ever increasing human population, more and more land has been converted from its natural state. Generally, terrestrial ecosystems tend to be conservative and export little in the way of nutrients, carbon, and sediments. But, agriculture, urbanization, and deforestation reduce the capacity of terrestrial ecosystems to trap and retain materials. Development has altered the ecological characteristic of watersheds overloading rivers with sediments, nutrients, and adding toxic chemicals. Simple runoff has become an effluent that can have a significant deleterious influence on water quality. The addition of fertilizers, organic carbon, and urban and commercial dumping further enrich the watershed's effluent as it flows into the sea. When these ecological variables pass some threshold , the species composition of the reef community becomes reorganized. The addition of sediments and/or nutrients triggers a set of ecological processes that alter the selective pressures facing corals. In disturbed areas, increased loading of sediments and nutrients often co-occur, making it difficult to isolate their individual effects. Generally, increased sediment and nutrient loading favor the growth of macroalgae over corals. Suspended sediments reduce light levels to the corals and coat their soft tissue surfaces. Algae strip nutrients from the water column quickly enabling them to grow faster than stony corals. Excess sediment, coarse or fine, smothers coral tissue, impeding diffusive gas exchange through the tissues while also reducing the amount of light available for photosynthesis. Since corals work best when their surfaces are sediment-free, their metabolic efficiency diminishes. Energy spent on housekeeping is not available for prey capture, growth or reproduction. As the sediment load increases, the tissues cannot maintain their status and tissue death occurs. Microbes quickly claim the freshly exposed skeleton which is followed by a successional process ending with an algal turf or macroalgal community. Tissue losses increase when, through fishing and collecting, levels of herbivory are reduced or at least altered. Such reefs change from coral gardens to algal-covered rocks, precisely the type of trend which is one of the key problems facing coral reef ecosystems in the Caribbean and western Atlantic today. Curiously, luxuriant reefs can be found naturally in areas with high sediment loading such as could be found near the mouths of tropical rivers along the Jamaica north coast. The difference is that these reefs developed under these conditions rather than being subject to dramatic environmental shifts after becoming established. Reef corals that have developed under one set of conditions may not posses the necessary flexibility in their physiology or genetic makeup to "cope" with the added stress of rapid environmental change. The death rate of coral tissue from sediment necrosis increases when algae grow in close proximity to corals. Macroalgae can shade coral tissue causing bleaching and eventually tissue necrosis. Large algal colonies can also abrade the soft coral tissue as they wave in the surge. Microalgal filaments at the edge of corals, form effective sediment dams which prevent corals from clearing sediment off their surface, slowly suffocating the live tissue. This process, termed edge damage, is a "functional disease" and appears to be a significant source of coral tissue mortality. Additionally, any lesion increases susceptibility to opportunistic pathogens which can kill a colony in less than 1/100 of the time it takes to grow. In the Florida Keys in 1974, I observed the process on reefs that had increased amounts of fine sedimentation. The condition became much more prevalent after the mass mortality of Diadema antuillarum greatly reduced levels of herbivory. Today, throughout the Florida Keys and Bahamas, almost anything that lives on hard substrate is being overgrown by algae. It is abundant, almost metastatic, on the outer reefs of Key Largo. Molasses Reef, the most heavily visited reef in the world, has thick rug-like algal mats while Carysfort Reef has mats with finer filaments. Both types of algal communities trap sediments and the finer particulate organic snow which shade, smother, and rather quickly kill coral tissue. The reefs in many parts of the Caribbean and western Atlantic are showing signs of decreasing vitality; coral cover is decreasing while algae are increasing. Coral regeneration is slowing and the increased levels of algal biomass may be, in part, responsible for reduced levels of coral larvae settlement. Signs of stress appear most evident on coastal reefs near population centers. In the Florida Keys, one of the most dramatic sites, I am frequently asked which single factor is responsible, sediments or nutrients? My perspective is that the "factor" may actually be the accumulation of a series of nested stresses which are as local as the fisherman, as regional as the landowner, sugarcane field, or village, and as global as deforestation in Amazonia, the ozone hole, and greenhouse effect. Each factor compounds the rest, a synergy towards death for the reef. Locating the source of increased levels of nutrients and sediments, and other stressors, has proven as elusive as defining the nested levels of stress. In the Florida Keys, the effluent of cities, towns, farms, a watershed too vast to control, slowly bleeds into the sea through canals, rivers, and coastal bays. The origin can either be a steady and well-defined point source stream or an effluent that seeps from the land with each rainfall. Both push sediments, nutrients, and contaminants into the sea. More of it upwells from injected sewage, some leaches from shallow septic tanks, urban lawns, agricultural lands, or vacant lots. Some washes into the sea along the west and east coast of Florida, the Everglades, the Mississippi, and lands that are farther downstream. Bits and pieces from a diffuse array of sources contribute to a pervasive level of adverse stress for the reef. The changes we are witnessing in reefs are echoes of the increased levels of harmful algal blooms in coastal waters, beach closings, and the general global decline in fisheries. The impact of man is extending into the seas. Watershed effluent, runoff from increasingly urbanized landscapes, an unprecedented manipulation by humans, is thought to be responsible for increased levels of nutrients and sediments but the definitive data are not yet in. The data are elusive because reef community metabolism has evolved to rapidly take up and sequester the very nutrients signal we are trying to detect. Increases in algal biomass are thought to reflect increased nutrients but do not constitute proof. Carbonate sediments are almost as hard to follow, so at this time we are left with correlation rather than causality. It is my belief that the declining vitality of reefs is a metric for the health of the oceans, analogous to the coal miner's canary in the cage. They are the fragile harbingers of change warning us of declining oceanic health. Coral reefs, rain forests, and human civilization are the three most complex communities on Earth. The first two are the most productive natural communities, while humanity, is rapidly encroaching on the entire planet. Reefs are the oldest, having existed since there were organisms with skeletons in the sea. Modern coral reefs date from about 250 million years before present. Like rain forests, these communities have evolved an ecological logic that allows them to flourish and persist on a planet that is forever changing. Over enormous spans of evolutionary time, very sophisticated relationships emerge which form the core of biodiversity. The most elaborate ecosystems tend to be found in places that are old, benign, predictable, and frequently rich in solar energy. These ecosystems are very proficient at elemental recycling so that the living portions of the habitat are richer in nutrients, than their surrounding soils or seas. Both reefs and rain forests develop to their highest expressions in habitats that seemingly cannot support luxuriant growth. The soil of rain forests is extremely poor, and the clear warm tropical seas that bath reefs have nutrient levels at or below the level of minimum detection. In this case, more is not always necessarily better. Human civilization is undergoing an unprecedented population expansion coupled with an economy driven by consumption and profit, as opposed to efficiency and recycling. Humans treat biological resources like agricultural systems in which net production is maximized rather than managing for sustainable yields. Such systems are inherently unstable. They require a constant input of nutrients, very little of which are sequestered in the standing stock or "body" of the ecosystem. They grow at the expense of other systems and greatly increase the entropy of surrounding areas. But, since the earth is finite, this approach cannot continue without increasingly severe degradation of the Biosphere. One long range vision for future humanity suggests that the incorporation of the logic of natural systems into our mode of living might, perhaps, enable civilization to persist as long as coral reefs and rain forests. Given humanity's commerce-driven dominance of ecosystems. the environmental and long term costs of economic activities need to be reflected in market prices. We must change our present practices, lest we leave only our wastes for future generations. The very first diving expedition of Calypso was to the Red Sea, beginning the modern study of coral reefs using the Aqualung. It was there that Cousteau became astounded and entranced by the splendor and extravagant beauty of the coral world. In time his concern grew for the careless destruction that our unchecked technological development is spreading into the oceans. His legacy to us is a greater understanding and appreciation for the marvels of life. Recommendations for The World Bank Recognizing that coral reefs may be indicators of oceanic health and that their decline may forebode the decline of the oceans, The World Bank should assume a leadership role in the global conservation of coral reefs for a sustainable future by undertaking the following: 1. Establish an international interdisciplinary working group composed of scientific, technical, and policy experts to ascertain the state of knowledge of coral reef ecosystems and to make recommendations concerning the sustainable future of coral reef ecosystems. 2. Establish collaborations with international space agencies to develop a global capability to map and monitor the distribution of coral reef communities, to ascertain their health, and to identify potential hazards to their future. 3. Support a climate of stimulation for existing activities and fund scientific programs on the health and vitality of coral reef ecosystems, and support efforts to implement sustainable fisheries practices at all levels. 4. Recognize the dynamics of population growth in coastal areas and focus attention on protecting the ecology of the land-sea margin and watersheds of coastlines and rivers. Address land-based sources of marine pollution, including nutrient and chemical inputs, soil erosion, and forest and agriculture practices. 5. Support the development of an industrial/technological ecology focused both on remediation and an end to pollution of the seas, and develop new environmental management techniques integrating ecology, economics, technology and social sciences ("Ecotechnie") with the goal of significantly reducing pollution in coastal areas, remediating ecological harm, protecting human health, and enhancing human welfare. 6. Expand support for small-scale projects designed to eliminate destructive fishing (i.e. cyanide and dynamite), implement reef surveys and monitoring activities, and protect reefs from physical harm. Work at the national and international level to address fisheries which exploit children, and implement "certification" programs for aquarium fish to assure they are caught in non-harmful manner. Explore the use of microcredit loans for small-scale entrepreneurial activities to promote the sustainable use of coral reef resources. 7. Insure that the knowledge and means for management are transferred to tropical developing nations where most of the world's reefs are located, and assist in developing the capacity of local communities to manage and use these resources in a sustainable manner. 8. Support the establishment of marine protected areas and PSSAs (Particularly Sensitive Sea Areas) to assure the conservation of marine biodiversity. 9. Support the full implementation of the Jakarta Mandate on Marine and Coastal Biodiversity, and the development of a Protocol on Marine Biodiversity Conservation to the Convention on Biological Diversity. From tmurdoch at jaguar1.usouthal.edu Fri Jun 26 16:25:04 1998 From: tmurdoch at jaguar1.usouthal.edu (Thaddeus J. Murdoch) Date: Fri, 26 Jun 1998 15:25:04 -0500 (CDT) Subject: Reefs at Risk Message-ID: Recently, several comments have been made regarding the decline and artificial regeneration of the coral assemblages of the Florida Keys: Phil Dustan - Wed. 24 June 1998: >...the reefs [of the Keys]...will be gone soon... Les Kaufman - Wed. 24 June 1998: >Since acroporids and agariciids are the principal corals with >response times and growth rates commensurate with human >intervention, should they not be the principle focus of efforts >toward [forced-recruitment]? Given the fact of coral decline in the Keys: The null hypothesis is that all coral species are declining, and are all doing so at an equal rate. This would imply that all coral species are equally affected by whatever large-scale disturbances are perturbating the Florida reef tract. In 1995, as part the Keyswide Coral Reef Expedition, I sampled the coral assemblage structure of 16 spur and groove reefs (15-20 m depth). The sampled reefs were located over the entire Florida reef tract, from Biscayne Bay to the Dry Tortugas. Coral cover and abundance varied dramatically from reef to reef in a way that suggests that meso-scale gradients in water quality are the primary factors affecting the community composition from reef to reef. Particularily interesting patterns emerge when the coral cover data are segregated into guilds, with each guild composed of species that share morphology and reproductive mode. The guilds I examined are: - Mound-like corals that broadcast spawn gametes, - Mound-like corals that release brooded planula, - Plating and Foliose Corals (which are mostly brooding corals in the Caribbean), - Branched corals that broadcast spawn gametes and - Branched corals that release brooded larvae. When the % cover of each guild is examined relative to total coral cover on each reef, the following pattern emerges (simplified below): 20- . Total % coral cover . - x % Massive Spawners . - + % Massive Brooders . - - % Branching and Plating . x - . x 15- . x - . x - . x - . x Guild - . x % cover 10- . x per reef - . x - . x - . x - . x 5- . x - x - x - ++++++++++++++++ - ++++++++++++++++----------------- 0___________________________________________ 0 5 10 15 20 Total % coral cover per reef Massive corals that spawn gametes track changes in total coral cover consistently. Massive corals that brood demonstrate only slightly increased cover on reefs with high total coral cover. All other guilds do not change in cover at all relative to reef to reef differences in total coral cover. It appears that only the massive spawners are affected by the environmental gradients which control total coral cover on each reef, while all other groups are relatively unaffected (at present). Note: branching corals that spawn gametes (the acroporids) were all but absent from the 20-m deep reefs in 1995, demonstrating the powerful effects of region-wide disturbances such as disease. In terms of artificially increasing coral cover in the Keys - the only steps that are likely to work, based on the above, should be improving water quality (locally and regionally) and the forced-recruitment of the massive spawners and the branching spawners. These corals employ rapid, indeterminate growth and high fragmentation rates as a means of dominating a reef. The forced-recruitent of massive brooding corals or the other guilds (which include agariciids) is not likely to lead to an increase in total coral cover on reefs of good environmental quality. These corals are more adaped to utilize patches that are at an early successional state, and generally maintain low cover on these reefs regardless of environmental condition. Thad Murdoch -------------------------------------------------------------- Project Manager No-Take Zones of the Florida Keys - Benthic Monitoring Project Dauphin Island Sea Lab, PO Box 369, Dauphin Island, Alabama, 36528, USA. Tel: (334) 861-7532 Fax: (334) 861-7540 From apnea at ultraviolet.org Sat Jun 27 04:59:31 1998 From: apnea at ultraviolet.org (Peter Vogt) Date: Sat, 27 Jun 1998 04:59:31 -0400 (EDT) Subject: Survey Analysis Software Message-ID: <199806270859.EAA08526@hil-img-ims-4.compuserve.com> Hi folks, I have just joined the list & are a newcomer to the field of coral reef conservation. My background is in software engineering, although I have spent the last 3 months working in the field on a coral conservation project in Indonesia as a volunteer. What I would like to do now is to create some software that will help marine biologists and others to analyse and make use of the survey results, in particular those of species level analysis. I have seen one package by the name of Biomar. Do people on this list, who would be interested in such software, have views on what such software should do for them? Does anyone know of other packages? What are their good and bad points? With my limited experience it seems to me that the survey process in the field could be made more efficient and less labour intensive by having the right software at this stage. Any pointers, such as Urls etc. would be more than welcome - my websearches so far have been fruitless... Thanks for your help. I will return to Indonesia and be offline (no phone) in one week. If there is sufficient interest I will collate and post to the list. Cheers Peter Vogt -- Pete Vogt apnea at ultraviolet.org From Steneck at maine.maine.edu Sat Jun 27 13:52:13 1998 From: Steneck at maine.maine.edu (Bob Steneck) Date: Sat, 27 Jun 98 13:52:13 -0400 Subject: Reefs at Risk Message-ID: <199806271750.NAA02249@coral.aoml.noaa.gov> Dear Thaddeus, I've been interested to learn the results of the 1995 Keyswide Coral Reef Expedition. Your results spawned some questions that perhaps you can answer. 1. How can patterns of decline be determined from a single survey? Do you have a way of estimating the rate of coral mortality? 2. Since percent cover of coral varies for many reasons (including morphogenetic reasons) how do you sort out reefs that always have had low cover from those that have declined to that level recently? 3. Are you surprised at the low acroporid abundance at 20 m? Most geologists who find Acropora palmata in their cores assume they grew between 10 m and the surface. In St. Croix in 1973 we had about a 12 m depth max for that species. Are you sure it's absence at 20 m now demonstrates "the powerful effects of region-wide disturbances such as disease?" (Don't get me wrong, I believe Acroporids have succumbed to disease throughout the region) 4. Perhaps I don't understand your figure but wouldn't that pattern develop if massive spawners are the dominant corals at depths of 20 m. If that's so, wouldn't a similar figure be generated on just about every reef in the Caribbean? Excuse me if I misunderstood what you meant. Sincerely, Bob Steneck ---------------------------- Robert S. Steneck Professor, School of Marine Sciences University of Maine Darling Marine Center Walpole, ME 04573 207 - 563 - 3146 e-mail: Steneck at Maine.Maine.EDU The School of Marine Sciences Web site: http://www.ume.maine.edu/~marine/marine.html From tmurdoch at jaguar1.usouthal.edu Sat Jun 27 22:38:31 1998 From: tmurdoch at jaguar1.usouthal.edu (Thaddeus J. Murdoch) Date: Sat, 27 Jun 1998 21:38:31 -0500 (CDT) Subject: Reefs at Risk - Guilds questions In-Reply-To: <199806271750.NAA02249@coral.aoml.noaa.gov> Message-ID: Dear Dr. Steneck, In answer to your questions: >1. How can patterns of decline be determined from a single survey? It was not my intent to show guild-specific differences in decline over time, although I would love to be able to do so. Additional surveys of the entire reef tract are needed to accomplish this. >2. Since percent cover of coral varies for many reasons (including >morphogenetic reasons) how do you sort out reefs that always have had low >cover from those that have declined to that level recently? My intent was to examine whether all coral guilds responded equally to whatever disturbances resulted in the reef-to-reef differences in total coral cover. If all of the guilds were equally affected by the slew of disturbances that assaulted each reef up to the point in time when we sampled, one could reasonably expect to see all guilds demonstrate higher cover on reefs with high total coral cover, and lower cover on the reefs with low total coral cover, when compared over the entire reef tract as a whole. The results, on the other hand, show that only the massive spawners demonstrate coral cover which varies linearly with total coral cover per reef. All other guilds do not vary. In other words, reefs which we would qualitatively classify as healthy (i.e. high coral cover) have the SAME cover of massive brooders, plating corals and branching brooders as a reef we would qualitatively classify as unhealthy (hardgrounds too!). This implies not only that all guilds do not respond equally to whatever factors determine total coral cover from reef to reef, but that most guilds are hardly affected at all, as long as there is rock to live on. The next question is - Have only the massive spawning corals and the branching spawners been declining over Recent time in the Keys, or have all guilds? The above results indicate that all guilds might not have been declining. I don't have the data to answer this question, yet. Perhaps others do. >3. Are you surprised at the low acroporid abundance at 20 m? etc... Sorry, I should have been more specific. What I meant was that _Acropora cervicornis_ was absent. Many of the reefs we sampled had large amounts of A. cervicornis rubble on them, implying that the reefs had possessed A.cervicornis in the past. I think that the graph I presented would have looked different in regards to this guild had we sampled a few decades ago. >4. Perhaps I don't understand your figure but wouldn't that pattern >develop if massive spawners are the dominant corals at depths of 20 m. They are the dominant corals. Since the massive spawners (and branched spawners) possess the properties that make them the dominant corals, and since they appear the most affected by water quality, the corals of these guilds are the best choice for forced-recruitment in the Florida Keys. Subordinate guilds, with slower growth etc., are less likely to increase total coral cover over an entire reef, even though they are better able to cope with poor water quality. >If that's so, wouldn't a similar figure be generated on just about every >reef in the Caribbean? I would be thrilled if these results scaled up to predict the guild compostion of the deeper spur-and-groove reefs over the entire Caribbean, relative to reef-by-reef differences in disturbance history. On a separate issue, I am not sure we need to resort to forced-recruitment in the Keys at the moment. For instance, the sexually generated offspring of A.cervicornis appear to be recruiting back to the Keys on their own. However, steps to improve the water quality of the Caribbean should be taken immediately. Respectfully, Thad Murdoch -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Project Manager No-Take Zones of the Florida Keys - Benthic Monitoring Project Dauphin Island Sea Lab, PO Box 369, Dauphin Island, Alabama, 36528, USA. Tel: (334) 861-7532 Fax: (334) 861-7540 From chrhueerkamp at hotmail.com Sun Jun 28 11:39:32 1998 From: chrhueerkamp at hotmail.com (christiane hueerkamp) Date: Sun, 28 Jun 1998 08:39:32 PDT Subject: position wanted Message-ID: <19980628153933.569.qmail@hotmail.com> Dear coral-listers, I am a recently graduated student with a Master?s / Diplom in Marine Biology at the University of Rostock in Germany. My thesis was about El-Nino related elevated temperature effects on eastern Pacific corals, with the practical work being done during a 7 month stay at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama. I am currently employed as an assistant at the Institute for Baltic Sea Research in Rostock. For the future I am looking for an opportunity to continue with a career in tropical marine biology. Therefore, I would be interested to hear of any forthcoming positions, starting after February 1999. For my c.v. and further details please contact me directly at chrhueerkamp at hotmail.com Many thanks, Christiane Hueerkamp ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com From rcgregor at ust.hk Mon Jun 29 06:39:39 1998 From: rcgregor at ust.hk (Gregor Hodgson) Date: Mon, 29 Jun 1998 18:39:39 +0800 Subject: Adopt-a-Reef References: Message-ID: <35976EEB.AA3B1289@ust.hk> Dear Colleagues, The coral-list recently has been the site of an important discussion some of which could fall under the question of, "What ACTION should we be taking to 'help' Caribbean reefs." Some colleagues seem to believe that having a complete scientific understanding of reef ecology and dynamics is needed before we can do anything sensible, while others feel that 'more monitoring' is a pointless task. I believe that participation in community-based monitoring programs such as Reef Check is THE PRIMARY solution to coral reef problems because it is the first step towards developing an "adopt-a-reef" attitude among local residents wherever reefs are found. By taking part in monitoring, citizens develop that sense of stewardship that is currently lacking. As the number of educated stakeholders increases, so does the public pressure on governments to act to stop unsustainable activities both on land and at sea that lead to reef damage and to support conservation measures such as MPA creation. It was not too many years ago that oil drilling leases were being offered on the GBR. This would not be possible today because a sizable percentage of Australians now have a strong sense of stewardship for the reef. Regarding rehabilitation, the old adage, "an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure" applies well to reefs -- reef rehabilitation is usually expensive (see e.g. International Workshop on the Rehabilitation of Degraded Coastal Systems, Phuket, 19-24 January, 1998. For details contact: ). Of the funding available for coral reef research and monitoring, we will always need a balance of community-based monitoring, intensive and taxonomically detailed "government" monitoring, and basic research into coral reef ecology and the response of reefs to anthropogenic and natural perturbations. However, without the crucial step of building stewardship, no amount of government regulation, MPA creation or expensive rehabilitation will help coral reefs, regardless of the quality of our scientific understanding. So, if you are a scientist -- "Ask not what coral reefs can do for your publication record, but ask what you can do to educate the public about coral reefs." -- Gregor Hodgson, PhD Institute for Environment and Sustainable Development Hong Kong University of Science and Technology Clearwater Bay, Hong Kong Tel: (852) 2358-8568 Fax: (852) 2358-1582 Email: Reef Check website: www.ust.hk/~webrc/ReefCheck/reef.html From creilly at mit.edu Mon Jun 29 09:03:41 1998 From: creilly at mit.edu (Christine Reilly) Date: Mon, 29 Jun 1998 13:03:41 GMT Subject: First National Conference on Marine Bioinvasions Message-ID: <199806291303.NAA10554@coral.aoml.noaa.gov> If you would like to be added to the mailing list for the conference, please send your mailing address to: creilly at mit.edu For the most up to date information about the conference, please visit the conference web page: http://massbay.mit.edu/exoticspecies/conference.html ANNOUNCING The first NATIONAL CONFERENCE on MARINE BIOINVASIONS CONVENED BY THE MIT SEA GRANT COLLEGE PROGRAM CALL FOR PAPERS ABSTRACTS DUE 9/1/98 The first National Conference on Marine Bioinvasions will focus on biological invasions of exotic species in coastal, estuarine and marine ecosystems. An emphasis will be on ballast water research and management, ecological and genetic consequences of invasions, diversity in time and space, transport vectors (unintentional and intentional), economic costs and status of predictive tools for assisting managers. We are seeing papers in all areas, and will be devoting a special section to ballast water research including new and proposed approaches for minimizing releases, e.g. ballast water research, fouling organisms, and intentional and unintentional aquaculture releases. Dates: January 24 - 27, 1999 Location: Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Cambridge, MA USA If you are interested in learning more about the conference or are likely to submit an abstract or poster abstract, send your name and address to Judith Pederson, MIT Sea Grant College Program, 292 Main Street E38-300, Cambridge, MA 02129, email: jpederso at mit.edu, fax: 617-252-1615. We are excited about the conference and look forward to seeing you there. *************************************************************** Chrissi Reilly MIT Class of 1999 creilly at mit.edu Environmental Engineering and Science 617-253-9311 *************************************************************** First National Conference on Marine Bioinvasions http://massbay.mit.edu/exoticspecies/conference.html From owner-coral-list at aoml.noaa.gov Mon Jun 29 09:04:18 1998 From: owner-coral-list at aoml.noaa.gov (owner-coral-list at aoml.noaa.gov) Date: Mon, 29 Jun 1998 13:04:18 GMT Subject: No subject Message-ID: <199806291304.NAA10562@coral.aoml.noaa.gov> ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Fri, 26 Jun 1998 12:31:11 -0400 (EDT) From: Walt Jaap STP To: coral-list Subject: Re: underwater GPS? Sender: owner-coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov Precedence: bulk FYI: There are military versions of GPS (MUGR, minature uw gps receiver and PUGR, precise uw gps receiver)that are used by Seal teams and others. The antenna must be on the surface to catch the signal. Unless you have DOD contacts the possibilities are slim and none of getting access to an underwater GPS. From osha at pobox.com Mon Jun 29 09:27:10 1998 From: osha at pobox.com (Osha Gray Davidson) Date: Mon, 29 Jun 1998 08:27:10 -0500 Subject: Gregor Hodgson's message Message-ID: <3.0.1.32.19980629082710.006ed48c@soli.inav.net> Gregor Hodgson wrote: >I believe that participation in community-based monitoring programs such >as Reef Check is THE PRIMARY solution to coral reef problems because it >is the first step towards developing an "adopt-a-reef" attitude among >local residents wherever reefs are found. While Gregor did state that it was just an opinion (and it makes sense that such a program is important) the claim that community-based monitoring is THE PRIMARY solution to coral reef problems seems a bit overstated. While there may well be lots of reefs for which this holds true, aren't there also many others for which other solutions are needed? For example, reefs that have few/no local residents but which are suffering from anthropogenic degradation. And even in cases in which building a local sense of stewardship is primary, monitoring may not be the most efficient method. With problems and conditions so diverse, it seems (my opinion) that there is no "primary" solution. Perhaps, instead, there are several equally important "solutions" that vary according to place. Or, more difficult still, for a given reef there may be several equally important steps that need to be taken at the same time. Osha Osha Gray Davidson 14 South Governor St. Iowa City, IA 52240 USA Ph: 319-338-4778 Fax: 319-338-8606 osha at pobox.com Scholar Affiliate, University of Iowa From cac at sinica.edu.tw Mon Jun 29 10:31:21 1998 From: cac at sinica.edu.tw (Allen C. Chen) Date: Mon, 29 Jun 1998 22:31:21 +0800 Subject: IX PSA Inter-congress--ECOLOGY AND CONSERVATION OF CORAL REEF IN THE PACIFIC Message-ID: Dear coral-listers, The IX Pacific Science Association Intercongress-----Sustainable Development in the Pacific, will be held in the Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan from 15 to 21 November 1998. One of the 20 symposia, "ECOLOGY AND CONSERVATION OF CORAL REEF IN THE PACIFIC" will be hosted by the Institute of Zoology, Academia Sinica. As the health and future of coral reefs around the world is becoming an overwhelming issue, we believe this symposium will be an important step to bring the scientists around the Pacific together to discuss the possible solutions for sustainable future of coral reef in this region. Confirmed speakers include: Plenary Lecture: Jeremy B. C. Jackson Invited Speakers: Nancy Knowlton Charlie Veron Charles Birkeland Terrence Hughes Terry Done Edgardo Gomez Robert Rowan Howard Choat Bette Willis To be confirmed: Richard Grigg, Callum Roberts Contributions on the wide aspect of ecology and conservation of coral reef are welcome. More information regarding to registration, abstract submission, traveling and accommodation is available at http://www.sinica.edu.tw/~psa or by contacting Allen C. Chen, Institute of Zoology, Academia Sinica, Nangkang 115, Taipei, Taiwan. Phone: 886-2-2789-9549; Fax: 886-2-785-8059; E-mail: cac at gate.sinica.edu.tw Cheers, Allen Allen C. Chen, PhD Assistant Research Fellow Institute of Zoology Academia Sinica Taipei, Taiwan Ph: 886-2-2789-9549 Fax: 886-2-2785-8059 E-mail: cac at gate.sinica.edu.tw From gene at wayback.er.usgs.gov Mon Jun 29 15:16:42 1998 From: gene at wayback.er.usgs.gov (Gene Shinn) Date: Mon, 29 Jun 1998 15:16:42 -0400 Subject: Coral demise Message-ID: A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: text/enriched Size: 2030 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://coral.aoml.noaa.gov/pipermail/coral-list-old/attachments/19980629/38f87c88/attachment.bin From BPrecht at kennesaw.Lawco.com Mon Jun 29 18:30:20 1998 From: BPrecht at kennesaw.Lawco.com (Precht,Bill) Date: Mon, 29 Jun 1998 18:30:20 -0400 Subject: Reefs at Risk. Message-ID: <831C92FC9CDFD1118B3B00A0C9AB304F02AB76@miami-1.wins.lawco.com> Dear Group: I just returned to find my email inbox loaded with various views on this question of "reefs at risk" Since a few of the examples discussed included some of my own research and/or research areas, I felt that I needed to throw in my two-cents worth. Recently, I was having a discussion with Sen. Bob Graham (FL) with regards to the "coral reef crisis" in Florida. Cutting to the quick, Sen. Graham asked me if what was going on in Florida was happening elsewhere throughout the Caribbean and western Atlantic? The answer is yes. An emphatic YES! Although this in itself is very disturbing, trying to blame Florida's coral reef woes on the sugar industry or primitive septic systems in the Keys is out of place and off target. I'm not saying these should not be included in a comprehensive management plan for a sustainable south Florida...they should. But as Steven Miller has made clear the "chicken little" approach, while it sells memberships to The Cousteau Society, Reef Relief and others, does not offer much in the way of rigorous quality science or to finding common ground for solutions... and these should not be mutually exclusive... I hope quality science will be at the forefront of future management decisions and solutions. The same increases in macroalgae we are seeing across the Florida reef tract are being observed throughout the region (Almost without exception!). The two prevailing paradigms for this increase in seaweeds include the loss of herbivores(overfishing) and nutrification (decreasing water quality). Trying to tease out the most important of these two on a regional scale (finding the smoking gun) has proved to be troublesome and problematic. Certainly, each of these are important on some reefs, while on others both are working in concert towards reef decline. However, on a regional basis the one common link has been declining coral cover. Specifically, the mortality of the acroporids on a regional scale. Over the past two decades these corals have succumbed to disease (white syndromes) as well as physical damage thereby opening space for the colonization by rapidly recruiting and fast growing algal species. This has occurred on reefs far from population centers on some of the most "pristine" and remote reefs of the entire region. In the early 1980's as White Band Disease obliterated A. cervicornis on the Florida reef tract, the same malaise affected reefs of the eastern Bahamas. These Bahamian reefs are bathed in some of the most oligotrophic waters of the western Atlantic. No nearby river systems, no burgeoning population on these islands, no deforestation problems, no sugarcane industry, plenty of herbivorous fish, etc.... In comparing similar habitats (apples to apples) these reefs look no different today than their Florida counterparts...lots of A. cervicornis rubble covered with macroalgae (in fact as Bob Steneck points out many of these reefs are in far worse shape than the Florida examples), while stands of other corals such as Montastrea spp. appear to be thriving. This is the same in Bonaire, Belize, Columbia, and so on... Rich Aronson and I have been struggling with this question for the last decade and a half and have just completed a paper that discusses this in some detail (Aronson and Precht, in-press, Evolutionary paleoecology of Caribbean coral reefs in Allmon and Bottjer (eds).The Ecological Context of Macroevolutionary Change. Columbia University Press). Certainly, Florida's reefs are in crisis...but than so is every reef in the Caribbean. Trying to pick the 12 most endangered is way too subjective, even with a list of discriminators...everybody has a favorite reef which brings me the second part of my discussion... The Reefs of Belize. First off I'd like to clarify one of Les Kaufman's points in an earlier discussion. Les stated "Belize was unusual in that when the acorporids began to vanish, there was an endemic agariciid...that could serve as a partial functional replacement, and it did." Although he is partially correct (see Aronson and Precht, 1997, Stasis, biological disturbance, and community structure of a Holocene coral reef: Paleobiology 23(3):326-346.), the reefs that were replaced by agariciids were lagoonal reef complexes in central Belize. The main Belizean Barrier Reef and offshore Atolls, lost A.cervicornis during more or less the same time period. However, on these reefs the replacement species was macroalgae just like most of the rest of the Caribbean including Florida. This coral-to-macroalgal scenario for Belize will be shown in an upcoming "reef site" in CORAL REEFS by McClanahan et al. Now turning to the reefs of southern Belize. The Maya hinterland is being deforested at a staggering rate, mostly for agri-development. This has dramatically increased the amount of sediment laden water entering the southern Belize lagoon. This coupled with the southward sloping configuration of the Belize platform, puts reefs that are already submerged (incipiently drowned) to a depth of >8m, in a position where they will founder and drown in the face of deleterious water quality. Without holistic management of the Maya Mountain watershed the effects on reefs from the southern Belize lagoon will be devastating. (Also remember that the fast growing A. cervicornis has been almost completely decimated from these reefs as well due to WBD) So where do we go from here????? Best Management Practices must be employed both on local and regional scales to be most effective. We must value all reef areas equally and not score Florida above Belize or vice versa... We must understand the pivotal role of coral mortality, especially mortality due to disease. We must understand the causes of coral disease... especially if there is a link to human's which many suspect...We must understand the recruitment and regeneration of coral species in the wake of these disturbances... We must be able to tease out those things that can be managed with those that can not... and finally WE MUST STOP POINTING OUR COLLECTIVE FINGERS AT POSSIBLE CAUSES UNTIL WE ARE SCIENTIFICALLY SURE THERE IS A LINK TO THE SYMPTOM. Citing decreasing water quality as the main issue is a cop out. Plaudits to Thad Murdoch for an interesting review of his Keys Wide data. Bill Precht LAW Engineering & Environmental Services, Inc. 5845 NW 158th Street Miami Lakes, FL 33014 ph (305)826-5588 fax (305) 826-1799 From pmuller at seas.marine.usf.edu Mon Jun 29 20:34:44 1998 From: pmuller at seas.marine.usf.edu (Pam Muller) Date: Mon, 29 Jun 1998 20:34:44 -0400 (EDT) Subject: Reefs at Risk. In-Reply-To: <831C92FC9CDFD1118B3B00A0C9AB304F02AB76@miami-1.wins.lawco.com> Message-ID: Three points: Point 1. The 1917 flu epidemic that killed literally millions of people worldwide, started, at least according to one theory, in a prisoner of war camp. That is, a new pathogen, once it gets into a population with minimal resistance, doesn't require that it's victims be stressed, only that they lack resistance (the current spread of HIV is another pertinent example). Thus, there is no reason to expect that the spread of WBD and other new pathogens like the possible Diadema virus, once they get into a region, have anything to do with the vitality of the population affected. Point 2. Despite an unfortunate "The" in the Florida Keys section of the Reefs at Risk document, I don't know anyone who thinks declining water quality is the only problem. To quote from the Reefs at Risk document "The coral reefs of the Florida Keys exemplify the complexity of threats to reef resources". On the other hand, humans have doubled the rate at which fixed nitrogen is entering terrestrial ecosystems (e.g., Vitousek et al 1997, Science and several other recent papers). To assume that we haven't similarly altered nitrogen flux to aquatic systems is unrealistic. Of course, understanding the spectrum of consequences of possibly doubling the annual rate of nitrogen flux to coastal ecosystems is obviously not a trivial matter, especially when we are adding so many other wonderful things to our atmosphere and coastal waters at the same time. Point 3. I suspect that looking for "the smoking gun" in the Florida Keys is analogous to searching for The Holy Grail. I doubt that you will find it, but hopefully you will learn something along the way. Pamela Hallock Muller Department of Marine Science University of South Florida 140 Seventh Avenue South St. Petersburg, FL 33701 USA pmuller at marine.usf.edu Phone: 813-553-1567 FAX: 813-553-1189 "Discovery consists of seeing what everybody has seen and thinking what nobody has thought." - Albert Szent-Gyorgyi - From MERPM at aol.com Mon Jun 29 20:40:52 1998 From: MERPM at aol.com (MERPM at aol.com) Date: Mon, 29 Jun 1998 20:40:52 EDT Subject: Reefs at Risk Message-ID: <2b91293e.35983415@aol.com> While it may not be great science to say that the leaking septic systems of the Keys and the nutrient addition to Florida Bay, etc., from agriculture in the Everglades are two of the probable major causes of reef degradation in the Keys it seems highly unlikely that they are not. Human populations and agricultural production have expanded tremendously in all of the areas mentioned in the last posting about this topic....Belize, Colombia, the lesser and greater Antilles, Honduras, Florida, etc. Reefs in all of these locations have suffered due to increases in agricultural runoff and domestic sewage, raw sewage in most cases, inputs. I don't believe the science is lacking...fertilizer and sediments from any source harm reefs. It is happening everywhere we look because human populations have expanded, everywhere, beyond the capacity of the land to absorb our wastes...thus the excess flows to the sea. The concept is very simple and, in most areas, waiting for additional research to be completed is in itself a major threat to reefs. We need to move from pretending that we don't know what is killing reefs to taking restorative measures or protective measures to prevent further losses. Mike Marshall From bmiller at soest.hawaii.edu Mon Jun 29 20:57:41 1998 From: bmiller at soest.hawaii.edu (Robert Miller) Date: Mon, 29 Jun 1998 14:57:41 -1000 (HST) Subject: Reefs at Risk. In-Reply-To: <831C92FC9CDFD1118B3B00A0C9AB304F02AB76@miami-1.wins.lawco.com> Message-ID: In reply to Bill Precht's comments: I have been to Belize as well as the Bahamas, and have a very hard time believing that the reefs there are "no different" than those of the Keys. Citing an upcoming "reef site" is not the "rigorous science" that Precht himself cries out for. Moreover, blaming declining water quality for coral decline is not blind "finger pointing"- there is a mechanism - increased algae growth in the presence of increased nutrients, and evidence of pattern (e.g. Cuet et al. 1988). This is not the only factor that biologists are pointing to, either; overfishing, for instance, is also often indicted by them as well as the environmentalists that Precht apparently disdains (e.g., Cousteau Society). The fact is, things are much more likely to get done by people like them than by decades of "teasing apart" of data that are hopelessly confounded and work in a complex environment that isn't amenable to unequivical field experiments. All the "musts" that he cites will unfortunately never be understood in totality. Don't get me wrong, obviously we must try, but things must be done before even good understanding of some isssues is reached. The precautionary principal applies here. Finally, why all the reference to big sugar? Is it possible, Bill, that LAW might actually work for sugar companies? That would certainly explain why you had Bob Graham's ear! Robert Miller University of Massachusetts Boston 100 Morrissey Boulevard Boston Massachussetts 02125 (617)287-6638 From delbeek at hawaii.edu Tue Jun 30 02:52:30 1998 From: delbeek at hawaii.edu (J. Charles Delbeek) Date: Mon, 29 Jun 1998 20:52:30 -1000 Subject: Reefs at Risk In-Reply-To: <2b91293e.35983415@aol.com> Message-ID: I seem to recall reading a recent paper on a study of nutrient levels off of Key Largo and lower down in the keys. Although nutrient levels inshore were found to be slightly elevated, those on the outer reef tracts were found to be quite low. I don't see how you can make the assertion that nutrient run-off is causing problems on these outer reefs when the levels are so low? However, having said that, it brings to mind the observations that many home aquarists have made and also illustrated by the microcosm systems at the Smithsonian Institute using algal turf scrubbers, that despite very low levels of nitrate and phosphate in the water column algal growth can still be quite substantial. In light of my experiences in closed systems I would have to propose that lack of herbivores is a greater contributing factor to algal growth on Caribbean reefs than high nutrients. I think if coral researchers spent some time working with closed "mini-reef" ecosystems, they might gain a new perspective on coral reefs and how they function in situ, as well as coral wasting diseases, which BTW are also being encountered by home hobbyists. J. Charles Delbeek M.Sc. Aquarium Biologist Waikiki Aquarium "The fact that my physiology differs from yours pleases me to no end." Mr. Spock On Mon, 29 Jun 1998 MERPM at aol.com wrote: > While it may not be great science to say that the leaking septic systems of > the Keys and the nutrient addition to Florida Bay, etc., from agriculture in > the Everglades are two of the probable major causes of reef degradation in the > Keys it seems highly unlikely that they are not. Human populations and > agricultural production have expanded tremendously in all of the areas > mentioned in the last posting about this topic....Belize, Colombia, the lesser > and greater Antilles, Honduras, Florida, etc. Reefs in all of these locations > have suffered due to increases in agricultural runoff and domestic sewage, raw > sewage in most cases, inputs. I don't believe the science is > lacking...fertilizer and sediments from any source harm reefs. It is > happening everywhere we look because human populations have expanded, > everywhere, beyond the capacity of the land to absorb our wastes...thus the > excess flows to the sea. The concept is very simple and, in most areas, > waiting for additional research to be completed is in itself a major threat to > reefs. We need to move from pretending that we don't know what is killing > reefs to taking restorative measures or protective measures to prevent further > losses. > > Mike Marshall > From Clair_Donnelly at mouchel.com Tue Jun 30 07:07:47 1998 From: Clair_Donnelly at mouchel.com (Clair Donnelly) Date: Tue, 30 Jun 1998 11:07:47 +0000 Subject: Qatar reefs Message-ID: <98Jun30.110332gmt.27778@gateway-uk.mouchel.com> An embedded and charset-unspecified text was scrubbed... Name: not available Url: http://coral.aoml.noaa.gov/pipermail/coral-list-old/attachments/19980630/506ec1df/attachment.pl From lesk at bio.bu.edu Tue Jun 30 09:10:55 1998 From: lesk at bio.bu.edu (Les Kaufman) Date: Tue, 30 Jun 1998 09:10:55 -0400 Subject: Bill Precht's reply Message-ID: <199806301259.IAA19771@bio.bu.edu> Thank you, Bill, for that discussion of Belize. One minor point, to file under "blind men and the elephant." My comments re: Belize were from personal observations at Tobacco Reef and South Water Caye, as well as on mid-shelf reefs around Wee Wee and the Pelicans. Tobacco and South Water (the spots I visited in 1997) sported luxuriant spurs of Agaricia tenuifolia, with isolated patches of A. palmata in shallow and scattered A. cervicornis sign and a few still-living, though embattled colonies. It's likely that heterogeneity in exposure and local conditions contaminate cross-shelf comparisons here, just as they do on the Great Barrier Reef. I just connected the few places I'd been to with the Aronson and Precht story, and they happened to rhyme. Bears a frightening resemblance to religion. On a graver note, after all this discussion of the importance of interacting factors, in explaining our collective wisdom to the public shouldn't we continually emphasize that whatever the unique combination of factors responsible for the death of a specific reef, the prevailing factors include several that we CAN do a great deal about? Even if overfishing and eutrophication are not the universal causes of reef death this year, there is no excuse for them in the first place, and ameliorating them will hasten reef recovery in any event. Les Kaufman Boston University Marine Program Department of Biology Boston University 5 Cummington Street Boston, MA 02215 e-mail: lesk at bio.bu.edu phone: 617-353-5560 fax: 617-353-6340 "I believe we are on an irreversible trend toward more freedom and democracy... but that could change." -Vice President Dan Quayle, 5/22/89 From Ron.Hill at noaa.gov Tue Jun 30 09:08:33 1998 From: Ron.Hill at noaa.gov (Ron Hill) Date: 30 Jun 1998 09:08:33 -0400 Subject: Reefs at Risk. Message-ID: <003063598E35100C*/c=US/admd=ATTMAIL/prmd=GOV+NOAA/o=CCNMFS/s=Hill/g=Ron/@MHS> ____________________Reply Separator____________________ Subject: Reefs at Risk. Author: BPrecht at kennesaw.Lawco.com Date: 6/29/98 7:07 PM [original message] Although this in itself is very disturbing, trying to blame Florida's coral reef woes on the sugar industry or primitive septic systems in the Keys is out of place and off target. Now turning to the reefs of southern Belize...where they will founder and drown in the face of deleterious water quality. Without holistic management of the Maya Mountain watershed the effects on reefs from the southern Belize lagoon will be devastating. ...We must be able to tease out those things that can be managed with those that can not... and finally WE MUST STOP POINTING OUR COLLECTIVE FINGERS AT POSSIBLE CAUSES UNTIL WE ARE SCIENTIFICALLY SURE THERE IS A LINK TO THE SYMPTOM. Citing decreasing water quality as the main issue is a cop out. Plaudits to Thad Murdoch for an interesting review of his Keys Wide data. Bill Precht ***Question: Why is it acceptable to point fingers at one cause of water degradation far from our Florida Keys, i.e., deforestation in the Mayan hinterland, but not acceptable to point fingers at a source of decreased water quality affecting reefs much closer to home, i.e., the sugar industry that operates on deforested lands upstream from the Keys? While decreasing water quality may not be the only cause for reef degradation it is certainly one of the major contributing factors that is manifested in a variety of ways (over-nutrification, sedimentation, transport of pollutants/pathogens, etc.) and comes from a wide variety of sources. All potential sources of degradation should be examined and addressed. Water quality problems are a source of degradation that can be improved if we are willing to do the right things. ron From kclark at iu.net Tue Jun 30 08:51:23 1998 From: kclark at iu.net (Kerry B Clark) Date: Tue, 30 Jun 1998 08:51:23 -0400 Subject: Reefs at Risk--nutrients In-Reply-To: References: <2b91293e.35983415@aol.com> Message-ID: J. Charles Delbeek wrote: >I seem to recall reading a recent paper on a study of nutrient levels off >of Key Largo and lower down in the keys. Although nutrient levels inshore >were found to be slightly elevated, those on the outer reef tracts were >found to be quite low. I don't see how you can make the assertion that >nutrient run-off is causing problems on these outer reefs when the levels >are so low? Use of standing stock (instantaneous measurements) to estimate nutrient dynamics is a classic problem in ecosystem analysis, because rapid uptake can lower the standing stock even if input is high. Enzymes involved in nutrient uptake of tropical algae have a high nutrient binding affinity, so one should expect _a priori_ that uptake should be very rapid. Turnover rates of nutrients can also increase without significantly affecting standing stock. Thus, one cannot conclude from low "levels" of nutrients that nutrient runoff is not a factor in algal overgrowth. In combination with decreased herbivore populations, as noted, even very slight elevations could lead to overgrowth. If inshore levels are "slightly elevated" then one must ask what happens to these nutrients. Rapid uptake as these waters flow over the reefs is a reasonable explanation. We also tend to assume that macronutrients are always the limiting factor, when micronutrients/trace elements can also contribute to algal blooms. These are less frequently considered in causes of algal growth. Trace elements are also components of agricultural runoff and of human sewage. -Kerry Clark - - Kerry Bruce Clark, Ph.D., F.A.A.A.S. Professor of Biological Sciences, Assoc. Dept. Head (Graduate Coordinator) Florida Institute of Technology, Melbourne, FL 32901-6988 Phone 1-407-674-8195 -- Proud Member of the Impoverished Gentry -- Visit the Cambrian in 3D at "http://users.aol.com/kbclark/cambrian" Metazoa website at "http://www.metazoa.com" "Bytes of Nature," publisher of quality natural history software From BPrecht at kennesaw.Lawco.com Tue Jun 30 11:12:23 1998 From: BPrecht at kennesaw.Lawco.com (Precht,Bill) Date: Tue, 30 Jun 1998 11:12:23 -0400 Subject: Bill Precht's reply Message-ID: <831C92FC9CDFD1118B3B00A0C9AB304F02AB77@miami-1.wins.lawco.com> Les: Thank you... and I could not agree more Bill > -----Original Message----- > From: lesk at bio.bu.edu [SMTP:lesk at bio.bu.edu] > Sent: Tuesday, June 30, 1998 9:11 AM > To: coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov > Subject: Bill Precht's reply > > Thank you, Bill, for that discussion of Belize. One minor point, to > file > under "blind men and the elephant." My comments re: Belize were from > personal observations at Tobacco Reef and South Water Caye, as well as > on > mid-shelf reefs around Wee Wee and the Pelicans. Tobacco and South > Water > (the spots I visited in 1997) sported luxuriant spurs of Agaricia > tenuifolia, with isolated patches of A. palmata in shallow and > scattered A. > cervicornis sign and a few still-living, though embattled colonies. > It's > likely that heterogeneity in exposure and local conditions contaminate > cross-shelf comparisons here, just as they do on the Great Barrier > Reef. I > just connected the few places I'd been to with the Aronson and Precht > story, and they happened to rhyme. Bears a frightening resemblance to > religion. > > On a graver note, after all this discussion of the importance of > interacting factors, in explaining our collective wisdom to the public > shouldn't we continually emphasize that whatever the unique > combination of > factors responsible for the death of a specific reef, the prevailing > factors include several that we CAN do a great deal about? Even if > overfishing and eutrophication are not the universal causes of reef > death > this year, there is no excuse for them in the first place, and > ameliorating > them will hasten reef recovery in any event. > > Les Kaufman > Boston University Marine Program > Department of Biology > Boston University > 5 Cummington Street > Boston, MA 02215 > > e-mail: lesk at bio.bu.edu > phone: 617-353-5560 > fax: 617-353-6340 > > > "I believe we are on an irreversible trend toward more freedom and > democracy... but that could change." > > -Vice President Dan Quayle, 5/22/89 > From BPrecht at kennesaw.Lawco.com Tue Jun 30 11:42:04 1998 From: BPrecht at kennesaw.Lawco.com (Precht,Bill) Date: Tue, 30 Jun 1998 11:42:04 -0400 Subject: Reefs at Risk. Message-ID: <831C92FC9CDFD1118B3B00A0C9AB304F02AB78@miami-1.wins.lawco.com> Robert & Group: First off let me say that I never expected such a varied and in one case "hostile" response to my comments...be that as it may...I will not address all the comments, it was meant to be thought provoking, and obviously it was. However, let me clarify a few things just so everyone knows from where I am coming. Bob Miller, you can take a swing at my scientific interpretations but be very careful when you start talking about my ethics. (1) Yes, I do work for LAW (an ENVIRONMENTAL CONSULTING FIRM). (2) No - we do not work for big sugar or large private developers here in south Florida. In fact we just turned down a large project for "big sugar" for an endangered and threatened species recovery plan due to the potential conflict of interest we would have with our other clients. Most of these clients are Governmental - including the US National Park Service, ARMY Corps of Engineers and others. In my job as the Natural Resources Manager for the region, I am mostly responsible for wetland and coastal restoration programs. This includes LAW's participation in the Everglades Restoration Initiative, beach nourishment programs, Coral Reef Restoration programs related to ship groundings and other anthropogenic sources, etc.... To date, all the reef cases we have worked on have been for the trustee's and not the responsible parties. (3) My reason for talking with Sen. Graham (Florida's Environmental Senator) is personal and not business. He is my neighbor here in Miami Lakes, he is a member of my church, and he is a SCUBA diver who loves the reefs of Florida. No more - no less. (4) I do not disdain Environmental NGO's. especially the Cousteau Society. From the time I can remember.. the thought of being a visiting scientist on the Calypso........ well I won't wax sentimental, you get the point. However, we do need to build a sense of stewardship with the non-scientific community, and NGO's are a vital way of doing this. My point yesterday, was with "chicken little" - yes- Florida's reefs are in crisis, but why? If it is a Caribbean wide water quality issue (as I suspect it very well may be) than we need to come to terms with how to manage these intra-ocean / multi-national problems... and we need to have the political will to do it. As far as big sugar goes for Florida - they are an easy target for the environmental troops to rally around. They are their own worst enemy here in Florida by often having a inflexible attitude to the point of arrogance. However, water quality studies from north-to-south, through the gut of the Everglades and into Florida Bay does not show that they are responsible for the water quality woes on the south end (the estuarine and marine end) of the system. It is well documented what the problems are in the Everglades Agricultural Area. We need to be careful when we make leaps of faith. As I stated yesterday... Sugar - septic - population growth - all need to be addressed in the overall plan for a sustainable south Florida. (5) As far as citing a "reef site" as rigorous science...it was just an example showing that the Belizean Barrier Reef has undergone a similar change from coral-to-macroalgae as some other areas. I did not want to get into too much detail on that topic as it is probably best left for a refereed journal, but since you asked.....I will follow with a separate detailed message, with data, later today. Bill Precht "The nation behaves well if it treats the natural resources as assets which it must turn over to the next generation increased and not impaired in value." Theodore Roosevelt > -----Original Message----- > From: Robert Miller [SMTP:bmiller at soest.hawaii.edu] > Sent: Monday, June 29, 1998 8:58 PM > To: Precht,Bill > Cc: coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov > Subject: Re: Reefs at Risk. > > > In reply to Bill Precht's comments: > > I have been to Belize as well as the Bahamas, and have a very hard > time > believing that the reefs there are "no different" than those of the > Keys. > Citing an upcoming "reef site" is not the "rigorous science" that > Precht > himself cries out for. Moreover, blaming declining water quality for > coral decline is not blind "finger pointing"- there is a mechanism - > increased algae growth in the presence of increased nutrients, and > evidence of pattern (e.g. Cuet et al. 1988). This is not the only > factor > that biologists are pointing to, either; overfishing, for instance, is > also often indicted by them as well as the environmentalists that > Precht > apparently disdains (e.g., Cousteau Society). The fact is, things are > much more likely to get done by people like them than by decades of > "teasing apart" of data that are hopelessly confounded and work > in a complex environment that isn't amenable to unequivical field > experiments. All the "musts" that he cites will unfortunately never be > understood in totality. Don't get me wrong, obviously we must try, > but > things must be done before even good understanding of some isssues is > reached. The precautionary principal applies here. > Finally, why all the reference to big sugar? Is it possible, Bill, > that > LAW might actually work for sugar companies? That would certainly > explain > why you had Bob Graham's ear! > > > Robert Miller > University of Massachusetts Boston > 100 Morrissey Boulevard > Boston Massachussetts 02125 > (617)287-6638 > > >