[Coral-List] Long term change in Eritrean reefs: past, present, future

Mon Apr 21 15:35:31 EDT 2008

Many thanks to Dr Mebrahtu Ateweberhan for what I consider to be a very
enlightening and timely contribution to the recent Eritrea postings. Those
who attended the 10th Reef Conservation UK Annual Conference in London
(http://www.coralcay.org/archives/general_news/ccc_attends_10t_1.php) will
remember Mebrahtu and be aware of the outstanding research presented by
Mebrahtu, a distinguished Eritrean reef scientist with whom I had the
privilege of working during my tenure in Eritrea as CTA on behalf of UNDP
and someone I continue to hold in great esteem and admiration.

Clearly, there remains a surprising and frustrating lack of knowledge
regarding Eritrea's reefs: surprising, given that they account for an
estimated 19% of the entire Red Sea reef area, and frustrating given the
unique opportunities presented in the late '90's by the UNDP/GEF/Government
of Eritrea's (US$5m) 'Conservation Management of Eritrea's Coastal, Marine &
Island Biodiversity Project' ("ECMI Project"). The latter set out to address
this issue but was thwarted for a number of reasons, not least being the
resumption of hostilities between Eritrea and Ethiopia, the severe shortage
(and diversion) of human resources within the National Implementing Agency
(Ministry of Fisheries, Massawa), the unwillingness to delegate key project
activities (and project budgets) to those better technically placed (and
resourced) within the [now sadly defunct] Department of Marine Biology &
Fisheries, University of Asmara, and the usual UN bureaucracy  (Raines,
2000: Project Inception Report. UNDP Report No: ERI/97/G31-4).

During my time in Eritrea, a great frustration to the implementation of the
ECMI Project was initially the diversion (often with no prior notice) of
previously agreed allocations of very limited and over-stretched Ministry of
Fisheries human and other resources away from what I considered core and
essential ECMI Project activities to such as the 'Seawater Farms Eritrea'
project (http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2007/04/hodges200704),
the Manzanar Project (www.manzanarprojectfoundation.com) and spurious
"fisheries patrols". Tragically, such frustrations paled into insignificance
later when project personnel were subsequently drafted for military
purposes; may colleagues who fell rest in peace.

On a brighter note: I may now have it in my grasp to act as a conduit to
assist in redressing (in part) the paucity of knowledge of Eritrea's reefs
(and more importantly, empowering Eritrean researchers and host-capacity) by
mobilising those interested through participation in a long-term, ship-based
('liveaboard') programme of research in Eritrea. This first requires several
official hoops to be jumped through but if anyone is interested, please do
stay in touch.

Pete

________________________________________
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Founder & CEO

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-----Original Message-----
From: coral-list-bounces at coral.aoml.noaa.gov
[mailto:coral-list-bounces at coral.aoml.noaa.gov]On Behalf Of
coral-list-request at coral.aoml.noaa.gov
Sent: 21 April 2008 13:39
To: coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov
Subject: Coral-List Digest, Vol 58, Issue 17

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Today's Topics:

   1. Re: More on open access (RainbowWarriorsInternational)
   2. Habitat Restoration and MPA's as prime focus of	Fisheries Mgt
      (David Fisk)
   3. Volunteer for a Ph.D dissertation evaluation (Fernando A. Zapata)
   4. Re: Long term change in Eritrean reefs: past, present,	future
      (Marco Pedulli)
   5. Re: Long term change in Eritrean reefs: past, present, future
      (Ateweberhan, Mebrahtu)

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Message: 1
Date: Fri, 18 Apr 2008 11:37:57 -0700 (PDT)
From: RainbowWarriorsInternational <southern_caribbean at yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: [Coral-List] More on open access
To: Richard Dunne <RichardPDunne at aol.com>,
	coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov
Message-ID: <467830.3180.qm at web65505.mail.ac4.yahoo.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1

A final comment on the emerging model for specialized publishing.

Besides and before being an (almost) full-time environmentalist, I ran a
small publishing company with regional aspirations, producing specialty
local publications e.g Eco Aruba magazine and other specialty publications
a.o in the field of telecommunications.

The specialty journal and periodicals publishing industry is almost
hermetically sealed off to newcomers for competition and this is achieved by
a modus operandi in which peer reviewers, productions staffers and
specialized personnel are hard to come by and long-time standing agreements
and academic traditions make it easy to "lock in" resources not of the
financial kind.

When Terra Publishing (this publishing company) tried to investigate the
possibility of producing specialty magazines e.g. on specific sustainable
development for the wider Caribbean region we ran into a "publishing
keiretsu" in the publishing sector if you will, in which the reluctance of
the academe to go with new ventures can be a insurmountable threshold to new
format journals being launched.

Of course there are exceptions to the rule, and one very delightful free
distribution publication to which we subscribe, is the Marine Turtle
Network's journal.

Such publications stay afloat because of the willingness of authors to
submit, the dedicated reviewers and production staff and because of the
donations, grants and subsidies received by the magazine.

I would recommend looking at http://www.arxiv.org to get a look at the
emerging model for peer review and pre-peer review.

There is a long way to go before new models for publishing which focus on
online open access and online competitively priced access will emerge.

A driving force behind this could be the need to reduce the use of paper for
printed materials, which need to be physically transported at (great cost),
whereas downloaded paid publications can be locally printed, all factors
reducing cost of publishing and production.

Sapienti sat

Milton Ponson
environmentalist and publisher

Richard Dunne <RichardPDunne at aol.com> wrote: Coral Listers

The posts by Rainbow Warriors certainly present an interesting angle on
this subject but I wonder whether they are entirely accurate.

For example the last post mentioned the News Corporation as being a
publisher of "scientific journals". I am by no means an expert on this,
but as far as I am aware the News Corporation does not publish any
scientific journals - many newspapers and TV channels and Harper Collins
books but not scientific journals.

We are also given the picture of  global publishing powerhouses buying
up scientific journals led by tycoons who are growing richer and richer,
and of a scientific publishing industry which is a reflection of the
19th/early 20th century. I find this a little hard to swallow. True, the
world has a history of self enrichment where any form of trade is
involved. However, publishing costs money, particularly in the
specialised areas that we are concerned with. Someone, somewhere has to
pay for this activity. Should it be the reader/viewer (as it is with
books and newspapers, and television), should it be the grant funding
agencies, or the author, or perhaps someone else, I have heard
advertisers suggested? Paul Muir also adds "The journals then get these
articles reviewed and edited by other researchers for free". That is not
entirely accurate. These days a journal has to maintain expensive
electronic peer review websites, all editing is not free, particularly
the final stages to make a paper ready for publication. True, there is
no payment for peer review but then so also is there no charge for the
author to submit and publish under this model. Perhaps then the peer
review system has evolved historically as a trade off between a freedom
to publish balanced by a willingness to contribute to peer review
without payment. Perhaps this is a commendable ideal.

These posts also do not discuss how the new publishing organisations
such as the Public Library of Science (PLoS) fit into this 19th/early
20th century model. These publishers frequently claim to be non profit
making yet charge authors large sums to publish (PLos Biology US$2,700 -
which they also say do not represent the full cost). Perhaps we ought to
be more concerned with this emerging model which whilst achieving true
Open Access comes at considerable cost to the author. What do authors
from less wealthy countries/ research organisations think of this. Worse
still if we read the interview (commended to us by Marc Kochzius) with
Richard Smith on the board of PLoS, who advocates the change to true
Open Access we find quotes such as: "Perhaps [publishers] will end up
charging quite a lot for actually publishing an article. For example, if
you're going to publish in Nature or Science it might cost you Euro
30,000". .. "I'm not saying this will happen. But when it comes to the
publication of clinical trials Euro 30,000 isn't so much. Such a trial
might have cost Euro 20 million." I find such sentiments somewhat worrying.

Nor does it appear that authors are on a level playing field. As Marc
Kochzius rightly points out, for US Government employees the copyright
lies with the government (not the author) and cannot be transferred to a
journal. In these circumstances, journals have special clauses which
apply to how the material may be used. Sometimes a similar situation
arises with UK government employees. Why should we have these anomalies
for these authors and these countries? Presumably under the new Open
Access model (e.g., PLoS) these authors achieve no preferential
treatment and the government accepts that it must pay the publication
charge.

The Rainbow Warriors conclude: "Once the scientific community realizes
that it has a role to play in this process change will come as market
forces will be called into play." Many of us will be well aware that we
have a role to play. Perhaps we should welcome the choice that is
available in the present market. We can choose to publish in a journal
with no charge (even for colour figures), or we can choose another that
has page charges, and to these we can add the purchase of the
publisher's open access. Alternatively we can pay one of the new Open
Access journals. We can choose a journal which only  publishes
electronically, or go to one that also produces hard copy. We can also
choose a society journal which will be distributed to the members of the
society as well as to libraries and institutions. We can try for high or
low impact factor journals. We can choose a journal which gives us a PDF
of the article or one that gives reprints. All this choice is surely a
good thing. I personally rue the day that I am given no choice but to
pay US$2,700, or more.

If Open Access is the ideal, it will need to be financed from somewhere.
Ultimately it will involve a redistribution of funding from
subscriptions either to grants or  to some supra national journal or
research funding body (perhaps UNESCO). All publishers will have their
part to play in this evolution. If funding is through the grant making
bodies then one thing is certain, namely that the research freedom and
the ability to publish that presently exists will be squeezed out as the
power increasingly moves to the funding agencies. Perhaps that is not
desirable.

Richard P Dunne

West Briscoe, Baldersdale, Barnard Castle, Co Durham, DL12 9UP. UK
Tel +44 1833 650059

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Message: 2
Date: Sat, 19 Apr 2008 20:20:05 +0200
From: "David Fisk" <davefisk at gmail.com>
Subject: [Coral-List] Habitat Restoration and MPA's as prime focus of
	Fisheries Mgt
To: coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov
Message-ID:
	<1dd51780804191120o3a41fc1dh18dea123ac0bc992 at mail.gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1

I am responding in part to Tom Goreau's recent comments that included the
claim of restoration should be the main focus for degraded reef fisheries. I
keep hearing this assertion regarding restoration and its benefits, but I
wonder if others have differing opinions on this like I do. I have worked in
various capacities on a number of MPA development and reef restoration
projects and studies from the early 1980's (including recent years in
Pacific Island countries) and have yet to see or hear of any real success
stories with restoration projects, however success may be defined. It has
been my experience that restoration methods by and large, are indeed the
classic case of throwing good money after bad, except for really specific
cases where tourism interests, high value small areas, or education are the
prime aims of the restoration.

I think that there is a very different approach required when dealing with
fisheries restoration in underdeveloped verses developed countries, with the
former having a high percentage of stakeholders in the subsistence category.
Some points that Tom raised are the real issues with respect to enhancing
fisheries in either situation (outside the obvious catch quotas, seasonal
closures, and other people-management approaches). These are : MPA's are
only going to be successful if they include all the necessary prime habitat
for replenishment (from spawning to recruitment and juvenile phases), and
that juvenile fisheries species (fish and inverts) in general terms, need
structural complexity for protection and a chance to develop into breeding
adults. Of course, highly productive areas with these two features are
usually going to be much better in terms of recovery and resilience to
disturbance as well.

I share Tom's view that the current reef management MPA focus (particularly
Community Based MPA projects) do not really take sufficient care to consider
the importance of these critical essential requirements in their designs.
This is because the predominantly subsistence communities making these
decisions have a very small margin for making short to moderate term
sacrifices for greater longer term gains. That is, their prime habitat is
most likely also their primary food source areas. More success will be
possible if these communities introduce behavioural changes and instigate
measures to reduce the impact of modern technologies. A big concern for me
is the use of gill nets in major aggregation, passage ways, and spawning
sites as an example of a modern technology that is wreaking havoc amongst
many quite remote and even low human population reef areas of the world.

Nevertheless, I really have my doubts that any of the reef restoration
methods that have been trialled to date will offer the required ecological
features at a practical scale for any lasting effect on fisheries yields.
The recurring problem is that reefs that are usually chosen as targets for
restoration efforts usually have more serious disturbance factors that have
to be dealt with before a restoration project has any real chance of
success. Even the much promoted electrical reef systems are only really
offering some measure of structural complexity, and this is not a new idea
as wrecks and some artifical reefs have always offered that feature.
Developing mangrove systems on a large scale may be one of the few
'restoration' approaches that could work, however, along with measures that
are yet to be developed and field tested, that may enhance natural reef
recovery processes.

David Fisk

------------------------------

Message: 3
Date: Sat, 19 Apr 2008 18:14:21 -0500
From: "Fernando A. Zapata" <fazapata at univalle.edu.co>
Subject: [Coral-List] Volunteer for a Ph.D dissertation evaluation
To: <coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov>
Cc: 'LUIS ALBERTO ACOSTA MORENO' <laacosta at javeriana.edu.co>,
	'Guillermo Barreto' <barretog at univalle.edu.co>
Message-ID: <20080419231424.2CFF76F185 at ficose04.univalle.edu.co>
Content-Type: text/plain;	charset="iso-8859-1"

Coral-list members,

We are seeking an international referee for a Ph.D. dissertation. This was
written by a doctoral student in the Department of Biology at Universidad
del Valle in Cali, Colombia. The dissertation is titled ?Effects of natural
lesions on fecundity: implications for the size structure of a population of
the coral Montastraea annularis in a degraded coral reef in the Colombian
Caribbean?. Universidad del Valle requires that Ph.D. dissertations be
evaluated by three referees, an internal one (from Univ. del Valle), and two
external ones (one national and one international). We are, however, finding
it difficult to find an international referee, and hope that through
Coral-list we might find a suitable referee. The process would involve
reading the entire ms, submitting a written evaluation within one month of
receiving the ms, and attending a public defense or presentation here in
Cali, Colombia. Ideally we would like the process to be completed before the
end of June 2008. All costs of travel, food and lodging will be covered by
Universidad del Valle, but there will be no honoraries.

If you have a Ph.D., have expertise on the specific topic, are at least able
to understand written Spanish comfortably, and can afford to spend some time
evaluating the dissertation and have two or three days available for a trip
to Colombia, please respond.

Please respond primarily to Dr. Guillermo Barreto (Graduate Committee
Chair), or Dr. Alberto Acosta (Student's major advisor) and c.c. me
(although I'll be away in the field April 21-27). PLEASE DO NOT REPLY TO THE
ENTIRE LIST.

We hope someone will be able to help us in this process and contribute to
improving the quality of our doctoral program.

Thank you,

Fernando

Fernando A. Zapata
Departamento de Biolog?a
Universidad del Valle
Apartado A?reo 25360
Cali, Colombia

Tel. (+57-2) 321-2100, Ext. 2824
Fax. (+57-2) 339-3243

------------------------------

Message: 4
Date: Sat, 19 Apr 2008 13:10:22 -0700
From: Marco Pedulli <marco_pedulli at hotmail.com>
Subject: Re: [Coral-List] Long term change in Eritrean reefs: past,
	present,	future
To: <coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov>
Message-ID: <BAY112-W221760F085429E34F022318FE70 at phx.gbl>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"

Dear Tom, Pete, Mark and listers,

Good to hear from you all. Thanks a lot Pete for bringing up this
encouraging article on the status quo of Eritrean reefs for discussion. Tom,
I also appreciate you mentioned Gordon Sato and the Manzanar Project in
light with their work on mangrove rehabilitation. The Eritrean reefs are
certainly diverse, resilient and robust given the pressure they are under -
both natural and anthropogenic.  Strictly speaking, however, they are not
"pristine" but their near pristine conditions are good enough to many of us,
I'd reckon. I am glad Charlie Veron's assessment  came to those same
conclusions. This is really a breath of fresh air to many if not all of us.

Although pressure from tourism and coastal development, at this point in
time, is nominal the reefs are not completely free from pressure from
especially the heavy fisheries by commercial fleets. Places like Eritrea are
unquestionably stuck with a seemingly irreconcilable dilemma: on one hand in
trying to conserve these reefs for present and future use and on the other
in trying to aggressively use these resources for the common good and
betterment of their citizens.

By discussing issues pertinent to conservation in such a milieu I believe we
can promote awareness of such world heritage as the Eritrean reefs and
devise prospects for sustainable development. At this juncture, I can't help
but thank Pete Raines and Gordon Sato for their leadership and efforts, past
and present, in biodiversity conservation.

Cheers,
Marco Pedulli

> Date: Fri, 18 Apr 2008 10:08:16 -0400
> From: Thomas Goreau <goreau at bestweb.net>
> Subject: Re: [Coral-List] Long term change in Eritrean reefs: past,
> 	present,	future
> To: "Tupper, Mark (WorldFish)" <M.Tupper at CGIAR.ORG>
> Cc: Ivan Nagelkerken <i.nagelkerken at science.ru.nl>,	coral-list
> 	coral-list <coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov>,	ECOCEAN
> 	<ecocean_label at yahoo.com>,	Michael Arvedlund
> 	<arvedlund at speedpost.net>,	Gordon Sato <manzanarmangrove at hotmail.com>
> Message-ID: <82B4F438-435B-4194-B588-DEC4B665E0DB at bestweb.net>
> Content-Type: text/plain;	charset=US-ASCII;	delsp=yes;	format=flowed
>
> Dear Mark,
>
> A paper by Gordon Sato in a book I am editing for the UN mentions
> that the local fishermen are claiming increased catches after
> mangrove establishment. Like you, I'd suspect the usual mangrove
> dwellers. I think that Gordon has mainly word of mouth from local
> fishermen, but he has close contacts with the Eritrean fisheries
> department, and can let you know who might be following up on this.
>
> I'm sure you know Ivan Nagelkerken's recent great recent paper that
> resolves the controversy on whether mangrove juvenile fish habitat is
> due to strucutural protection by the mangrove roots per se, or the
> fact that they are in shallow water habitat, or because the shoreline
> is remote from large reef predators (notwithstanding the barracudas
> that love to lurk near mangrove roots)? By making artificial mangrove
> roots and placing them in many different habitats he found the
> highest juvenile fish recruitment on outer reef slopes, proving that
> it is the shelter itself that is the key factor.
>
> We similarly notice extraordinary juvenile fish recruitment to
> electrical reef restoration projects, and we are joining forces with
> the Ecocean group to release juveniles and larvae into such habitat
> to short circuit juvenile mortality and rapidly restore reef
> fisheries (that is to say, if anyone will fund this kind of work,
> which is far from clear). It is now obvious that MPAs don't work
> unless they protect prime quality habitat, and where that is gone
> only habitat restoration will restore fisheries. Now all we need is a
> few decades more for policymakers and funders to realize that the MPA
> fad can't work unless habitat restoration is the prime focus of
> coastal fisheries management. Until then they will continue to throw
> good money after bad and pray for "resilience" and that global
> warming and pollution will disappear by themselves.............
>
> Best wishes,
> Tom
>
>
> On Apr 18, 2008, at 8:22 AM, Tupper, Mark (WorldFish) wrote:
>
> > Dear Tom and listers,
> >
> > I have been following this thread with some interest after doing a
> > review of GEF-funded coral reef-related projects, which included
> > work in Eritrea. I was wondering the same thing as Tom - if the
> > reefs are so great, why are the fisheries not so great?
> >
> > Taking a snippet from Tom's post:
> > "I am one of the scientific advisors to the Manzanar Project, which
> > has planted vast mangrove forests along Eritrean desert shorelines
> > where no mangroves ever existed, using Gordon Sato's innovative
> > approaches, and these have resulted in large increases in catches
> > by local fishermen, which would presumably imply that the reef
> > fisheries habitat is not as pristine as claimed."
> >
> > I was wondering if anyone knew what species these large catch
> > increases involved. If they were Gerreids or Lutjanids, some
> > species of which have mangrove-dependent life history stages, or
> > other fishes that might be wholly dependent on mangrove habitats,
> > then the increases would result simply from the increase in
> > available mangrove habitat. In that case, the amount of reef
> > (pristine or otherwise) would have no bearing on the catch.
> > However, if the increased catches contained a high proportion of
> > reef fish which maybe using mangrove prop roots as an alternative
> > form of structure/shelter, that might imply (as Tom said) that
> > there was insufficient suitable reef habitat.
> >
> > Tom, do you have any data on those increased catches, or would you
> > know someone who does?
> >
> > Cheers,
> >
> > Mark Tupper
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: coral-list-bounces at coral.aoml.noaa.gov on behalf of Thomas
> > Goreau
> > Sent: Fri 4/18/2008 1:35 AM
> > To: coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov
> > Cc: Gordon Sato
> > Subject: [Coral-List] Long term change in Eritrean reefs: past,
> > present,future
> >
> >> Long term change in Eritrean reefs: past, present, future
> >
> > I'm wondering why this very interesting article on Eritrea's reefs
> > just posted on the list server ends with the word "Advertisement"?
> > Could that be because every place in the world is advertising their
> > reefs as "pristine" to attract tourists, whether that is true or not?
> >
> > In the early 1960s the late Thomas F. Goreau did a lot of work on
> > Eritrean reefs, especially in the Dahlak Arhipelago. To his surprise
> > he found the coral cover was very low. That was where he discovered
> > the feeding mode of Acanthaster planci, extruding its stomach to
> > digest coral tissue, something he had not seen when he collected the
> > first live Acanthaster intact at Bikini Atoll in 1947, when they
> > lived deep in crevices and only came out to feed at night (they were
> > previously known from dredge haul samples and nothing was known of
> > their ecology). He attributed the low coral cover he found in Eritrea
> > to chronic infestation by Acanthaster swarms. This was long before
> > the "first" outbreaks that he, Rick Chesher, and Rick Randall studied
> > in the Western Pacific in the late 1960s. I have all the photos and
> > scientific specimens, but I have never found anyone interested in
> > comparing them to look at long term change.
> >
> > Now if the report below is correct, and I completely trust Charlie
> > Veron''s assessment, this implies that the severe Acanthaster
> > predation that was there 4-5 decades ago has disappeared completely
> > and permanently? If so, that is truly remarkable, and deserves much
> > further work because all across the Indo-Pacific we have been seeing
> > recurrent infestations and nobody has any idea how to control them.
> >
> > It should also be noted that mapping the Bleaching HotSpots (sensu
> > Goreau & Hayes, 1994) shows that there should have been several very
> > severe bleaching events there in recent decades. I have several times
> > alerted researchers in Eritrea to look out for them, but never
> > received any field confirmation. The long term sea surface
> > temperature trends for Eritrea (which I can supply on request)
> > suggest that worse lies ahead since maximum temperatures in this
> > region is warming considerably faster than the global ocean average
> > (Goreau et al, 2005).
> >
> > Another interesting point about this article below is that if the
> > reefs are so good everywhere in Eritrea, why have the fisheries
> > declined? I am one of the scientific advisors to the Manzanar
> > Project, which has planted vast mangrove forests along Eritrean
> > desert shorelines where no mangroves ever existed, using Gordon
> > Sato's innovative approaches, and these have resulted in large
> > increases in catches by local fishermen, which would presumably imply
> > that the reef fisheries habitat is not as pristine as claimed.
> >
> > It is delightful to hear that Eritrean reefs are "pristine", but this
> > raises very important issues of long term historical changes, and
> > almost certainly does not imply immunity to the challenges that
> > global warming will throw at them. More work is clearly needed.
> >
> >> Thomas J. Goreau, PhD
> > President
> > Global Coral Reef Alliance
> > 37 Pleasant Street, Cambridge MA 02139
> > 617-864-4226
> > goreau at bestweb.net
> > http://www.globalcoral.org
>
> Thomas J. Goreau, PhD
> President
> Global Coral Reef Alliance
> 37 Pleasant Street, Cambridge MA 02139
> 617-864-4226
> goreau at bestweb.net
> http://www.globalcoral.org
>
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 3
> Date: Fri, 18 Apr 2008 11:58:38 -0400
> From: Phil Dustan <dustanp at cofc.edu>
> Subject: Re: [Coral-List] Long term change in Eritrean reefs: past,
> 	present, future
> To: "Tupper, Mark (WorldFish)" <M.Tupper at CGIAR.ORG>
> Cc: coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov, Thomas Goreau
> 	<goreau at bestweb.net>,	Gordon Sato <manzanarmangrove at hotmail.com>
> Message-ID: <4808C52E.90000 at cofc.edu>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed
>
> Mark and Tom'
>     Have a look at Gordon Sato's work on the Manzanar Project - which
> was opposed by GEF COnsultants. Might shed some light on the issues.
> http://www.manzanarprojectfoundation.com/
>
>  Phil
>
> Tupper, Mark (WorldFish) wrote:
> > Dear Tom and listers,
> >
> > I have been following this thread with some interest after doing a
review of GEF-funded coral reef-related projects, which included work in
Eritrea. I was wondering the same thing as Tom - if the reefs are so great,
why are the fisheries not so great?
> >
> > Taking a snippet from Tom's post:
> > "I am one of the scientific advisors to the Manzanar Project, which has
planted vast mangrove forests along Eritrean desert shorelines where no
mangroves ever existed, using Gordon Sato's innovative approaches, and these
have resulted in large increases in catches by local fishermen, which would
presumably imply that the reef fisheries habitat is not as pristine as
claimed."
> >
> > I was wondering if anyone knew what species these large catch increases
involved. If they were Gerreids or Lutjanids, some species of which have
mangrove-dependent life history stages, or other fishes that might be wholly
dependent on mangrove habitats, then the increases would result simply from
the increase in available mangrove habitat. In that case, the amount of reef
(pristine or otherwise) would have no bearing on the catch. However, if the
increased catches contained a high proportion of reef fish which maybe using
mangrove prop roots as an alternative form of structure/shelter, that might
imply (as Tom said) that there was insufficient suitable reef habitat.
> >
> > Tom, do you have any data on those increased catches, or would you know
someone who does?
> >
> > Cheers,
> >
> > Mark Tupper
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: coral-list-bounces at coral.aoml.noaa.gov on behalf of Thomas Goreau
> > Sent: Fri 4/18/2008 1:35 AM
> > To: coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov
> > Cc: Gordon Sato
> > Subject: [Coral-List] Long term change in Eritrean reefs: past,
present,future
> >
> >
> >> Long term change in Eritrean reefs: past, present, future
> >>
> >
> > I'm wondering why this very interesting article on Eritrea's reefs
> > just posted on the list server ends with the word "Advertisement"?
> > Could that be because every place in the world is advertising their
> > reefs as "pristine" to attract tourists, whether that is true or not?
> >
> > In the early 1960s the late Thomas F. Goreau did a lot of work on
> > Eritrean reefs, especially in the Dahlak Arhipelago. To his surprise
> > he found the coral cover was very low. That was where he discovered
> > the feeding mode of Acanthaster planci, extruding its stomach to
> > digest coral tissue, something he had not seen when he collected the
> > first live Acanthaster intact at Bikini Atoll in 1947, when they
> > lived deep in crevices and only came out to feed at night (they were
> > previously known from dredge haul samples and nothing was known of
> > their ecology). He attributed the low coral cover he found in Eritrea
> > to chronic infestation by Acanthaster swarms. This was long before
> > the "first" outbreaks that he, Rick Chesher, and Rick Randall studied
> > in the Western Pacific in the late 1960s. I have all the photos and
> > scientific specimens, but I have never found anyone interested in
> > comparing them to look at long term change.
> >
> > Now if the report below is correct, and I completely trust Charlie
> > Veron''s assessment, this implies that the severe Acanthaster
> > predation that was there 4-5 decades ago has disappeared completely
> > and permanently? If so, that is truly remarkable, and deserves much
> > further work because all across the Indo-Pacific we have been seeing
> > recurrent infestations and nobody has any idea how to control them.
> >
> > It should also be noted that mapping the Bleaching HotSpots (sensu
> > Goreau & Hayes, 1994) shows that there should have been several very
> > severe bleaching events there in recent decades. I have several times
> > alerted researchers in Eritrea to look out for them, but never
> > received any field confirmation. The long term sea surface
> > temperature trends for Eritrea (which I can supply on request)
> > suggest that worse lies ahead since maximum temperatures in this
> > region is warming considerably faster than the global ocean average
> > (Goreau et al, 2005).
> >
> > Another interesting point about this article below is that if the
> > reefs are so good everywhere in Eritrea, why have the fisheries
> > declined? I am one of the scientific advisors to the Manzanar
> > Project, which has planted vast mangrove forests along Eritrean
> > desert shorelines where no mangroves ever existed, using Gordon
> > Sato's innovative approaches, and these have resulted in large
> > increases in catches by local fishermen, which would presumably imply
> > that the reef fisheries habitat is not as pristine as claimed.
> >
> > It is delightful to hear that Eritrean reefs are "pristine", but this
> > raises very important issues of long term historical changes, and
> > almost certainly does not imply immunity to the challenges that
> > global warming will throw at them. More work is clearly needed.
> >
> >
> >> Thomas J. Goreau, PhD
> >>
> > President
> > Global Coral Reef Alliance
> > 37 Pleasant Street, Cambridge MA 02139
> > 617-864-4226
> > goreau at bestweb.net
> > http://www.globalcoral.org
> > _______________________________________________
> > Coral-List mailing list
> > Coral-List at coral.aoml.noaa.gov
> > http://coral.aoml.noaa.gov/mailman/listinfo/coral-list
> >
>
> --
> Phillip Dustan  Ph.D.
> Department of Biology
> College of Charleston
> Charleston   SC  29424
> (843) 953-8086 voice
> (843) 953-5453 (Fax)
>
>
>
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> _______________________________________________
> Coral-List mailing list
> Coral-List at coral.aoml.noaa.gov
> http://coral.aoml.noaa.gov/mailman/listinfo/coral-list
>
>
> End of Coral-List Digest, Vol 58, Issue 16
> ******************************************

_________________________________________________________________
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------------------------------

Message: 5
Date: Mon, 21 Apr 2008 01:26:05 +0100
From: "Ateweberhan, Mebrahtu" <mateweberhan at wcs.org>
Subject: Re: [Coral-List] Long term change in Eritrean reefs: past,
	present, future
To: Coral List Coral Lst <coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov>
Message-ID: <480BDF1D.9000407 at wcs.org>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed

Thanks Peter Raines for bringing Eritrean coral reefs on the list.

It is hardly surprising that the news has been met with different views and
even with suspicion given how little is known about Eritrean reefs. My take
on the report is that it is very newsy and gives little scientific
information. The 'pristine' status in the report highlights the low level of
exploitation of the marine resources as the fisheries remains largely of
subsistence. Industrial fisheries, large scale tourism and pollution are
insignificant except near the two port towns, mainly due to war and
underdevelopment of infrastructure. The subject of tolerance to climate
change is more contentious.  In situ sea water temperatures reach 37oC
(average 34 oC) in summer at 3 m (Ateweberhan et al. 2006; Coral Reefs), way
higher than those that killed most of the western Indian Ocean reefs in
1998. Shallow waters on many reefs are still dominated by bleaching
susceptible taxa, such as Acropora, Montipora or Stylophora. I must say that
coral bleaching is very common (1998, 2000
, 2002, 2005) but is often followed by fast recovery. Our unpublished
results, based on trends in SST variability and bleaching mortality due to
the 1998 ENSO, southern Red Sea reefs are classified among the least
vulnerable Indian Ocean reefs.

I would like to point out that both the 1962 and 1965 Israeli Expeditions to
the Dahlak were confined to a small area of the Archipelago and focused
mainly on invertebrates and macroalgae. They were very descriptive and less
exhaustive on both taxonomic and ecological aspects. Even for one of he most
conspicuous fish families, such as Chaetodontidae, the published reports
from the expedition were less exhaustive
(http://dissertations.ub.rug.nl/FILES/faculties/science/2003/z.a.zekeria/the
sis.pdf). The above study found 11 species (the highest in the Red Sea). For
seaweeds that were extensively surveyed in 1962/65, the report that took
nearly 40 years to publish (Silva and Lipkin 2002) presented no. of species
that is lower by ~30 than the one reported by Ateweberhan and Prud'homme van
Reine (Blumea 2005)for the same area. And the outcome of Charlie Veron's
2007 expedition says it all. With a staggering 225 species (previous record
of 115 species for the entire southern Red Sea
 )and expected 1 new genus and 5 new species, the expedition has again
highlighted the large gap of knowledge.

I must admit that even with the present scientific information it is very
hard to come up with a clear picture about Eritrean reefs. It is also very
hard to conclude on the pristine state of the reefs without a proper
scientific investigation based on experimental fishing, proper reporting of
landing and modelingsee Tsehaye and Nagelkerken 2008; Ecol Model 212:
319-333). Similarly, proper assessments of the coral and zooxanthellae
community structure are needed for tolerance/adaptation (to future climate
change) investigation. I hope the discussion will be an opener for promoting
general awareness about Eritrean reefs and their proper management.

I guess the subject has very little connection with Gordon Sato's Manzanar
Project. I am glad that Sato's Manzanar project is bearing some fruit after
shifts in ideas and projects from mullet to milkfish, brine shrimp to
spirulina culture and finally to mangrove afforestation during the last ~20
years Sato has been in the country. Only Sato himself and those around him
know about the number of skinny goats, the number of plastic containers and
concrete blocks that have littered the coasts of Massawa. Only the gods know
about the ecological effects of the diammonium phosphate that has leaked
into the reefs and the introduced brine shrimp species, mangrove (Rhizophora
mangal), Spirulina sps... It is also very hard to swallow his 'low nutrient
theory' for an area with one of the highest nutrient levels and primary
productivities in tropical seas. Sorry, for inviting the listers to Eritrean
politics but what famished Eritreans want is to be left alone (not even fed)
for there is
 no lack of resources.

Mebrahtu

Phil Dustan wrote:
> Mark and Tom'
>     Have a look at Gordon Sato's work on the Manzanar Project - which
> was opposed by GEF COnsultants. Might shed some light on the issues.
> http://www.manzanarprojectfoundation.com/
>
>  Phil
>
> Tupper, Mark (WorldFish) wrote:
>
>> Dear Tom and listers,
>>
>> I have been following this thread with some interest after doing a review
of GEF-funded coral reef-related projects, which included work in Eritrea. I
was wondering the same thing as Tom - if the reefs are so great, why are the
fisheries not so great?
>>
>> Taking a snippet from Tom's post:
>> "I am one of the scientific advisors to the Manzanar Project, which has
planted vast mangrove forests along Eritrean desert shorelines where no
mangroves ever existed, using Gordon Sato's innovative approaches, and these
have resulted in large increases in catches by local fishermen, which would
presumably imply that the reef fisheries habitat is not as pristine as
claimed."
>>
>> I was wondering if anyone knew what species these large catch increases
involved. If they were Gerreids or Lutjanids, some species of which have
mangrove-dependent life history stages, or other fishes that might be wholly
dependent on mangrove habitats, then the increases would result simply from
the increase in available mangrove habitat. In that case, the amount of reef
(pristine or otherwise) would have no bearing on the catch. However, if the
increased catches contained a high proportion of reef fish which maybe using
mangrove prop roots as an alternative form of structure/shelter, that might
imply (as Tom said) that there was insufficient suitable reef habitat.
>>
>> Tom, do you have any data on those increased catches, or would you know
someone who does?
>>
>> Cheers,
>>
>> Mark Tupper
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: coral-list-bounces at coral.aoml.noaa.gov on behalf of Thomas Goreau
>> Sent: Fri 4/18/2008 1:35 AM
>> To: coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov
>> Cc: Gordon Sato
>> Subject: [Coral-List] Long term change in Eritrean reefs: past,
present,future
>>
>>
>>
>>> Long term change in Eritrean reefs: past, present, future
>>>
>>>
>> I'm wondering why this very interesting article on Eritrea's reefs
>> just posted on the list server ends with the word "Advertisement"?
>> Could that be because every place in the world is advertising their
>> reefs as "pristine" to attract tourists, whether that is true or not?
>>
>> In the early 1960s the late Thomas F. Goreau did a lot of work on
>> Eritrean reefs, especially in the Dahlak Arhipelago. To his surprise
>> he found the coral cover was very low. That was where he discovered
>> the feeding mode of Acanthaster planci, extruding its stomach to
>> digest coral tissue, something he had not seen when he collected the
>> first live Acanthaster intact at Bikini Atoll in 1947, when they
>> lived deep in crevices and only came out to feed at night (they were
>> previously known from dredge haul samples and nothing was known of
>> their ecology). He attributed the low coral cover he found in Eritrea
>> to chronic infestation by Acanthaster swarms. This was long before
>> the "first" outbreaks that he, Rick Chesher, and Rick Randall studied
>> in the Western Pacific in the late 1960s. I have all the photos and
>> scientific specimens, but I have never found anyone interested in
>> comparing them to look at long term change.
>>
>> Now if the report below is correct, and I completely trust Charlie
>> Veron''s assessment, this implies that the severe Acanthaster
>> predation that was there 4-5 decades ago has disappeared completely
>> and permanently? If so, that is truly remarkable, and deserves much
>> further work because all across the Indo-Pacific we have been seeing
>> recurrent infestations and nobody has any idea how to control them.
>>
>> It should also be noted that mapping the Bleaching HotSpots (sensu
>> Goreau & Hayes, 1994) shows that there should have been several very
>> severe bleaching events there in recent decades. I have several times
>> alerted researchers in Eritrea to look out for them, but never
>> received any field confirmation. The long term sea surface
>> temperature trends for Eritrea (which I can supply on request)
>> suggest that worse lies ahead since maximum temperatures in this
>> region is warming considerably faster than the global ocean average
>> (Goreau et al, 2005).
>>
>> Another interesting point about this article below is that if the
>> reefs are so good everywhere in Eritrea, why have the fisheries
>> declined? I am one of the scientific advisors to the Manzanar
>> Project, which has planted vast mangrove forests along Eritrean
>> desert shorelines where no mangroves ever existed, using Gordon
>> Sato's innovative approaches, and these have resulted in large
>> increases in catches by local fishermen, which would presumably imply
>> that the reef fisheries habitat is not as pristine as claimed.
>>
>> It is delightful to hear that Eritrean reefs are "pristine", but this
>> raises very important issues of long term historical changes, and
>> almost certainly does not imply immunity to the challenges that
>> global warming will throw at them. More work is clearly needed.
>>
>>
>>
>>> Thomas J. Goreau, PhD
>>>
>>>
>> President
>> Global Coral Reef Alliance
>> 37 Pleasant Street, Cambridge MA 02139
>> 617-864-4226
>> goreau at bestweb.net
>> http://www.globalcoral.org
>> _______________________________________________
>> Coral-List mailing list
>> Coral-List at coral.aoml.noaa.gov
>> http://coral.aoml.noaa.gov/mailman/listinfo/coral-list
>>
>>
>
>

--
??????

------------------------------

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End of Coral-List Digest, Vol 58, Issue 17
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