[Coral-List] Qatar Reefs

[Gene Shinn]

Greg,  I suspect you will soon hear from Ian Mcdonald who lives in 
Qatar and works on such problems.
I lived there for 2.5 years in the mid 1960s when oil pollution 
clearly was not a concern to the native population. In spite of this 
lack of concern, which  has changed since then or you would not be 
asking the question, I never observed negative effects of crude oil 
spills ( and there were many throughout the Gulf). As nearly as I 
could determine, high water temperatures during most of the year 
accelerated bacterial degradation of any spilled crude oil. The most 
devastating event was a cold snap in February 1964 that literally 
killed all the Acroporid corals around Qatar but spared brain corals. 
I described the event in (Shinn; E. A., 1976, Coral reef recovery in 
Florida and the Persian Gulf:  Environmental Geology, v. 1, p. 
241-254.)  Fish, sea snakes, and manatees, were also  killed by the 
cold along with many other forms of marine life.
Similar death of corals occurred during the 1997-98 worldwide el 
Nino. Coral biologist Ian Mcdonald was there to investigate that 
event.  Ok Ian, Your turn. Gene
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No Rocks, No Water, No Ecosystem (EAS)
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E. A. Shinn, Courtesy Professor
University of South Florida
Marine Science Center (room 204)
140 Seventh Avenue South
St. Petersburg, FL 33701
<eshinn at marine.usf.edu>
Tel 727 553-1158---------------------------------- 
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