[Coral-List] Coral-List Digest, Vol 6, Issue 25 - Permanent transects: how to

Friedman, Kim Kim.Friedman at dec.wa.gov.au
Sun Feb 22 19:21:11 EST 2009


Subject 2. Permanent transects: how to (Lindsay Sullivan)

Dear Lindsay,

As I understand it, reviews of the sampling effort required for
monitoring relatively small changes in coral cover (20-30% annual
change) have found permanently marked transects to be a very powerful
tool (90% power to detect such results_CRAMP and Australian Institute of
Science Long-Term Monitoring Program). In such cases, marking transects
with galvenised stakes at the start and finish of transects, and using
re-enforcing bar markers (every 10 m) has been used (generally five 50 m
transects).

However, I am interested to hear from anyone who has run more expansive
surveys, not concentrating effort to smaller numbers of fixed transects,
but making drop camera surveys with a GRTS sampling regimes. With better
GPS signal availability, I would like to know what level of coral cover
change such a monitoring regime was able to determine with repeated
sampling. I know a larger focus coral cover assessment is also part of
the AIMS LTMP in their manta tow and scuba search techniques, but don't
know of many other programs that have tried to understand change over
larger scales with repeated sampling, with the inherent danger of losing
signal among the noise of variability - and therefore being unable to
detect reasonable changes in status over useful timescales.

This is an important question for Western Australia, as we now have
funding for a more strategic focus to marine monitoring, and are
implementing a long term monitoring program to detect change in a number
of marine assets in coming years. At present I am thinking of putting a
foot in both camps until we get a clearer picture of how the variability
of Western Australian reefs impacts our power to detect change.

Thanks for any insights anyone may have.


Kim Friedman 
Principal Research Scientist 
DEC Marine Science Program

Dept Environment & Conservation
17 Dick Perry Avenue, Kensington 
Western Australia  6151
Tel: (61) 08 9219 9805
Mob: 0400 120 972
kim.friedman at dec.wa.gov.au


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Subject: Coral-List Digest, Vol 6, Issue 25

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Today's Topics:

   1. illegal harvesting of coral (Lee Goldman)


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

Message: 1
Date: Sat, 21 Feb 2009 03:47:57 -0800 (PST)
From: Lee Goldman <coralfarmguam at yahoo.com>
Subject: [Coral-List] illegal harvesting of coral
To: coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov
Message-ID: <436862.98356.qm at web33201.mail.mud.yahoo.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii

Dear all,

A while back I took part of discussion about the merits of harvesting
coral for the aquarium trade and was reprimanded for using a figure that
could not be verified. I humbly agreed that in the best interest of
science I was wrong to use the figure (although I know it to be true,
and used CITES to back it up, the number was subjective so all of the
proponents of the aquarium trade jumped on me). Okay, let's get started
with the verification process as well as re-examine the concerns and
issues with regards to corals within the aquarium trade. For all who are
interested, check this link out:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29222985/

While the weight of shipment does not often accurately describe the
numbers of corals, I am willing to bet this was quite a bit...and coming
from an area in the world where this can make an impact. Again, for
those who feel there is no problem, please understand that one area that
represents a 'good' model (used over and over again by the proponents as
their model of best practice) is rare these days and the demand
obviously is not being met...

Please note that this is an owner of an aquarium/pet shop.
Unfortunately, this type of attitude and disregard for the reefs is not
uncommon with end-user(s).

Please let me know if you are having trouble with this and I can send
the article directly to you.

Regards,

Lee Goldman




      

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Message: 2
Date: Sat, 21 Feb 2009 13:35:04 +0000 (GMT)
From: Lindsay Sullivan <lindssullivan at yahoo.co.uk>
Subject: [Coral-List] Permanent transects: how to
To: coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov
Message-ID: <270583.30772.qm at web27306.mail.ukl.yahoo.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1

Dear Coral Listers,
?
Firstly I would like to thank everyone who responded to my post about
LITs, it was extremely helpful and a far greater response than I ever
imagined!
?
I wonder if anyone could offer advice regarding permanent transects. I
would like to set up permanent markers?to enable quadrats or tape
surveys?to be repeated, perhaps every six months, to monitor changes on
the reef?through time. It would be interesting to hear what has worked
for others in terms of how to decide where to place markers, what to use
to mark positions and label coral colonies, and anything else that may
be helpful to know before attempting this. 
?
Any guidance would be very much appreciated.
?
Best regards,
?
Lindsay


      

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