[Coral-List] Do corals need fish to remain healthy?

[Larry at OpenDoorWorld.com]

On Fri, Feb 20, 2009 at 9:53 AM, Eugene Shinn <eshinn at marine.usf.edu> wrote:

> Bill Precht, Program Manager at the Florida Keys National Marine
> Sanctuary  recently made me aware of a new paper titled, "Macroalgae
> Has No Effect on the Severity and Dynamics of Caribbean Yellow Band
> Disease." Ivana Vu et. al, 2009, published in PloS Feb 09 Vol 4 Issue
> 2. The paper is the result of an ingenious  manipulative field study
> in Puerto Rico. As the title implies it shows, that various
> Macroalgae have no effect on CYBD in Montastraea faveolata.
> This conclusion contradicts the widely repeated mantra...

8>< ...snip... ><8 ...   Many of us can remember the luxurious
> corals on the North coast of Jamaica before the early 1980s at a time
> when the area had already been fished out. Apparently what ever
> started the general Caribbean decline in the late 1970s and early
> 1980s remains  somewhat elusive   but widespread.    Gene...
> ---
>  <Coral-List at coral.aoml.noaa.gov>


I just can't seem to overlook the fact that it was exactly in the late
70's...
when large amounts of industrial byproducts were dumped into the rivers
and oceans. PCB oil byproducts, which are heavier than salt-water,
consequently accumulated throughout the world's ocean floors.

About that same time... the sea urchins and conchs disappeared
here in the Florida Keys...  and apparently... as the marine life's
immune systems slowly failed... more research was launched
to name the next... and the next... coral disease.

PCBs are an immune system disruptor and a neurotoxin...

PCBs are a major pollutant in all Oceans on Earth...
and with the dumping of billions of tons of plastic into the Oceans...
PCBs are absorbed in the oil based plastic and then transported by the
"plankton sized" plastic fragments... to many marine animals... from coral
reefs...
up to the great Orcas... all are now contaminated with PCBs...


---------------------------------------------------
The EPA says public drinking water
must be less than 0.0005 PPM in PCBs

The EPA classifies DIRT at greater
than 50 PPM in PCBs as a TOXIC WASTE SITE

BEACHED WHALES NOW TEST AT
1000 to 5000  PPM IN PCBs
------------------------------------------------------



Larry --in Key Largo
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http://EcoDelMar.org
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http://OpenDoorWorld.com/blog



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