[Coral-List] Endangered species status will be considered for 82 corals
Andrea A. Treece
atreece at biologicaldiversity.org
Wed Feb 17 20:14:01 EST 2010
Hi all,
I'd like to respond to some of the questions Gene raised about CBD's coral
petition and the effects of listing corals under the Endangered Species Act
(ESA). First, the purpose of the listing petition is pretty straightforward:
to protect corals from a range of threats, including not just climate change
and acidification, but degraded water quality, destruction by anchors, trawl
gear, and unsustainable development. Please bear in mind that listing a
species and designating critical habitat for it does not automatically block
any activity. Acropora palmata and A. cervicornis are already listed under
the ESA and critical habitat has been designated for both species along the
south Fla. coast and Keys. Diving, fishing, research, and pretty much every
other activity that was permitted before continues now. The main difference
is that the federal government must now ensure that any activity it
authorizes or funds in that area (e.g., dredging) will not jeopardize the
survival and recovery of those species or destroy their critical habitat.
That analysis rarely results in activities being wholly curtailed. Most
often they are modified to minimize impacts and allowed to continue.
As one who works with this law day in and day out, I can assure you that
listing corals is not going to lead to requiring rebreathers or excluding
divers from coral habitat. What we do hope it will accomplish with divers
is an increased awareness that these corals are fragile, incredibly
important habitat-builders that need to be treated with care. I've seen
enough of my fellow divers grabbing and kicking coral to believe that
message has still not reached nearly enough recreational divers.
We also hope to raise awareness regarding the threat of climate change and
ocean acidification to coral reefs. As many on this list have noted, public
awareness is crucial to protecting corals. There has been much discussion
on the list about how to bring the "save the corals" message to the public.
This is one more way to do that.
As for research, it is true that researchers will need to get one more
permit. For researchers dedicated to understanding and conserving corals,
I'd hope this wouldn't be seen as a reason to oppose protecting them under a
law designed to ensure not only their survival, but their recovery.
Moreover, ESA listing can bring with it increased attention and funding for
scientific research on the listed species.
I hope this information is helpful. Please feel free to contact us if you
have any questions about the petition, how the process works, etc. Thank
you all for the great work you do to protect corals.
Andrea
Andrea A. Treece
Senior Attorney, Oceans Program
Center for Biological Diversity
351 California Street, Suite 600
San Francisco, CA 94104
ph: 415-436-9682 x306 fax: 415-436-9683
-----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: Wednesday, February 17, 2010 9:00 AM
To: coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov
Subject: Coral-List Digest, Vol 18, Issue 16
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When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific
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Today's Topics:
1. LAC system for Tourism Development in MPA (Asril Djunaidi)
2. ESA Earth Observation Summer School 2010 (Artur Gil)
3. Re: Coral disease or bleaching?? (Allan Bright)
4. sea urchin removal to prevent bioerosion (Clement Dumont)
5. Endangered species status will be considered for 82 corals
(Eugene Shinn)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Message: 1
Date: Mon, 15 Feb 2010 22:43:08 -0500 (EST)
From: "Asril Djunaidi" <asril at orangpesisir.org>
Subject: [Coral-List] LAC system for Tourism Development in MPA
To: coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov
Message-ID:
<33068.202.152.48.202.1266291788.squirrel at webmail.netfirms.com>
Content-Type: text/plain;charset=iso-8859-1
Dear all,
I am searching articles,thesis,dessertation,etc that discuss about LAC
(limits of acceptable change)approach for tourism development within MPA
Management.
Does any one out there could help me on this? Many thanks in advance.
All the Best,
Asril
------------------------------
Message: 2
Date: Tue, 16 Feb 2010 08:20:37 -0800 (PST)
From: Artur Gil <arturfreiregil at yahoo.com.br>
Subject: [Coral-List] ESA Earth Observation Summer School 2010
To: lusogis at yahoogroups.com
Message-ID: <770599.45741.qm at web37908.mail.mud.yahoo.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8
ESA Earth Observation Summer School
on "Earth System Monitoring & Modelling" (2-13 Aug 2010,
Frascati, Italy)
On the occasion of the 5th EO Summer School on ?Earth System Monitoring
& Modelling?, the "European Space Agency" (ESA) would like
to invite young researchers to join leading experts in Earth Observation,
Modelling and Data Assimilation for keynote lectures,
hands-on computing practical and poster sessions.. The EO Summer School
will be held in ESRIN (Frascati, near Rome), 2-13 Aug 2010.
More information can be found on http://envisat.esa.int/envschool/.
Applications should be made on-line no later than 15 March 2010. All
enquiries
should be addressed to envschool at esa.int
Kind regards,
The EO Summer School Organising team
____________________________________________________________________________
________
Veja quais s?o os assuntos do momento no Yahoo! +Buscados
http://br.maisbuscados.yahoo.com
------------------------------
Message: 3
Date: Tue, 16 Feb 2010 11:49:16 -0500
From: Allan Bright <allanjbright at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [Coral-List] Coral disease or bleaching??
To: coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov
Message-ID:
<154c45071002160849i7aa77072p4fe115a98c6f019c at mail.gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
For those who are interested, I too have observed these ring shaped
bleached spots on colonies of Acropora palmata in St. Thomas and St.
John, USVI. I conducted monthly surveys of A. palmata colonies at
five sites around the two islands from September 2007 through July
2009. During this survey period, I noticed this pattern of bleaching
on 12% of my regularly monitored colonies (condition observed
year-round). On a few colonies the bleached spots were observed every
month during the survey period (one colony of which contained a
Microspathodon chrysurus territory). The general characteristics of
the pattern I observed are a ring/circle (~2cm diameter) of thin,
bleached tissue with the corallites appearing worn down. The bleach
spots generally occurred in great numbers, sometimes leaving large
areas of the colony bleached. No tissue loss was observed as a result
of this condition, with the exception of one colony where tissue loss
occurred post-bleaching (after approximately 7 months of condition
observed to be present). From my observations, it appears as though
damselfish are repetitively nipping at particular areas of the colony
resulting in this bleaching pattern. On two occasions I have
witnessed the yellowtail damsel, Microspathodon chrysurus, nipping at
these small bleach spots.
Photo examples can be found at the following link (my apologies for
the poor image quality):
http://s848.photobucket.com/albums/ab47/allanjbright/?action=view¤t=bl
eachspots.jpg
Williams et al. (2006) also suggest damselfish as possible cause of
bleached rings on colonies of A. palmata.
Williams, D.E., M.W. Miller, and K.L. Kramer. 2006. Demographic
monitoring protocols for threatened Caribbean Acropora spp. corals.
NOAA Technical Memorandum NMFSSEFSC-543. 91 pp.
regards,
Allan Bright
------------------------------
Message: 4
Date: Wed, 17 Feb 2010 16:01:10 +0800
From: Clement Dumont <cdumont at hku.hk>
Subject: [Coral-List] sea urchin removal to prevent bioerosion
To: "coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov" <coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov>
Message-ID:
<A079DF1679D36540A0B97A14317E122A12B13FA5B4 at MAIL.hkucc-com.hku.hk>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
Dear all,
thank you for all the comprehensive replies from which I learned a lot. My
initial question, however, remained unanswered. Does anybody is aware of
report/publication of such removal practice of grazers to protect/restore
coral reefs (i.e. removal program similar to the crown-of thorns)?
I have also a project in Malaysia where the Marine Park rangers remove
every year the sea star Acanthaster planci in an attempt to prevent
population outbreaks. However, when I found similar densities of sea stars
at the sites where removal occur with sites where no sea stars are
collected. Unthinking removal programs are generally unsuccessful and can
even further damage the corals (e.g. Japan sea star removal).
Best wishes,
Clement
---------
Date: Thu, 11 Feb 2010 08:54:02 +0800
From: Clement Dumont <cdumont at hku.hk>
Subject: [Coral-List] sea urchin removal to prevent bioerosion
To: "coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov" <coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov>
Message-ID:
<A079DF1679D36540A0B97A14317E122A12B13FA575 at MAIL.hkucc-com.hku.hk>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
Dear all,
the Hong Kong government took the initiative (based on brief observations)
to remove every year thousands of the sea urchin Diadema setosum and the
corallivore snail Drupella sp. to prevent the excessive bioerosion of corals
(but no studies have been conducted). Being really surprised by this
initiative, I started a cage experiment with different densities of urchin
to examine whether Diadema is the major factor contributing to bioerosion.
With no much surprise (the experiment is still running), we have a higher
recruitment of macroalgae and also higher sedimentation on corals
non-exposed to sea urchin grazing and even with high densities densities of
urchins, still no sign of bioerosion. Hong Kong waters are highly polluted
and the nutrient enrichment and high sedimentation may rather be the main
causes of corals degradation.
I am therefore curious whether such sea urchin removal practice (not on a
fishery purpose) is/has been conducted elsewhere to prevent bioerosion of
corals.
Thanks,
Clement
----
Clement Dumont
Research Assistant Professor
The Swire Institute of Marine Science
& The Division of Ecology & Biodiversity
The School of Biological Sciences
The University of Hong Kong
Pokfulam, Hong Kong, PR China
Phone: (852) 51 99 1730
Webpage: http://web.hku.hk/~cdumont/
------------------------------
Message: 5
Date: Tue, 16 Feb 2010 09:33:55 -0500
From: Eugene Shinn <eshinn at marine.usf.edu>
Subject: [Coral-List] Endangered species status will be considered for
82 corals
To: coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov
Message-ID: <a06230912c79f5a3ef4dd@[131.247.137.127]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" ; format="flowed"
Coral-Listers, Be careful what you wish for and beware of, "The Law
of unintended consequences." At stake is the listing of 82 species
of corals which is the first step toward making all Atlantic coral
reefs off limits to divers and researchers (except for an elite few).
Imagine the increased paperwork ect., that will be required to obtain
a permit to study any of these corals or a reef where they live. If
passed the next step will be designation of critical habitats to
protect these species----from what? and how? Every scuba diver
bubbles Co2 into the water, (exhaled breath contains up to 40,000 ppm
Co2).Down the road we may have to stop scuba diving or mandate the
use of rebreathers. The Co2 battle is being fought vigorously on many
other fronts so why use corals as pawns to create a new tangle of
government regulations and bureaucrats? What is really behind this?
Job creation? More coral police? The only winners I see will be the
lawyers! I think that this time The Center for Biodiversity has gone
over the top and is more obstructionist than I ever thought they
would be. I wonder who supports them? How do they get their funding?
Now that's something to ponder! Lets be reasonable! This action is
not going to save corals. Just look to the geologic record. The
grandest reefs the world has ever known grew during the Cretaceous
when Co2 levels were more than 7 times present levels. To and Earth
scientist this action appears to be just one more issue for people to
disagree on in a country already so politically divided on most any
subject one can think of. No this is not Glen Beck speaking... Gene
--
No Rocks, No Water, No Ecosystem (EAS)
------------------------------------ -----------------------------------
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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