[Coral-List] 82 coral species listing

[Ellen Prager]

Gene

Interesting idea.

Just got back from the British Virgin Islands.
While overfishing is clearly an issue there, it was wonderful to see a  
surprising amount of A. palmata and A. cervicornis growing - clearly  
coming back and looking healthy for now!!!
Some nice clusters of Diadema as well....

Dr. Ellen Prager
Earth2Ocean, Inc
Author 2011 book, Sex, Drugs, and Sea Slime: The Ocean's Oddest  
Creatures and Why They Matter



On Jul 10, 2012, at 3:21 PM, Gene Shinn wrote:

> I am sitting on my boat in Marathon Florida Having just completed
> photographing my two main serial photography sites. One at Carysfort
> reef and one at Grecian rocks reef. The series is now 52 years in
> length. You can view the first 50 years of this series at the USGS
> website.
> What does the series show? The advent of coral diseases in the late
> 1970s and the demise of Acropora cervicornis that culminated in 1983
> throughout the Caribbean. Decline due to bleaching and disease has
> continued to the present.  At both study sites which were once lush
> there is no longer any A. cervicornis. I found one small sickly
> colony about the size of a grapefruit at Grecian Rocks. I have to ask
> the question. Had Acropora been listed back in 1984 when it was
> apparent to all that the species was in a spiraling decline would it
> be flourishing today? The answer of course is  clearly no!  Staghorn
> (A. cervicornis) does grow exceptionally well suspended on lines in
> the water column. The question remains, will it grow on the bottom
> where corals normally grow. It would be interesting to see if these
> corals would grow if  transplanted to Carysfort and Grecian which
> were once the premier sites for these species. Any volunteers?
> Possibly the Center for Biodiversity should  fund such a study. Gene
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