[Coral-List] Alert Diver Article on proposed coral

Jon Skrapits jon at treasurecoastcorals.com
Wed May 15 12:23:35 EDT 2013


Many good points. I would suspect that some are truth in certain areas of
the world. Not all corals or reef ecosystems are created equal.

I am a coral farmer. I currently have 600+ species that I fragment and sell
to make a living. It is critical that I keep corals alive to put food on my
table. I have learned that eutrophication is the most dangerous issue I
have to deal with but it is not always from the nitrate levels rising. It
is more because of the turbidity from nitrates that causes less light
availability for the corals to survive. Once corals begin to die off from
starvation, pH levels tend to drop and the habitat can start to cycle
causing many of the other issues discussed here like diseases and
acidification. The wild doesn't really cycle but the die off of
producers(corals) would cause a lack of fish over time wouldn't it?

All of the effects are important to some extent but it depends on the
animals living in the said area. Other areas of the world could be other
man made issues or just a natural phenomenon such as a disease. I say this
because I have learned that I need to segregate corals based on species and
that the habitats need to be very different for each. Yes, temperature is
more critical for Acropora sp. while pH is more critical for Acanthestrea
sp. Do I have papers to cite no... But I know what I have learned from loss
of $. It is a fantastic learning tool.

Whatever it is worth, I have asked this many times on here. Are Staghorn
and Elkhorn coral rebounding from being listed? If not, why do we think
this will work elsewhere and why are they not rebounding? Is the water
getting clearer?

Jon


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