[Coral-List] NOAA Press Release - 3rd ever Global Bleaching Event Underway

[Rebecca Vega Thurber]

Hi John,
  As your friend and colleague I respectfully disagree with your statement.
I don't think that the NOAA statement implied that all management must be
local. However, there is clear evidence that not only can land based
sources of pollution initiate bleaching earlier, it can also increase the
severity of the bleaching. Further, the presence of increased nutrient
pollution and the resulting effects of overfishing almost certainly reduce
the resilience of the reefs experiencing bleaching, such that corals
exposed to these local threats cannot recovery as quickly or to the same
degree as those in more pristine waters. Perhaps in the face of such
outstanding bleaching these factors are minimally important, but in the
long term when El Nino events are not at play, these local efforts to
reduce the intersecting effects of regional threats (sewage, nutrient
pollution, sedimentation and overfishing) and thermal stress from climate
are absolutely essential. Further the notion that there is nothing we can
do locally is defeatist. Communities must have a way to respond; water
quality and fishing management are two ways we maintain healthier reefs
even in the face of events like this.
     -Becky



On Fri, Oct 9, 2015 at 7:31 AM, Bruno, John <jbruno at unc.edu> wrote:

> Mark Eakin did a fantastic job talking about coral bleaching and ocean
> warming on NPR yesterday:
>
> http://hereandnow.wbur.org/2015/10/08/global-bleaching-coral-reefs
>
> But this bit of misinformation in the NOAA press release was disappointing:
>
> "We need to act locally and think globally to address these bleaching
> events. Locally produced threats  to coral, such as pollution from the land
> and unsustainable fishing practices, stress the health of corals and
> decrease the likelihood that corals can either resist bleaching, or recover
> from it,” said Jennifer Koss, NOAA Coral Reef Conservation Program acting
> program manager.
>
> So what, has NOAA / CRCP abandoned science-based management?  Despite our
> desire to deal with this global problem locally, the science clearly does
> not support this notion.
>
> JB
>
>
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-- 
Dr. Rebecca Vega Thurber
Assistant Professor of Microbiology
Oregon State University
454 Nash Hall
Corvallis OR  97331-3804, U.S.A
541-737-1851 (office) 541-737-0496 (FAX)
rvegathurber at gmail.com;Rebecca.Vega-Thurber at oregonstate.edu
<Rebecca.Vega.Thurber at oregonstate.edu>