[Coral-List] Evidence that ocean warming has caused most Caribbean coral loss

[Steve Mussman]

Dear Martin and all,
I'm the limited one, just an old diver/educator. I, too, try to keep up with what I consider to be the best science available to formulate my perspective on these issues. I'm not downplaying local stressors or threats beyond those related to climate change. I'm just disillusioned with the American scuba diving industry because their posture (virtual silence) on this issue reinforces public doubt and therefore, in my opinion, is contributing to the demise of coral reefs around the world.     
Sincerely,
Steve 


Sent from my iPad

> On May 6, 2017, at 3:53 PM, Martin Moe <martin_moe at yahoo.com> wrote:
> 
> I’m a fishery biologist/aquaculturist from the old days when computers filled entire rooms, climate change meant the difference between summer and winter, and the cure for pollution was solution. So I'm limited, but I try to keep up as much as I can and I do have a comment on pollution. In my opinion the worst kind of pollution is, or soon will be, a kind of chemical pollution that is now ubiquitous in aquatic environments, and the kind that destroys aquatic life in the larval stages or affects reproduction; and that you can’t see, taste, feel, smell, or even measure by “ordinary chemical analysis”. It is a part of the thousands of chemical compounds that exist in our waters in concentrations of ppm, ppb, and even ppt, the effluent of our affluent societies, that can and do affect development and reproduction of many aquatic species and can reduce and destroy the reproductively capacity of many fish and invertebrates, and, along with plastic debris, these endocrine disrupting chemicals create a destructive pollution is ever increasing in our aquatic environments.
>  
> When a fish kill occurs, and I remember some very extensive fish kills in Tampa Bay and along the west Florida coast in the 1960s, you really know that a fish kill has occurred, the beaches are covered with dead fish, the smell is horrendous, and the water is fish soup. It takes  oa long time for the environment to recover from such an event. But when there is an even more devastating “kill” of marine species that affects primarily just the larvae and/or reproductive organs of adults, there is no obvious evidence that such a kill has taken place, or is taking place. It is only a few years later when the question, “What happened to all the fish (or coral reefs) that used to be here?” becomes a public wonderment and a subject for scientific investigation. And for the most part, very little can be done about it and the phenomena of changing base lines pushes the problems far into the past and the glory of what was becomes legend.
>  
> A case in point, I have been working for years on development of the technology for hatchery culture of the sea urchin Diadema antillarum. What better to occupy the retirement of an old marine biologist? Anyway, as you know, the larval development of sea urchins is complex. Diadema larvae are long lived, the larval period can extend for 35 days to 55 days, with most clocking in at about 42 to 45 days. Around 20 days the rudiment, the early structure of the juvenile urchin, has formed to the degree that it can be recognized in the larvae on the left, dorsal side of the gut. Then at about the mid 20 days, the rudiment has developed early tube feet and these tube feet begin to extend externally through the vestibule on the side of the larvae. In another 20 days or so the rudiment is mature, the larvae/rudiment becomes competent, and settlement and metamorphosis into an early juvenile takes place, an amazing transformation from a pelagic into a benthic organism.
>  
> It’s a long story, but from 2009 to 2012 after the details of small scale culture were worked out, competent larvae and early juveniles culminated almost every rearing run, I had survival to adults and even to the 3rd generation of cultured Diadema. At that point the work revolved around survival and growth of the early juveniles. Then quite suddenly in the early fall of 2012 the larvae would no longer form rudiments. Sometimes seemingly early rudiment tissue would form, but would never develop into recognizable early rudiments. This also occurred at the same time at the Mote Tropical Research Laboratory 50 miles down the keys from my little lab. Dave Vaughan was using large culture vessels, 1500 L to my little 50 L units, and was working with thousands of early juveniles. From 2012 to 2015, through many rearing runs, no matter what I did with the Florida Bay water off my dock, I could not get larvae to form rudiments. Then in January of 2015 I split a rearing run between two culture vessels, one with Florida Bay water and one with artificial sea water. None of the larvae in the Florida Bay water formed rudiments and almost all of the larvae in the artificial sea water did form rudiments. A recent rearing run, spawn of February 1, 2017, with Florida Bay water again resulted in no larvae forming rudiments. There is much more to the story of my culture work with Diadema, and much more research needs to be to done on this, but this quick review serves as one more indication that there are serious problems with our natural waters that cannot be seen, that are very difficult to research, and that are having drastic effects upon the reproduction of fish and invertebrates in our nearshore and perhaps also offshore waters, and it is another problem of our own doing.
>  
> No matter how we try to spin it, climate change that produces warming and more acidic waters is a real and devastating problem affecting coral reefs worldwide. Long term solutions to these problems must be developed and enacted if coral reefs and many other elements of our environments are to survive for the not too distant future of humanity. However, the effects of chemical pollutants, and plastics, are also real and of worldwide consequence and growing rapidly, and we must also resolve this problem, hopefully we still can.
> 
> Martin Moe
> 
> 
> On Friday, May 5, 2017 3:58 PM, Peter Sale <sale at uwindsor.ca> wrote:
> 
> 
> Steve,
> Not quite.  It is correct to consider anyone who works diligently at solving local coral reef issues while actively disputing the need to be concerned about climate change as woefully shortsighted.  But someone working diligently on let's say local reef pollution, who is not expressing an opinion, one way or the other, about effects of climate change, may simply be doing the best that he/she can with the resources and soap boxes available to her/him.  I'd prefer not to disparage good efforts, although I think I'd want to know more about that individual's understanding, and try to help if I found out he/she was unaware of how climate change might well eliminate even well-managed reefs.
> 
> Last from me for a few days.
> Peter
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Steve Mussman [mailto:sealab at earthlink.net] 
> Sent: Friday, May 5, 2017 12:57 PM
> To: Peter Sale <sale at uwindsor.ca>
> Cc: coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov
> Subject: Re: [Coral-List] Evidence that ocean warming has caused most Caribbean coral loss
> 
> Got that Peter, so am I wrong to consider efforts which focus solely on locally sourced insults to coral reefs while (seemingly) designedly ignoring the broader impacts of GHGs (climate change, CO2, warming oceans) to be woefully short-sighted? In other words, isn't it the position of the coral science community that even if we effectively address over-fishing, land-based pollutants, plastic debris, lionfish invasions, sunscreen contaminates, etc.., on the local level, we are still likely to lose many of those same coral reefs around the world to warming ocean temperatures (and eventually OA) if climate change is left unabated? That has been my understanding, but I've not read every study to date and perhaps I have misinterpreted and misrepresented the intent of the consensus statement that came out of the ICRS (International Coral Reef Symposium) in 2012.  Regards and thanks for your patience, Steve
> 
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