[Coral-List] Sacrificial Reefs Re: Getting old is no fun.

Tue Nov 13 22:10:25 UTC 2018

Sarah Frias-Torres's post is colorful, and, yes, a bit elitist.  Why is it 'we' who decide to sacrifice some reefs in order to save others?  While this is an effective way to manage tourism damage to natural habitats (a mechanism long used on land, and also at some reef locations), it maintains the conceit that nature exists for us.

Of course, the billion tourists travelling generate an amount of CO2 emissions from flying about the planet that has impacts on coral reefs far greater than the direct damage by the flippers and bums of the incompetent divers amongst them.

But putting that aside, what is wrong with advocating for the right of nature to be left in peace by wandering humans.  Perhaps there should be a fee for every selfie taken in the great outdoors, with that money going towards the protection and resuscitation of the landscapes so freely used as backdrops to our unimaginative lives? I'm sure Facebook could find a way to make a profit out of the business of collecting and distributing this revenue.

Gees, I am in a black mood today!
Peter Sale

From: Sarah Frias-Torres <sfrias_torres at hotmail.com>
Sent: Tuesday, November 13, 2018 1:04 PM
To: Mark Tupper <Mark.Tupper at utt.edu.tt>; Charles Delbeek <cdelbeek at calacademy.org>; John Ware <jware at erols.com>
Cc: coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov; Peter Sale <sale at uwindsor.ca>
Subject: Sacrificial Reefs Re: [Coral-List] Getting old is no fun.

In 2012, international tourist arrivals, globally, surpassed the milestone of 1 billion [1]. If tourists were a nation, they will be the third most populated nation in the world, just behind China (1.3 billion) and India (1.2 billion). This nation of 1 billion is on the move, with all the associated burning of fossil fuels that moving, feeding and shopping requires. A fraction of them snorkels or dives in coral reefs, calculated as 70 million trips to visit coral reefs for leisure annually [2], and also urinates and defecates near those reefs, which highlights the need of proper waste management.
The tourists numbers are unstoppable, in a world hungry for Instagram and the compulsive need to selfie our way to death by social media likes.

Mark's explanation of diving in Guam in the early 2000's highlights a much needed direct management measure in snorkel/dive operations at coral reefs.

We must implement the concept of the sacrificial reef. The dead coral reef where dive operators take the cattle boats of novice divers/snorkelers, so they can feel happy seeing minnow-sized fish, and yo-yo dive their way to the best selfie.
Then, have a set of prime coral reefs, where dive operators only take experienced divers (as shown by their dive certifications), with a prior check-in dive to test their buoyancy control skills. The cost of diving at these prime coral reefs will be higher, with smaller boats and customized service.

I know this concept sounds elitist and it's against a democratic access to nature. But we are loving nature and coral reefs to death. it's time we use all the tools in the toolbox to conserve any healthy and functioning coral reefs still in existence.

References

[1] UNWTO World Tourism Barometer. 11 (1). January 2013.
[2] Spalding et al (2017) Mapping the global value and distribution of coral reef tourism. Marine Policy 82: 104-113

<><...<><...<><...

Sarah Frias-Torres, Ph.D.
Twitter: @GrouperDoc
Science Blog: https://grouperluna.com/
Art Blog: https://oceanbestiary.com/

________________________________
From: Coral-List <coral-list-bounces at coral.aoml.noaa.gov<mailto:coral-list-bounces at coral.aoml.noaa.gov>> on behalf of Mark Tupper <Mark.Tupper at utt.edu.tt<mailto:Mark.Tupper at utt.edu.tt>>
Sent: Friday, November 9, 2018 9:38 AM
To: Charles Delbeek; John Ware
Cc: coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov<mailto:coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov>; Sale at uwindsor.ca<mailto:Sale at uwindsor.ca>
Subject: Re: [Coral-List] Getting old is no fun.

Living in Guam in the early 2000's, I noticed that a couple of the more responsible dive operators actually took advantage of the shifting baseline syndrome to help conserve healthy reefs. They would take the larger boats full of newbies to a long-dead area of reef and let them thrash around on the dead coral and marvel at the little damselfish and wrasses. The newbies would come up saying how amazing and beautiful the reef was. The experienced divers with better buoyancy control and a better idea of what a reef should look like, could pay more to go in smaller groups to healthier reefs with live coral and big fish.

Mark Tupper | The University of Trinidad and Tobago
Programme Professor | Centre for Maritime and Ocean Studies
Chaguaramas Campus | Tel: (868) 642-8888 Ext#22126 | Mobile: (868) 748-6755
mark.tupper at utt.edu.tt<mailto:mark.tupper at utt.edu.tt> | www.utt.edu.tt<http://www.utt.edu.tt>

-----Original Message-----
From: Coral-List [mailto:coral-list-bounces at coral.aoml.noaa.gov] On Behalf Of Charles Delbeek
Sent: Wednesday, 7 November 2018 3:44 PM
To: John Ware <jware at erols.com<mailto:jware at erols.com>>
Cc: deaneware at yahoo.com<mailto:deaneware at yahoo.com>; coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov<mailto:coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov>; Sale at uwindsor.ca<mailto:Sale at uwindsor.ca>
Subject: Re: [Coral-List] Getting old is no fun.

Sadly that is a common occurrence, and not just with reefs.

*J. Charles Delbeek, M.Sc.*Curator, Steinhart Aquarium California Academy of Sciences

Desk: 415.379.5303
Fax: 415.379.5304

*cdelbeek at calacademy.org<mailto:*cdelbeek at calacademy.org> <cdelbeek at calacademy.org<mailto:cdelbeek at calacademy.org>>*www.calacademy.org

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On Wed, Nov 7, 2018 at 9:43 AM John Ware <jware at erols.com<mailto:jware at erols.com>> wrote:

> Dear Peter and List,
>
> Peter Sale's recent comment, extracted below:
>
> "...that over the next decade or so, the world is going to lose a lot
> of coral reef scientists along with our memories of what reefs could
> be like in a Holocene ocean that no longer exists."
>
> This reminded me of a recent trip my wife and I made to Curacao.  We
> have been diving ~40 years, maybe not long by the standards of many
> coral reef scientists, but long enough to have seen many changes to our reefs.
>
> We were on a boat with quite a number of much younger divers (it seems
> everyone is much younger these days).  When we came up my wife's first
> comment was that "It was like diving on a cemetery!"  However, the
> younger divers were raving about the beautiful reef referring to
> algal-covered mounds that were once live coral.
>
> John
>
> --
>
>   John R. Ware, PhD
>   President
>   SeaServices, LLC
>   302 N. Mule Deer Pt.
>   Payson, AZ 85541, USA
>   928 478-6358
>   jware at erols.com<mailto:jware at erols.com>
>   http://www.seaservices.org
>
>    Become a member of the International Society for Reef Studies
>    http://www.coralreefs.org
>
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>
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