[Coral-List] Getting old is no fun; shifting baselines

Mark Tupper Mark.Tupper at utt.edu.tt
Tue Nov 13 13:55:26 UTC 2018


It hasn't, at least partly because the types of macroalgae dominating the reefs tend to not be palatable to many piscine herbivores. Then of course there's the steadily increasing fishing pressure on herbivores since we collapsed the piscivore stocks in so many areas of the Caribbean, which would tend to obfuscate any relationship between macroalgae cover and piscine herbivore biomass.

Planting algae on a reef as a fish stock enhancement tool would require a thorough knowledge of the specific types of algae that various fish species preferred. I wonder if this non-profit group has such knowledge.

Cheers,
Mark

Dr. Mark Tupper
Professor and Programme Head
Centre for Maritime and Ocean Studies
The University of Trinidad and Tobago


-----Original Message-----
From: Coral-List [mailto:coral-list-bounces at coral.aoml.noaa.gov] On Behalf Of Charles Delbeek
Sent: Monday, 12 November 2018 8:02 PM
To: Douglas Fenner <douglasfennertassi at gmail.com>
Cc: coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov
Subject: Re: [Coral-List] Getting old is no fun; shifting baselines

Then again, has the shift to algal dominated reefs in the Caribbean seen an increase in piscine herbivores? Something tells me it has not.


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

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Fax: 415.379.5304


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On Fri, Nov 9, 2018 at 6:12 AM Douglas Fenner <douglasfennertassi at gmail.com>
wrote:

> The Hawaiian Airlines magazine recently had an article about teaching
> people to plant macroalgae on Hawaii reefs.
>
> The Undersea Gardeners
> https://hanahou.com/21.4/the-undersea-gardeners     open-access
>
>   "The lei makers and planters are here to support the Waimānalo Limu
> Hui, one of several nonprofit groups dedicated to restoring depleted nearshore
> reefs through-out the Hawaiian Islands."   The article says something like
> they feel there are not many fish near shore, so planting algae the
> fish like to eat could bring the fish back.  One is tempted to point
> out that there may be more people than the fish can feed.  One also
> wonders if reef degradation has gone so far that the way to restore
> reefs is to plant macroalgae??  Could this illustrate shifting
> baselines?  In the past, we might have hesitated to recommend planting
> macroalgae on reefs, wouldn't we??  Maybe the opposite?
> Cheers,  Doug
>
> On Wed, Nov 7, 2018 at 6:44 AM John Ware <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
> >   http://www.seaservices.org
> >
> >    Become a member of the International Society for Reef Studies
> >    http://www.coralreefs.org
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Coral-List mailing list
> > Coral-List at coral.aoml.noaa.gov
> > https://coral.aoml.noaa.gov/mailman/listinfo/coral-list
> >
>
>
> --
> Douglas Fenner
> Ocean Associates, Inc. Contractor
> NOAA Fisheries Service
> Pacific Islands Regional Office
> Honolulu
> and:
> Consultant
> PO Box 7390
> Pago Pago, American Samoa 96799  USA
>
> IPCC says limiting global warming to 1.5C will require drastic action.
> Coral
> reefs would almost entirely disappear with 2 degrees of warming, with
> just 10–30% of existing reefs surviving at 1.5 °C.
>
> https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-018-06876-2?utm_source=briefing
> -dy&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=briefing&utm_content=20181009
>
> Key climate panel, citing impending crisis, urges crash effort to
> reduce emissions.  Coral reefs are projected to decline 70% to 90% at
> 1.5°C, but at 2°C, 99% of reefs would be ravaged.
>
> https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2018/10/key-climate-panel-citing-impen
> ding-crisis-urges-crash-effort-reduce-emissions?utm_campaign=news_dail
> y_2018-10-08&et_rid=17045989&et_cid=2416592
>
> Major UN report says climate change is worse than first thought.  Even
> 1.5C could cause damage that could run as high as $54 trillion.
> (annual US GDP is US$20 trillion, China and EU should be roughly
> similar, 2014 world GWP was US$76 trillion, Purchasing Power Parity
> was US$107 trillion.)
>
> https://www.engadget.com/2018/10/08/major-un-report-climate-change-wor
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