[Coral-List] Worthing, Barbados

Tue Aug 13 00:15:14 UTC 2019

I am curious if this metric is applicable to Carib reefs as well as
pacific? They are quite different of course so I’m
Curious about the application. There are many ‘pristine’ but algal (Eg
microdictyon) dominated reefs in remote pacific atolls. For these, some of
the standard frameworks may not be appropriate? Just curious. Thanks!
Nicole

On Mon, Aug 12, 2019 at 9:42 AM Alina Szmant via Coral-List <
coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov> wrote:

> I served for 8+ years on a panel of experts for an USA EPA project to
> develop models for how to classify reef 'health and condition' using a
> bunch of survey data and lots and lots of photos and videos. Reefs were
> rated by the team of 15+ experts from "1 Pristine" to "6 Fully degraded"
> based on % coral cover, lots of coral demographics, cover by algae,
> sponges, disease, spp composition, susceptibility of individual species to
> stressors, etc, etc.
>
> All this as background to support the message of one coral lister that
> "location, location, location" is everything for coral reefs just like it
> is for real estate. Deeper offshore reefs cannot be simply compared with
> fringing reefs. We always asked our EPA bosses to show us where the reef we
> were rated was located because as a learned coral reef researcher, one
> would know a lot about what to expect in order to judge whether it was
> degraded or not.
>
> What I saw in this video is a degraded reef in the 3.5 to 4 score because
> so much of the coral was dead and recognizable only by structural
> complexity and generic shape. Not much algae, and not all that much sponge
> other than the barrel sponges. Barrel sponges have always been common on
> the deeper reef platforms where corals tend to be light limited and where
> there is plenty of flow to support large filter feeding sponges. This is
> fairly typical of the 15-20 m terrace throughout the Caribbean. What is
> missing in this video compared to 40 years ago is abundance of live coral.
> I doubt such  changes are due to eutrophication but rather to coral
> bleaching and thermal death and disease outbreaks. There is no evidence of
> corals being overgrown by sponges or algae, and lots of CCA and short turf,
> and herbivorous fishes in the video.
>
> I suggest that when people want to make generic statements one way of
> another about reef condition, they provide supporting information about
> what they hypothesize (or bluntly state) are the causes of degradation.
> This could result in a much more science based discussion.
>
>
> *************************************************************************
> Dr. Alina M. Szmant, CEO
> CISME Instruments LLC
> 210 Braxlo Lane,
> Wilmington NC 28409 USA
> AAUS Scientific Diving Lifetime Achievement Awardee
> cell: 910-200-3913
> Website:  www.cisme-instruments.com
>
>
> **********************************************************
> Videos:  CISME Promotional Video 5:43 min
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VAYeR9qX71A&t=6s
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> CISME Cucalorus 10x10 Sketch   4:03 min  https://youtu.be/QCo3oixsDVA
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Coral-List <coral-list-bounces at coral.aoml.noaa.gov> On Behalf Of
> Pawlik, Joseph via Coral-List
> Sent: Tuesday, August 6, 2019 3:55 PM
> To: coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov
> Subject: Re: [Coral-List] Worthing, Barbados
>
>
> The SW coast of Barbados has better coral cover and lower seaweed cover
> than many reefs elsewhere in the Caribbean.  Here's a video tour from
> January 2019:
>
> https://youtu.be/pFA5pw5FMVE
>
>
> Notice the huge biomass of giant barrel sponges!!!!
>
>
>
>
> **************************************************************
>
> Joseph R. Pawlik
>
> Frank Hawkins Kenan Distinguished Professor of Marine Biology
>
> Dept. of Biology and Marine Biology
>
> UNCW Center for Marine Science
>
> 5600 Marvin K Moss Lane
>
> Wilmington, NC  28409
>
> Office:(910)962-2377; Cell:(910)232-3579
>
> Website: http://people.uncw.edu/pawlikj/index.html
>
> PDFs: http://people.uncw.edu/pawlikj/pubs2.html
>
> Video Channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/skndiver011
>
> **************************************************************
>
>
>
>
> ________________________________
> From: Coral-List <coral-list-bounces at coral.aoml.noaa.gov> on behalf of
> Angie via Coral-List <coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov>
> Sent: Monday, August 5, 2019 11:27 AM
> To: Coral List <coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov>
> Subject: Re: [Coral-List] Worthing, Barbados
>
> According to Dr. Risk.Barbados is "...an island which could be
> characterized as an outhouse built on a karst outcrop". That´s pretty
> uncharitable. I´m trying as a Barbadian not to be offended and as a
> scientist to stick to facts so I have to add that we have two sewage
> treatment plants, one primary servicing the south and slated to be upgraded
> to tertiary and the other secondary, servicing the Capital. An increasing
> number of householders are choosing septic tanks over the traditional suck
> wells and our nearshore water quality (which is monitored twice monthly) is
> not the sewer one would expect given that analogy.
>
> Angelique Brathwaite
>
>
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-- 
Nicole L. Crane
Faculty, Cabrillo College
Natural and Applied Sciences
www.cabrillo.edu/~ncrane

Senior Conservation Scientist, Project co-lead
One People One Reef
onepeopleonereef.ucsc.edu