[Coral-List] Reply to: Underwater loudspeakers could help restore damaged coral reefs (Peter Sale)

[sealab at earthlink.net]

Dear Steve,

I for one was pleased to read in the media release that beyond your study’s main focus you point to the imperative need to address climate change, water quality and over-fishing. The problem is that those imperatives often get lost in translation and as a result public perceptions are all too often formed solely on the basis of sensationalized headlines. What’s even more troubling is that in addition to conscientious efforts like your own, there are a number of restorative projects that by omission reinforce what I believe to be the harmful misconception that coral reefs can be well managed and conserved without addressing the aforementioned major stressors.

This issue is particularly concerning to me as I have just returned from Cozumel, Mexico with a severe case of “ecogrief”. The reefs there are being ravaged by a combination of SCTLD and unprecedented bleaching. The diving community in Cozumel is very concerned and although concerted efforts are being made to eliminate plastic trash and harmful sunscreen products (both very commendable campaigns), little is being done to bring attention to the more critical issues involved.

As our boat headed out to the reefs that are still open to divers a number of us discussed your study. Even among observant divers it’s still not easy to convince some of the role we play in the reef’s decline.

All this against the backdrop of nine monstrous cruise ships berthed along the shore line.

Regards,

Steve Mussman

Sent from my iPad

On Dec 6, 2019, at 10:37 AM, Stephen Simpson via Coral-List <coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov> wrote:

Dear Peter,

Thank you for these valuable words of caution (as ever) about the biggest threats to coral reefs.

As one of the authors of this study, I can assure you that we have used every interaction with the media to:

1) explain that the only reason we would even try this is because reefs are in such crisis from climate change impacts and poor management

2) that us exploring this approach is a direct response to the ecogrief that we, and many of our collaborators, feel when working on rapidly declining coral reefs

3) that this, and all local-scale remediation approaches, can only be a band-aid and will never be a silver bullet

4) that unless we tackle climate change then all this will be in vain

The positive elements of this story have opened the discussion to hope as well as despair, and given us (and many independent commentators) a fresh chance to raise the issues of climate change, overfishing and pollution.

In our press release we stated:

"If combined with habitat restoration and other conservation measures, rebuilding fish communities in this manner might accelerate ecosystem recovery.

"However, we still need to tackle a host of other threats including climate change, overfishing and water pollution in order to protect these fragile ecosystems.

“Whilst attracting more fish won’t save coral reefs on its own, new techniques like this give us more tools in the fight to save these precious and vulnerable ecosystems.

“From local management innovations to international political action, we need meaningful progress at all levels to paint a better future for reefs worldwide.”

I hope that this assures you that we are not heralding loudspeakers as a global panacea.

Happy to continue this discussion in Bremen (or remotely) as it is sad but true that this is what PhD students (including the lead author Tim Gordon) now work on (rather than earlier ICRSs where wonder, beauty and discovery were front and centre)...

Many thanks for your continued wisdom,

Steve

*************************************************

Steve Simpson

Professor of Marine Biology & Global Change

University of Exeter

Biosciences, College of Life and Environmental Sciences

Hatherly Laboratories, Prince of Wales Road

Exeter, EX4 4PS, UK

Tel: +44 (0) 1392 722714 / +44 (0) 7900551883

Email: S.Simpson at exeter.ac.uk<mailto:S.Simpson at exeter.ac.uk>

Twitter: @DrSteveSimpson<https://twitter.com/DrSteveSimpson>

Web: http://biosciences.exeter.ac.uk/staff/index.php?web_id=Stephen_Simpson

*************************************************

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Message: 4

Date: Wed, 4 Dec 2019 19:05:12 +0000

From: Peter Sale <sale at uwindsor.ca>

To: "coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov" <coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov>,

"douglasfennertassi at gmail.com" <douglasfennertassi at gmail.com>

Subject: [Coral-List] Underwater loudspeakers could help restore

damaged coral reefs

Message-ID:

<QB1PR01MB34268C759C79CC2CFB9D238CC25D0 at QB1PR01MB3426.CANPRD01.PROD.OUTLOOK.COM>

Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

Doug and Coral List,

The media, helped perhaps by an overhyped press release, are at it again. I'm referring to the sensational headline (The Telegraph, MSN, no doubt elsewhere also) that underwater loudspeakers will help restore coral reefs. The research result (which is perfectly appropriate as science) tested whether patches built from dead coral could attract settling larval fishes more effectively if they sounded like real reef. They apparently did. But. The artificial patches were just a few meters away from living coral. The study did not follow fish for very long - patches were monitored over 6 weeks, and the species list, mainly damselfishes, included numerous species that normally recruit to rubble habitat. The sounds resulted in about 3 times the number of young fish being counted on the treatment patches compared to the controls.

It's true that reef fishes of many species, particularly herbivores, can help maintain coral dominance relative to algae in reef habitat. But to have the media trumpet the news that sounds will help restore reefs, based on these results, is utter nonsense. Getting rid of GHG emissions, and correcting the numerous local impacts on reefs, will help restore them. At least we might expect criticism of such distortions on coral-list. (I've not read the press release so do not know whether the authors encouraged this sensationalism by the media.)

Peter Sale

University of Windsor

sale at uwindsor.ca

petersalebooks.com

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