[Coral-List] Seasoned perspectives

[Dennis Hubbard]

Hi Steve:

I'm sure you are familiar with this but, just in case, papers by Jackson,
Paulay and others have eloquently addressed the facts that a) reef decline
has taken different pathways since before Columbus and b) different
generations have different perspectives of decline (both magnitude and
causes) because they  have different baselines than those on either side of
them chronologically (the often discussed "shifting baseline syndrome").
More recently, this has been complicated by advocacy groups arguing for the
primacy of their "fix" - no tourism, vegetarianism, exclusion zones vs
better advertising that stepping on corals is bad for them; we've had
plenty of examples on the listserve. In the "old days", we had the luxury
of a slowly advancing problem (in fact, most of us probably thought reefs
were "fine" when we started out careers decades ago. I can't prove it, but
I strongly suspect that the "pristene" reefs I worked on in the 70s were a
lot more negatively impacted than I or my colleagues knew. Just go back and
look at the proceedings from Bob Ginsburg's volume based on "reef status"
studies by the major reef workers at that time. I have vivid memories of
everyone bemoaning the declining numbers in their long-term surveys. I
asked the simple question, "How many people in this room, when choosing the
place they would study for the rest of their career, say "I'm going to look
at the crummiest most degraded reef I can find?" The end result then (as I
suspect is still the case today to some degree) is that those long-term
sites may have has no place to go but down.

Just think about how our approach to "reef study" has changed over the
careers of we "geezer scientists". The first two ISRS meetings were
dominated by advancing our scientific understanding of ecological processes
on modern reefs. Then, as we started to see things changing, we invented
monitoring and session after session in meeting after meeting were
dedicated to advocating the best way to create data on quantify  the
changing state of reefs (most of these focused on counting corals) - point
counts versus quadrats versus chain transects... and on.... and on).
Increasingly, we have shifted from broadly describing reefs to measuring
specific communities, to monitoring how they have changed and now
"management". We argued over "no take" zones versus "management schemes"
and have now broadened the discussiion to argue for specific management
scenarios as we realize that by the time we figure out how to quantify how
bad things really are, there will be no reefs left to manage.

So, to answer your question ("do you suppose that there is some measurable
difference in attitude and approach between the more “seasoned” veterans of
coral reef wars and those just entering the fray?"), "just look at the
liastserve over the past 3-4 years". To fittingly quote "Firesign Theater"
(for the younger crowd, that's the early Holocene version of Saturday Night
Live", "we're all bozos on this bus.

Denny

On Wed, Dec 18, 2019 at 1:44 PM Steve Mussman via Coral-List <
coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov> wrote:

> As I pondered the significance of another lister’s milestone birthday, it
> got me thinking about how age and experience might affect one’s perspective
> on coral reefs.
>
> I imagine age is directly related to baselines in the sense that if you
> actually observed conditions on coral reefs in say the 1960s, that could
> have a profound affect on how you view current conditions, your evaluation
> of various stressors and even on plausible mitigation strategies. I know
> this applies to divers, but what about scientists?
>
> It’s just a thought , but do you suppose that there is some measurable
> difference in attitude and approach between the more “seasoned” veterans of
> coral reef wars and those just entering the fray?
>
> Steve
>
>
>
>
>
> Sent from EarthLink Mobile mail
>
>
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-- 
Dennis Hubbard
Chair, Dept of Geology-Oberlin College Oberlin OH 44074
(440) 775-8346

* "When you get on the wrong train.... every stop is the wrong stop"*
 Benjamin Stein: "*Ludes, A Ballad of the Drug and the Dream*"