[Coral-List] NOAA plan to save coral reefs

[Steven Miller]

A quick reply to counter the idea that restoration is folly, even though
I'm a co-author on an older restoration paper with folly in the title. I
changed my mind. I wonder how many people on the list have changed their
minds, moving from one camp to another, or abandoned belief in a paradigm
for something that they thought was better?  That would be an interesting
thread, but I digress.

Why should anyone support coral restoration when all the stressors remain
that got us to where we are now, and related to warming are only getting
worse?

Simply, 1)  Large numbers (tens of thousands) of corals in offshore
nurseries (mid Hawk Channel in Florida) grow fast and are generally in good
shape after a year or two. 2) Corals in nurseries were derived from
survivors. That is, from wild corals that survived multiple bleaching and
disease events. 3) Nursery corals also represent a genetically diverse
population, based on individuals collected across significant spatial
scales and genetic analyses that confirm the diversity of corals in
nurseries capture a significant portion of variability that exists in the
wild. 5) Large numbers of nursery-raised corals can be outplanted to reefs
and despite high mortality after 5-10 years, some corals survive.

So, a result of restoration work (not projects but large-scale programs)
that can be sustained at the decadal scale is lots of corals (potentially
thousands) on reefs where they were previously absent. Local ecological
extinction is prevented. Even better, outplanted corals have sex and while
the fate of their gametes is unknown, as more adults survive on the reef,
perhaps recruitment will eventually result.

But challenges remain, such as how to get more corals out to reefs in a
cost-efficient manner.  Some species present unique challenges, I know.
And more.

The above summary is based on work from Florida, which perhaps represents
the most challenging place to try and conduct this work. After all,
historical baselines suggest that the best reefs were limited to only a
small percentage of total available habitat, due to things like outflow
from Florida Bay and the northern geographic limit of reef growth in the
region being just south of Miami.

My intent with this post is to suggest that there are reasons to support
restoration despite the criticism of why do it in the face of existing
stressors.  If you don't think it will work, then, by all means, critiques
are warranted that advance the science. But understand that successes have
already occurred that suggest those who are working on restoration are not
doing so in folly.

Finally, coral restoration science is in its infancy.  In my opinion, it's
way too early to give up.

Best Regards

Steven Miller. PhD
Halmos College of Natural Sciences and Oceanography
Nova Southeastern University

On Fri, Dec 20, 2019 at 4:45 PM Risk, Michael via Coral-List <
coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov> wrote:

> The entire article doesn't even mention LBSP. It's as though Brian
> Lapointe's work had been airbrushed away...we never learn, do we?
> ________________________________________
> From: Coral-List [coral-list-bounces at coral.aoml.noaa.gov] on behalf of
> Douglas Fenner via Coral-List [coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov]
> Sent: December 19, 2019 3:57 AM
> To: coral list
> Subject: [Coral-List] NOAA plan to save coral reefs
>
> NOAA unveils plan to save coral reefs
>
>
> https://www.heraldtribune.com/news/20191209/noaa-unveils-plan-to-save-coral-reefs?fbclid=IwAR1L8fgev0_h_VnP_Morw3UiuHXnwn_G9DdXBHoW8yxai5weRTxKyHliW6c
>
>
> The title makes it sound to me like maybe they are proposing to save all
> coral reefs.  They are proposing to save 7 little reefs in the Florida
> Keys.  Phase 1 will put out Elkhorn, which grows fast and is not subject to
> the stony coral tissue loss disease that is currently ravaging Florida
> reefs.  But Phase 2 plans to put out several other corals, including Pillar
> corals that are subject to that disease, plus "star and brain corals" which
> it doesn't say are subject or not.  Doesn't say they have a plan for how to
> keep them from catching the disease.
>
> Cheers,  Doug
> --
> Douglas Fenner
> Lynker Technologies, LLC, Contractor
> NOAA Fisheries Service
> Pacific Islands Regional Office
> Honolulu
> and:
> Consultant
> PO Box 7390
> Pago Pago, American Samoa 96799  USA
>
> Even 50-year old climate models correctly predicted global warmng
>
> https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2019/12/even-50-year-old-climate-models-correctly-predicted-global-warming?utm_campaign=news_weekly_2019-12-06&et_rid=17045989&et_cid=3113276
>
> Greenhouse gas emissions to set new record this year, but rate of growth
> shrinks
>
> https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2019/12/greenhouse-gas-emissions-year-set-new-record-rate-growth-shrinks?utm_campaign=news_weekly_2019-12-06&et_rid=17045989&et_cid=3113276
>
> "Global warming is manifestly the foremost current threat to coral reefs,
> and must be addressed by the global community if reefs as we know them will
> have any chance to persist."  Williams et al, 2019, Frontiers in Marine
> Science
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