[Coral-List] A Swim Through Time on Carysfort Reef; EFFORT TO ASSEMBLE A LIST OF REMAINING HEALTHY CARIBBEAN CORAL REEFS
Hafeez Jamal
hjwaves at gmail.com
Fri Aug 7 13:56:25 UTC 2020
Hi Mike,
Very well said.
Hafeez
On Mon., Aug. 3, 2020, 9:42 a.m. Risk, Michael via Coral-List, <
coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov> wrote:
> Hi Steve.
>
> I dove on Carysfort in 1961, and the few hairs I have left are all
> off-white. Allow me to comment, because I am not prepared to absolve
> reef biologists from all blame. (I already wrote one paper on this, so
> I will be brief.)
>
> Surely the main point of Phil's video is that decline started early,
> far earlier than any significant climate excursions. As an example: in
> your paper, you mention "threats" to Florida's reefs, including cold
> water-which puts you in the amusing position of defending them at both
> ends of the thermometer. You do not mention nutrients or water quality,
> you do not cite Lapointe, but you do observe that the majority of your
> transplants kark in a few years.
>
> Fifty years ago, those pesky geologists showed us that bioerosion was
> far more important than grazing, yet most American reef biologists of
> following generations simply ignored the process. The evidence of
> impacts from land-based sources has been around since Columbus, who
> knew to approach coastlines along river mouths: yet we now have a
> generation or two of reef biologists who believe the reefs will come
> back if the grazers come back.
>
> Reef biologists never learned to speak with one voice. We have now been
> deprived of the results of the one experiment that would have been of
> the most use: what is the effect of climate change on healthy reefs?
>
> Mike
> __________________________________________________________________
>
> From: Coral-List <coral-list-bounces at coral.aoml.noaa.gov> on behalf of
> S Miller via Coral-List <coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov>
> Sent: Thursday, July 30, 2020 9:22 AM
> To: coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov <coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov>
> Subject: Re: [Coral-List] A Swim Through Time on Carysfort Reef; EFFORT
> TO ASSEMBLE A LIST OF REMAINING HEALTHY CARIBBEAN CORAL REEFS
>
> Hi Phil and Coral-List
> Great historic record from Carysfort Reef. How do you like being
> called
> historic? The second generation of coral reef scientists is now old. I
> remember one of my mentors saying early in his career that there
> weren't
> many gray-haired coral reef scientists. Now? Many gray hairs across
> generations.
> I saw Carysfort in the late 1980s and Carbbean reefs in the 1970s.
> There's no question about what we lost.
> There's also no question about what we continue to lose and why.
> But I'm confused about your comment that "we have not figured out how
> to
> keep reefs from disappearing." If by "we" you mean coral reef
> scientists, then you are putting too much on the shoulders of our
> community. If you mean society as the collective "we," then you are
> correct that reefs are viewed as a resource to exploit.
> Still, it's a good question to ask if our community has failed coral
> reefs. Is it our fault because we didn't explain things well enough,
> fast enough, or because we lack emotion or sex appeal in our outreach?
> Or, did we fail because we monitored reef decline instead of doing
> something else? My view is that we did everything that could be done.
> Could we have done more? Could we have communicated more effectively?
> Probably. Would it have mattered? No.
> After all, damage across most of our planet from global warming
> continues despite dozens of NGOs spending tens of billions of dollars
> to
> educate and influence policy makers. They failed, too.
> You didn't exactly say it this way, but our society values other things
> more and it's not even close.
> So what happens now? What choices do we have?
> It's not that complicated, in my humble opinion. We do what most of us
> have always done.
> Act local and think global still matters. Just about every coral reef
> benthic ecology paper today addresses this idea in one way or another,
> with a plea at the end about the need to stop carbon emissions.
> I also believe that restoration has a role to play, despite the
> relentless advance of global warming.
> Thanks for posting the Carysfort Reef video.
> Best Regards
> Steven
> You can read about our restoration views in a recent paper on
> restoration results in Florida.
> [1]https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0231817
> PLOS ONE, May 2020 Survivorship and growth in staghorn coral projects
> in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary.
> On 7/28/2020 11:05 AM, Phillip Dustan via Coral-List wrote:
> > I made this video to open eyes about the dramatic changes that have
> > occurred in a short time.
> > Many of the current crop of reef biologists have no idea of what
> we've lost.
> > All the nature films to increase people's love for the sea, all the
> > monitoring projects that increase our resolution, all the management,
> all
> > the restoration, all the rhetoric about protecting reefs, etc.... on
> and on
> > have not worked.
> > The mantra that people protect what they love has proven false.
> > It's more like, "People exploit what they need to make money, then
> move on
> > to richer places to do the same over and over...."
> > While the scientific community has greatly increased our resolving
> power to
> > watch reefs degrade, we have not figured out how to keep reefs from
> > disappearing...
> > This is the point of my offering at this time - more of an
> emotional
> > plea than a documentary.
> > I've always thought a coffee table book titled :How they Die" about
> all the
> > human activities that kill coral reefs would be interesting as all
> the
> > current and past books are eye candy divorced from current reality.
> > Maybe a website of such atrocities would help jar people into
> action?
> > Reefs are ecosystems, not resources.
> > Phil
> >
> >
> > On Tue, Jul 28, 2020 at 9:03 AM Steve Gittings - NOAA Federal <
> > steve.gittings at noaa.gov> wrote:
> >
> >> Alina - I was part of that 1981 group with Tom Bright at Carysfort
> Light.
> >> It was with mixed feelings thatI had to leave a couple weeks early
> to
> >> attend my wedding! Still, looking back, it was such a privilege to
> see
> >> such a seemingly healthy place just a few years before the coral
> world
> >> changed so dramatically.
> >>
> >> I like the idea of hearing about places that haven't changed much
> since
> >> the 70s or before. I'll put the Flower Garden Banks out there. The
> >> earliest dives and pictures there were in the early 60s and the
> first
> >> measurements of coral cover in the early 70s. Very little has
> changed,
> >> though macroalgae is more persistent since the *Diadema *dieoff.
> Coral
> >> cover, which when first measured was just under 50% on the reef
> caps, is
> >> now closer to 60%. There are lionfish, but impacts to native fish
> are not
> >> evident yet, and they are trying to control abundance with culling.
> It is
> >> certainly not without threats, but the banks seem to benefit from
> their
> >> isolation.
> >>
> >> Steve
> >>
> >> On Tue, Jul 28, 2020 at 8:45 AM Alina Szmant via Coral-List <
> >> coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov> wrote:
> >>
> >>> Thanks Phil for the nostalgia. I first visited Carysfort in 1981
> when I
> >>> stayed for two weeks out at the lighthouse with Tom Bright's group
> doing
> >>> nutrient uptake experiments with A cervicornis, and it was
> incredibly
> >>> beautiful. The US Coast Guard had trouble bringing their boats to
> the
> >>> lighthouse pier because the coral was so thick and shallow
> everywhere. From
> >>> the light house tower, one could watch giant blue and rainbow
> parrotfishes
> >>> swimming among the A palmata colonies that extended seaward for 100
> m or
> >>> more on the reef flat. When I returned with Peter Glyn and a class
> of
> >>> students the spring of 1984, there wasn't any live Acropora coral
> anywhere
> >>> (we did transects). It was shocking! In the mid 2000's Margaret
> Miller and
> >>> I tried to do our coral larval rearing research working from the
> >>> lighthouse, and still almost no coral, and the large Orbicella
> colonies
> >>> were mostly dead as well. I am glad I had a chance to see this reef
> (and
> >>> many similar ones in Puerto Rico) back in the day, because I am
> pretty sure
> >>> they won't recover within what is left of my lifetime. There may be
> great
> >>> live coral gardens in places like the Solomons, but the situation
> in the
> >>> Caribbean is dire and getting worse in my experience.
> >>>
> >>> That said: I think it would be useful for Coral-List researchers to
> start
> >>> a list of places within the Caribbean that are still close to what
> was the
> >>> norm back in the 1970s. If there are clusters of localities that
> haven't
> >>> been impacted by bleaching, disease epidemics, flattened by major
> storms
> >>> but recovered, that would be a worthwhile list to compile and serve
> as a
> >>> basis for investigating factors that have allowed some places to
> survive
> >>> while others have succumbed.
> >>>
> >>> I volunteer to assemble such information if anyone out there is
> willing
> >>> to share, and I send out an updated list monthly to all on Coral
> List. If
> >>> you know of sites that still look like the 1975 version of
> Carysfort and
> >>> can document this with short video, collection of photos or even
> better...
> >>> data... and want to be part of such an effort, please contact me.
> >>>
> >>> Best,
> >>>
> >>> Alina
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
> ***********************************************************************
> **
> >>> 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
> >>> [2]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VAYeR9qX71A&t=6s
> >>> CISME Short version Demo Video 3:00 min
> >>> [3]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fa4SqS7yC08
> >>> CISME Cucalorus 10x10 Sketch 4:03 minhttps://youtu.be/QCo3oixsDVA
> >>>
> >>> -----Original Message-----
> >>> From: Coral-List<coral-list-bounces at coral.aoml.noaa.gov> On Behalf
> Of
> >>> Phillip Dustan via Coral-List
> >>> Sent: Monday, July 27, 2020 8:47 AM
> >>> To: Coral List<coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov>
> >>> Subject: [Coral-List] A Swim Through Time on Carysfort Reef
> >>>
> >>> Hi Listers,
> >>> We talk a lot about management and conservation but the reality is
> >>> humanity lacks the political will to address the fundamentals
> unless there
> >>> is a direct and instant return on investment.
> >>> Science tells us that coral reefs are ecosystems, not resources.
> The very
> >>> adaptations that enable them to thrive in nutrient poor tropical
> seas
> >>> leaves them vulnerable to humans. Maybe one day we will act on that
> >>> reality, but right now I fear we are just trying to make ourselves
> feel
> >>> better, or develop a more and more precise way to document the
> collapse of
> >>> reefs all the while increasing the level of funding for our
> labs/agencies.
> >>> This approach has not, and is not working.
> >>>
> >>> Something to think about while most of us are out of the water
> this
> >>> summer.
> >>> [4]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCPJE7UE6sA
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> --
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> Phillip Dustan PhD
> >>> Charleston SC 29424
> >>> 843-953-8086 office
> >>> 843-224-3321 (mobile)
> >>>
> >>> "When we try to pick out anything by itself we find that it is
> bound fast
> >>> by a thousand invisible cords that cannot be broken, to everything
> in the
> >>> universe. "
> >>> * John Muir 1869*
> >>>
> >>> *Raja Ampat Sustainability Project video*
> >>>
> [5]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1RR2SazW_VY&fbclid=IwAR09oZkEk8wQkK6
> LN3XzVGPgAWSujACyUfe2Ist__nYxRRSkDE_jAYqkJ7A
> >>> *Bali Coral Bleaching 2016 video*
> >>>
> >>> *https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yxOfLTnPSUo
> >>> <[6]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yxOfLTnPSUo>*
> >>> TEDx Charleston on saving coral reefs
> >>> [7]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iwENBNrfKj4
> >>> Google Scholar Citations:
> >>> [8]https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=HCwfXZ0AAAAJ
> >>> _______________________________________________
> >>> Coral-List mailing list
> >>> Coral-List at coral.aoml.noaa.gov
> >>> [9]https://coral.aoml.noaa.gov/mailman/listinfo/coral-list
> >>> _______________________________________________
> >>> Coral-List mailing list
> >>> Coral-List at coral.aoml.noaa.gov
> >>> [10]https://coral.aoml.noaa.gov/mailman/listinfo/coral-list
> >>>
> >> --
> >> Dr. Steve Gittings, Science Coordinator
> >> NOAA Office of National Marine Sanctuaries
> >> 1305 East West Hwy., N/ORM62
> >> Silver Spring, MD 20910
> >> (240) 533-0708 (w), (301) 529-1854 (c1), (301) 821-0857 (c2)
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> *Follow National Marine
> Sanctuaries<[11]http://sanctuaries.noaa.gov/>*
> >> *and our Earth is Blue Campaign
> >> <[12]http://www.sanctuaries.noaa.gov/earthisblue> on**:*
> >>
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>
> References
>
> 1. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0231817
> 2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VAYeR9qX71A&t=6s
> 3. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fa4SqS7yC08
> 4. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCPJE7UE6sA
> 5.
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1RR2SazW_VY&fbclid=IwAR09oZkEk8wQkK6LN3XzVGPgAWSujACyUfe2Ist__nYxRRSkDE_jAYqkJ7A
> 6. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yxOfLTnPSUo
> 7. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iwENBNrfKj4
> 8. https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=HCwfXZ0AAAAJ
> 9. https://coral.aoml.noaa.gov/mailman/listinfo/coral-list
> 10. https://coral.aoml.noaa.gov/mailman/listinfo/coral-list
> 11. http://sanctuaries.noaa.gov/
> 12. http://www.sanctuaries.noaa.gov/earthisblue
> 13. http://www.facebook.com/NOAAOfficeofNationalMarineSanctuaries
> 14. http://twitter.com/sanctuaries]<http://twitter.com/sanctuaries
> 15. http://www.youtube.com/user/sanctuaries
> 16. http://www.youtube.com/user/sanctuaries
> 17. http://www.flickr.com/photos/onms/]<
> http://www.flickr.com/photos/onms/
> 18. http://feeds.feedburner.com/NoaaNationalMarineSanctuaryNews
> 19. http://feeds.feedburner.com/NoaaNationalMarineSanctuaryNews
> 20. http://pinterest.com/nmsanctuaries/national-marine-sanctuaries/
> 21. http://instagram.com/noaasanctuaries
> 22. http://instagram.com/noaasanctuaries
> 23. https://coral.aoml.noaa.gov/mailman/listinfo/coral-list
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