[Coral-List] Allen Coral Atlas - Monitoring User Survey

Thu Mar 5 22:08:03 UTC 2020

Doug,
thanks for the input.
I'll forward your message to the engineers at the Allen Coral Atlas.
They might reach back to you.

<><...<><...<><...

Sarah Frias-Torres, Ph.D.
Twitter: @GrouperDoc
Science Blog: https://grouperluna.com/
Art Blog: https://oceanbestiary.com/

________________________________
From: Douglas Fenner <douglasfennertassi at gmail.com>
Sent: Thursday, March 5, 2020 1:50 PM
To: Sarah Frias-Torres <sfrias_torres at hotmail.com>
Cc: coral list <coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov>
Subject: Re: [Coral-List] Allen Coral Atlas - Monitoring User Survey

This reminds me that I forgot to comment when the Atlas was released.  I took a look at the atlas maps for Tutuila, American Samoa, where I have lived for 16 years.  I found some rather large areas which are highly likely to be incorrectly scored.  One is a shallow, very murky bay, with a mud bottom, which is between the airport and the main part of the island.  Not sure how deep the mud is on top of the underlying rock, but it was all scored as rock.  Another is that the harbor, which is about 200 feet deep, has a large light blue patch in it, which as best I can tell from the legend, is supposed to be coral (there are some shades that are pretty hard to tell apart, I would suggest using colors that are more distinct..  Most of the time the harbor is pea soup green with about a 10 foot visibility or less.  Even if it was clear, I can't imagine a satellite photo could see 200 feet deep with any accuracy.  And as far as I know, the bottom of the harbor is mud that is so soft that multibeam sonar used by NOAA for surveying could not detect the surface of the bottom, not hard enough to reflect sound waves.  I was told that by a leader of the NOAA team over 15 yrs ago.  I was told by a technical diver that there is a deep sponge community somewhere in the harbor, but I don't know where that is.  Also, an area of mangroves along the shore of that muddy bay (Pala Lagoon) did not show up in the atlas.
Cheers,  Doug

On Thu, Mar 5, 2020 at 4:04 AM Sarah Frias-Torres via Coral-List <coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov<mailto:coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov>> wrote:
Dear Coral-Listers

The Allen Coral Atlas team is beginning its research to inform implementation of a monitoring tool that will identify, and alert on, potential bleaching events and turbidity/sediment runoff.

We would love the opportunity to collect insights from potential users of this tool (you) who may have input on how we approach development of this feature.

Whether you're a coral reef scientist, practitioner, or just excited by the potential of the Allen Coral Atlas please take this 10 minute survey to answer some questions
about the tools you currently use to identify changing environments, what you'd look for in a feature like this on the Atlas, and more.

Those who are interested will also have the option to speak to us directly for a more in-depth conversation.

https://www.surveygizmo.com/s3/5479508/

Thank you in advance!

<><...<><...<><...

Sarah Frias-Torres, Ph.D.
Twitter: @GrouperDoc
Science Blog: https://grouperluna.com/
Art Blog: https://oceanbestiary.com/

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--
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

"Already, more people die <http://www.nws.noaa.gov/om/hazstats.shtml> from heat-related causes in the U.S. than from all other extreme weather events."
  https://www.npr.org/2018/07/09/624643780/phoenix-tries-to-reverse-its-silent-storm-of-heat-deaths

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

"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