[Coral-List] Science difficult to read

Thu Sep 24 14:27:26 UTC 2020

I agree with Norah wholeheartedly.
Loading dock science has a place but not in the current crisis.
"Don't be such a scientist"....
But even so - all the documentaries, books, and magazine articles have not
gone very far towards sustainable reefs.
So it's time to belly up to the bar and do the right thing.
Science has to become more involved with politics in this crazy day and age.
Reefs will never become "restored" for whatever that means.
The aquarium trade knows how to build beautiful captive reefs.
In fact, they seem to be way far ahead of the scientific process of
restoration (whatever it is).
But  having leaders and governments that listen to logic is the key right
now....
Be sure to plan your vote and VOTE!
P

On Thu, Sep 24, 2020 at 10:14 AM Nohora Galvis via Coral-List <
coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov> wrote:

> Dear John,
>
> Great post, we all should improve our communication skills !!
> Communicating Multidisciplinary Science to save coral reefs is URGENT.
> However, most PhDs are very specilialized in one discipline. For example
> biology, counting a very small portion of an organism and without further
> experience feel experts on coral reefs conservation: The big picture !!
>
> That attitude may become very dangerous, if they got funding to distort
> what we as a whole multidisciplinary scientific / practitioner community
> should be empowered to recommend considering our philosophical
> transdiciplinary background and long experience. Some even think, the
> issue, it is about figithing for funds, in stead of pointing out for
> alternative solutions to tackle local and global threats.
>
> It is relevant to ask ourselves, if our projects are tackling a limiting
> factor, when there is already natural sexual and asexual reproduction of
> corals... But their biodiversity and survivorship are low due to
> anthropogenic impacts that cause morbidity and mortality. Causes like
> pollution, overfishing, dredging, global warming etc., are still
> uncontrolled.
>
> In stead of supporting unsustainable development, we with all the
> multidisciplinary scientific knowledge and the huge number of publications,
> should face it and confront it. We all together should present specific
> alternatives that are sustainable and environmental friendly. For instance,
> communicate effectively to decision makers the need to stop enlarging
> Chanels, big ports and cables passing on coral reefs.
>
> It would not save coral reefs, promising to developers that by receiving
> millions of USD, some scientists can build monospecific reefs in one or few
> years to replace the biodiverse ecosystem that lasted centuries to accrete
> and may be destroyed by unsustainable development projets in seconds !!
>
> Money talks !! But When Science will talk?
>
> Nohora Galvis
> Fundación ICRI COLOMBIA
> Twitter @ArrecifesCoral / @ICRIvolombia
> Instagram ObservatorioArrecifesCoral
> Youtube ICRI COLOMBIA
> Facebook.com/ICRI.COLOMBIA
>
>
>
> El lun, sep 21, 2020 16:06, John Ware via Coral-List <
> coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov> escribió:
>
> > Dear List,
> >
> > The recent mail from Doug Fenner (thanks Doug) mentioned the following
> > two interesting observations:
> >
> > *Papers are increasingly impenetrable.
> > *
> >
> > *Science is getting harder to read *
> >
> > Those few that have read my comments on reef science that were published
> > in Reef Encounter (1991) may recall that basically what I meant is:
> >
> > *Global warming, bad for reefs but great for coral-reef scientists. *
> >
> > In RE in 2019 I demonstrated that, between 1988/89 to 2019 there has
> > been an approximately 4 fold increase in the number of papers appearing
> > in Coral Reefs and the percentage of papers with more than 5 authors has
> > increased by a more than a factor of 20.
> >
> > What I should have predicted back in 1991, and mentioned in 2019, is
> > that the papers will be increasingly looking at finer and finer elements
> > of coral ecology.  In the 'old days' reef scientists swam over reefs and
> > counted fish or corals or whatever.  Now, there is this finer and finer
> > tuning on what is going on inside corals and the zoox.
> >
> > This reminded me of an event from my past.  Many years ago I shared an
> > office with a man who had been the Chief Engineer for the construction
> > of the Los Angeles class submarines.  One of his favorite comments on
> > 'progress' was:
> >
> > "The scientists have gotten to the point that they can exam a flea and
> > tell you what hair on the dog the flea came from.  But they are not sure
> > what dog the hair was on."
> >
> > Are we in danger of losing the 'big picture'?
> >
> > John
> >
> > --
> >
> >   John R. Ware, PhD
> >   President
> >   SeaServices, LLC
> >   302 N. Mule Deer Pt.
> >   Payson, AZ 85541, USA
> >   928 478-6358
> >   jware at erols.com
> >   http://www.seaservices.org
> >
> >    Become a member of the International Coral Reef Society
> >    http://www.coralreefs.org
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Coral-List mailing list
> > Coral-List at coral.aoml.noaa.gov
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> _______________________________________________
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-- 

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*

*A Swim Through TIme on Carysfort Reef*
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCPJE7UE6sA
*Raja Ampat Sustainability Project video*
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1RR2SazW_VY&fbclid=IwAR09oZkEk8wQkK6LN3XzVGPgAWSujACyUfe2Ist__nYxRRSkDE_jAYqkJ7A
*Bali Coral Bleaching 2016 video*

*https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yxOfLTnPSUo
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yxOfLTnPSUo>*
TEDx Charleston on saving coral reefs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iwENBNrfKj4
Google Scholar Citations:
https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=HCwfXZ0AAAAJ