[Coral-List] Rebuilding marine life

Tue Feb 2 05:30:19 UTC 2021

Hi coral listers

I think that one of the key elements for sustainable development and
regenerating marine life is taking responsibility not only on WHAT people
are developing in the marine environment (e.g. renewable energy vs oil/gas
extraction) but also on HOW we build in water...

Nature inclusive infrastructure that takes active part in rebuilding marine
life is essential. Instead of building an offshore wind farm with standard
construction codes, the structure has to be designed to enhance and foster
marine life. This has to be set by regulations and incentives otherwise
even doing good like building renewable energy in the ocean will become
part of the problem. Acres of scour protection measures paving the seabed
isn't sustainable development.

Same goes for any safeguarding of our coastlines. As humanity is faced with
growing climate change threats, we have responsibility to protect
communities but we can't do it at the expense of marine life.

There are ways to create smart environmentally sensitive infrastructure and
work with coral/oyster/mangrove restoration experts on more holistic
solutions.

Sorry for the speech... I'm a bit frustrated by the lack of attention to
this issue. Seems like everybody is focused at reducing emissions and
plastic pollution (super important) and ignoring a huge inevitable problem
of coastal armoring and over developed seabed habitats...

Thank you!

On Tue, Feb 2, 2021, 05:18 David Blakeway via Coral-List <
coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov> wrote:

> To speed the transition to low-emission energy, current practices of
> political donations and lobbying must be reined in. Otherwise big coal, oil
> & gas will continue to run the agenda, as they do here in Australia.
> Seems that hydrogen fuel should become a big component in the renewable mix
> - cargo ships producing their own hydrogen en-route sounds very sensible!
> There is always a lot of talk (also possibly from vested interests) about
> problems with renewable energy storage and how renewables can't provide
> power in dark or low wind conditions etc.
> But life on earth has powered itself with renewable energy for 3 billion +
> years and operates very efficiently at night and/or without wind.
>
>
> On Tue, Feb 2, 2021 at 4:11 AM Douglas Fenner via Coral-List <
> coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov> wrote:
>
> > I very much agree.
> >     I have seen statements in the past that have gone something like
> "coral
> > reefs can't recover."  With a few exceptions such as when there is no
> > stable substrate left, I see no signs that if we stop abusing coral reefs
> > they can't recover.  Examples of the lack of recovery abound, but they
> are
> > almost all instances in which the chronic human impacts continue.  Can we
> > really expect them to recover in spite of continuing abuse??  I think
> not.
> > The critical thing is reducing human impacts.
> >      The article points out that coral reefs are an exception, they are
> not
> > as easily rebuildable as the other marine ecosystems they studied.  Given
> > the way things have been going for coral reefs, rebuilding coral reefs
> > seems like a pipe dream, we'd be doing fantastic just to stop the loss of
> > reefs.  I often say that we have been losing the battle with coral reefs
> > since we first got hints that coral reefs have been declining due to
> human
> > impacts.
> >       So I completely agree that coral reef recovery would happen if
> humans
> > stopped damaging reefs.  We CAN save coral reefs.  The much tougher
> > question is WILL we save coral reefs?  If we don't do vastly better than
> we
> > have been doing so far at reducing impacts, we are just going to keep
> right
> > on losing.  And while there are some encouraging signs from the new US
> > administration on climate change, and hopefully US leadership will
> > encourage other countries to tackle climate change more vigorously,
> almost
> > all countries have not been fulfilling their promises under the Paris
> > accords, AND those promises are not nearly enough, they MUST be increased
> > greatly.  It is all doable, and as painful as the costs and disruption of
> > energy supply systems will be, the pain will be far less than if we don't
> > act.  There really are no excuses, the time for action is here, and
> > hopefully the US actions will nudge others to move more decisively.
> >       And no, a little bit of coral restoration will NOT save the world's
> > reefs.  Somehow we always do too little too late for coral reefs.  That's
> > going to have to change and change fast if we're going to save coral
> > reefs.  Business as usual will be the death of coral reefs.
> >       I apologize, I'm preaching to choir.  Listers know better than most
> > of the world just how dire the situation is for coral reefs.  Governments
> > currently have very full plates with the pandemic and economy, that is
> the
> > top of the agenda, rightly so.  BUT, if action isn't taken on climate
> > change, coral reef ecosystems are doomed.  Coral reefs have been getting
> > nothing but the crumbs off the table since this battle began, and that
> has
> > to change or we're going to keep losing them and it is going to get much,
> > much worse.
> >       So YES it CAN be done.  But we need a LOT more support to get it
> > done.
> >       Cheers,  Doug
> >
> > On Mon, Feb 1, 2021 at 2:23 AM David Obura via Coral-List <
> > coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov> wrote:
> >
> > > Hi Steve,
> > >
> > > … can’t believe I’m going to be the first to reply (at least as far as
> I
> > > can tell!!) … must be the weekend!!
> > >
> > > In answer to your question "Is substantially rebuilding marine life
> > within
> > > a human generation largely achievable, if the required actions,
> > prominently
> > > mitigating climate change, are deployed at scale??” … I’d have to
> answer
> > a
> > > resounding YES!!.
> > >
> > > The source behind this is Carlos Duarte and colleagues recent paper
> > > “Rebuilding marine life” -
> > > https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-2146-7 - which basically
> says
> > > yes, this is possible in a 30 year timeframe.  And I think our own
> > > intuitions and knowledge that if natural systems are given a chance
> they
> > > certainly have an ability to recover from past impacts.
> > >
> > > Of course, there are devils in the details - what is ’substantial’ and
> > > what is ‘largely achievable’?
> > >
> > > The paradigm coming forward in the context of the Anthropocene is that
> of
> > > course we can’t ‘rebuild’ nature to where it was given the climate
> change
> > > that is already committed and humanity’s capture of so many earth
> system
> > > processes (nutrients, protein production, water, etc).  And given
> global
> > > population and the need for a good quality of life for the half the
> world
> > > that does not have one, it will be very hard to reduce humanity’s
> > footprint
> > > to much less than a ‘full planet’ under the planetary footprint idea.
> > But
> > > nature certainly has the capacity to regenerate to what we’d probably
> > > recognise as a balanced, mature, ‘good' system under these new
> > conditions,
> > > if we reduce our negative influences to the extent that we can. And of
> > > course certain things take much longer than human generations to come
> to
> > > that state.
> > >
> > > But if, given the potential for good action (finally!) in the US
> system,
> > > and in others, sufficient commitment and effort are made towards
> > > sustainability, then I think we should have very high confidence that
> we
> > > can "rebuild marine life within a human generation” that would have
> > > wonderful implications on nature and on all of us!! So yes, it would be
> > > worth it to invest in that change - but we still have a lot of
> convincing
> > > to do, your new administration notwithstanding!!
> > >
> > > cheers,
> > >
> > > David
> > >
> > >
> > > David Obura || CORDIO East Africa, #9 Kibaki Flats, Kenyatta Beach,
> > > Bamburi Beach, P.O.BOX 10135 Mombasa 80101, Kenya
> > > Email: dobura at cordioea.net  --  davidobura at gmail.com
> > > Websites: www.cordioea.net  --   www.wiofutures.net  --
> > > www.coralspecialistgroup.org
> > > Mobile: +254-715 067417; skype dobura; Twitter @dobura
> > > On 29 Jan 2021, 20:12 +0300, coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov, wrote:
> > > >
> > > > Message: 1
> > > > Date: Thu, 28 Jan 2021 11:52:25 -0500
> > > > From: sealab at earthlink.net
> > > > To: Douglas Fenner via Coral-List <coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov>
> > > > Cc: "=?utf-8?Q?coral-list=40coral.aoml.noaa.gov?="
> > > > <coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov>
> > > > Subject: Re: [Coral-List] Rebuilding marine life
> > > > Message-ID: <2f091d83-77a2-4ae9-bffd-2d4b8553e464 at Steves-iPad>
> > > > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"
> > > >
> > > > Hi Doug,
> > > >
> > > > Thanks for the heads up on that paper. I especially liked two of
> their
> > > primary concepts.
> > > >
> > > > The idea of framing the restoration of marine ecosystems as a ?doable
> > > Grand Challenge? for humanity and the coining of the term ?recovery
> > wedges?
> > > which are defined as complementary actions which when stacked together
> > help
> > > raise the recovery rates of various ecosystem components. Mitigating
> > > climate change, removing sources of water pollution and addressing
> > > over-fishing are described as ?basal wedges? which are required to set
> > > coral reefs on a recovery trajectory.
> > > >
> > > > My question to you and other listers is this: Considering that here
> in
> > > the USA, the new administration seems to be determined to take a
> > leadership
> > > role on climate change.
> > > >
> > > > Is ?substantially rebuilding marine life within a human generation
> > > largely achievable, if the required actions, prominently mitigating
> > climate
> > > change, are deployed at scale??
> > > >
> > > > Thoughts?
> > > >
> > > > Regards,
> > > >
> > > > Steve
> > > >
> > > > On 1/24/21, 11:29 PM, Douglas Fenner via Coral-List <
> > > coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov> wrote:
> > > >
> > > > https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-2146-7
> > > >
> > > > The discussion has a long paragraph on coral reefs that begins with
> the
> > > >
> > > > statement: "Rebuilding coral reefs carries the highest risk of
> > failure."
> > > >
> > > > Cheers, Doug
> > > >
> > > > --
> > > >
> > > > Douglas Fenner
> > > >
> > > > Lynker Technologies, LLC, Contractor
> > > >
> > > > NOAA Fisheries Service
> > > >
> > > > Pacific Islands Regional Office
> > > >
> > > > Honolulu
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