[Coral-List] SCTLD has reached Bonaire

[Phillip Dustan]

I find this thread full of magical fantastical denial supplemented with
romantic reminiscing about the old days and where did all the wonderful
reefs go?
While the “scientific community” is searching for the mythical causative
agent(s) and the “conservationists” have been hawking sustainable blue
economic development, all have ignored the face that the dive industry is
 a form if massive destructive economic extractive development that “mines
nature” for money. The industry has pushed into more and morrb remote reefs
touting their pristine qualities. Skin Diver Magazine now mimiced by DAN
Diver Alert promoted bucket list diving in more remote locales as the
 local dive sites degraded…..
Well, now there are almost no more intact reefs. Magical thinking by
agencies, ngos, and “scientists” talk of reef restoration as the answer….
When will we realize that the Blue Economy is also magical and destructive
thinking unless the rules of ecology are obeyed. Andre the Giant knew it.
It’s not rocket science. It’s just not as profitable. It does not create
income to resorts, liveaboards, fund labs and graduate student projects or
PI summer salary. But coral reefs will continue to degrade until we accept
the fact that the very adaptations that have allowed for the evolutions of
these marvelous systems make them vulnerable to humans . Coral reefs are
not things, they are emergent processes governed by the “rules” of ecology
and evolution overseen by the Red Queen. All the machinations of Noah, Dan,
Padi, and the Bingos will never be able to put Humpty Dumpty together again
because their magical thinking and hubris got us here.
Technology and all the monitoring in the world cannot restore the required
ecological conditions that have been destroyed. You all got to dig deeper
and deal with the well-know basics Gaian principles as outlined by the
recent James Lovelock or the reefs will all be toast.
Places like Vietnam will are absolutely justified to close their reefs to
diving tourism/terrorism.

Phil

On Fri, Jul 29, 2022 at 09:53 Steve Mussman via Coral-List <
coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov> wrote:

>
>
> We recently discussed the closure of a reef in Vietnam to divers in an
> attempt to reduce stress. They are temporarily closing some reefs in
> Cozumel as well.
>
> Now, Bonaire has closed a popular dive spot (Karpata) in an attempt to
> contain SCTLD which has just recently been detected there.
>
> Any thoughts on the effectiveness of this strategy and what do we know at
> this point about how the disease spreads?
>
> Bonaire has managed to avoid SCTLD up until now.
>
> Regards,
>
> Steve
>
> _______________________________________________
> Coral-List mailing list
> Coral-List at coral.aoml.noaa.gov
> https://coral.aoml.noaa.gov/mailman/listinfo/coral-list
>
-- 



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