[Coral-List] trends in monitoring data on reefs in Barbados, short popular piece

Tue Nov 8 12:40:25 UTC 2022

Hi Mike,

We have met on two occasions (Jamaica and Barbados), but I do not expect
you to remember (independently of our respective levels of senility).

We hope to be able to publish the data coming from this long-term
monitoring in the near future, so stay tuned. It is unfortunate that the
piece did not emphasize more the critical partnership between the local
University (UWI) and the government to pool resources to undertake this
work.

To be clear, no one in Barbados is claiming that the reefs are recovering,
but this is not to say that there are not some positive stories. I will
also seize this opportunity to make a correction of potential interest to
the coral-list readers: the acroporid species that is more obviously coming
back is *A. palmata*, rather than *A. cervicornis*.

You are always welcome to come here to see for yourself and, if you do, I
would be happy to come along.

The piece was not about coral restoration nor McGill University; it could
not be the case because I am not involved in any coral restoration efforts
and I work for UWI, not McGill. As Angie rightly (and very generously)
pointed out, the piece is about people working in science.

You are of course free to take this in any direction you want, but I also
think it is important not to lose sight of the original context.

Regards

Henri

Date: Sat, 5 Nov 2022 13:29:19 +0000
From: "Risk, Michael" <riskmj at mcmaster.ca>
To: Angie Brathwaite <abrathwaite at blue-finance.org>, coral list
        <coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov>, Douglas Fenner
        <douglasfennertassi at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [Coral-List] trends in monitoring data on reefs in
        Barbados,       short popular piece
Message-ID:
        <
YT4PR01MB9654D2D473BE27565CAA33C5C03A9 at YT4PR01MB9654.CANPRD01.PROD.OUTLOOK.COM
>

Content-Type: text/plain; charset="Windows-1252"

   Angie, I am not sure what point you are trying to make here. I will try
   to fumble out a response.

   I am sure Dr Valles is an excellent scientist. Despite my many visits
   to Barbados, I have never met him-although at my age, memory is
   undependable. My comment was in no way a reflection on him.

   It was entirely fair of me to point out that the intellectual edifice
   at McGill from which he came no longer exists. McGill gave us John
   Lewis, Colin Stearn (and that great Stearn-Scoffin collaboration),
   Henry Reiswig, Finn Sander, Tom Tomascik and many more-but some decades
   ago, the Dean at the time came to the building housing Marine Sciences
   and announced that they no longer had a home. That building was going
   to be turned over to the Flavour of the Month.

   The Dean is long gone, the flavour has faded, and Bellairs lies in
   tatters. In case anyone thinks universities are run by intelligent,
   far-seeing sages, let me point out that, even in those Dean Days, it
   should have been obvious that we would need ecologists far more than we
   would need whatever it was that took Marine Sciences' place.

   The concrete statement I made was simply to say that an article talking
   about "signs of hope" on reefs contained zero data. We are all well
   aware of the crisis that besets reefs. There are a gazillion "reef
   rehabilitation" efforts under way. Some of these have been running for
   >a decade, and some have soaked up piles of money. It is entirely fair
   to ask to see the results.

   A while ago, we were treated to "100 Yards of Hype". Oh, sorry, typo.
   That should be "Hope." This outplanted a football-sized are off
   Biscayne Bay-[1]https://forceblueteam.org/100-yards-of-hope/

   [2]100 Yards of Hope - Force Blue, Inc
   What is 100 Yards of Hope? 100 Yards of Hope is a year-long coral reef
   restoration project, honoring the NFL's 100th season and America's
   military veterans, that will feature FORCE BLUE veteran divers working
   alongside scientists from the University of Miami's Rosenstiel School
   of Marine and Atmospheric Science, the Phillip and Patricia Frost
   Museum of Science and the Florida Department ...
   forceblueteam.org

   Should we not be seeing the data on survival of these explants?

   Please correct me if I am wrong, but very few (if any!) of the many
   reef rehab projects under way now incorporate the essential preamble:
   all efforts will fail unless we clean up the water.

   They say that one of the signs of senility is repeating the same
   statement over and over in the hope that someone is listening.

   Mike
     __________________________________________________________________

   From: Angie Brathwaite <abrathwaite at blue-finance.org>
   Sent: Saturday, November 5, 2022 5:45 AM
   To: Risk, Michael <riskmj at mcmaster.ca>; coral list
   <coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov>; Douglas Fenner
   <douglasfennertassi at gmail.com>
   Subject: Re: [Coral-List] trends in monitoring data on reefs in
   Barbados, short popular piece

   Good to hear you Mike... but you didn't ask...you made a concrete
   statement.

   Henri Valles is a lecturer at the University of the West Indies ... and
   an excellent scientist. Thought I'd mention this as i'm not sure where
   you were going with your comment about McGill.

   You can contact him directly for further info and that's my final
   comment re this thread.

   Peace

   Angie

   From: Risk, Michael <riskmj at mcmaster.ca>
   Date: Friday, 4 November 2022 at 4:59 PM
   To: Angie Brathwaite <abrathwaite at blue-finance.org>, coral list
   <coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov>, Douglas Fenner
   <douglasfennertassi at gmail.com>
   Subject: Re: [Coral-List] trends in monitoring data on reefs in
   Barbados, short popular piece

   Hi Angie. Nice to talk to you again. The article mentioned "hopeful
   signs of recovery", so it was fair of me to ask about those. Some of
   the large amounts of funding to Barbados devoted to reef recovery have
   now been running for several years. Given the enormous impact ANY
   hopeful signs would have in the Caribbean, may we hope for results to
   published soon?

   As you say, the article discussed careers in science. The person
   featured, Henri Valles, got his degree at McGill, back in the day.
   McGill has now abandoned any pretense of being interested in marine
   science. For careers in this exciting yet frustrating field, young
   people would be advised to investigate (in Canada) places like
   Memorial, Dalhousie, UBC and Simon Fraser. (No, not McMaster.)

   Mike
   _______________________________________________________________________

   From: Angie Brathwaite <abrathwaite at blue-finance.org>
   Sent: Friday, November 4, 2022 1:58 AM
   To: Risk, Michael <riskmj at mcmaster.ca>; coral list
   <coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov>; Douglas Fenner
   <douglasfennertassi at gmail.com>
   Subject: Re: [Coral-List] trends in monitoring data on reefs in
   Barbados, short popular piece

   ...but Mike...we don't solely have pretty pictures. We have
   comprehensive data and reports ..produced since 1982...on temporal
   changes in coral reef communities. You can request these reports from
   the Coastal Zone Management Unit or CERMES of the University of the
   West Indies. This lovely article was to highlight careers in Marine
   Science...and it brought a smile to my day and a bounce to my step (and
   not only because I'm Barbadian).

   These results are also not linked to any coral reef restoration
   programmes...

   Thanks for posting Doug.

   Peace

   Angie

   From: Coral-List <coral-list-bounces at coral.aoml.noaa.gov> on behalf of
   Risk, Michael via Coral-List <coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov>
   Date: Thursday, 3 November 2022 at 4:49 PM
   To: coral list <coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov>, Douglas Fenner
   <douglasfennertassi at gmail.com>
   Subject: Re: [Coral-List] trends in monitoring data on reefs in
   Barbados, short popular piece

      A pretty picture with no data is hardly convincing evidence of
      anything, let alone recovery.
      It would be far more interesting to see the results of the oceans of
      money Barbados has received for "Reef Restoration."