[Coral-List] relatives of influenza in corals (Douglas Fenner)

Mon Mar 6 23:39:18 UTC 2023

Thanks Anthony Priestas from the United States Army Corps of Engineers, for
acknowledging that the #Dredging Project for the #Miami #Dade #Port started
in 2013, before the sighting of the first sick Coral Colony with SCTLD
https://twitter.com/ICR_Observatory/status/1632841501305708544?cxt=HHwWgIC9vbesgqktAAAA

According to a post of Dr. William Precht:
"We still know so little about this disease - but it is worth noting that
the (leaking) pipe of the CMD-WWTP on Virginia Key that dumps 150 million
gals treated wastewater per day into the Atlantic was only about 250m from
where the disease was first spotted".
https://twitter.com/BillPrecht/status/1628788605899481088?cxt=HHwWgIC9ze-mz5otAAAA

The transdisciplinary research is dedicated to learning from different
disciplines including listening to the communities and including them in
Citizen Science so we can get reports from what we can not see in our short
field trips. For example, it is relevant to identify human activities and
changes in coral reefs when it happens.

We are in March, 2023, and there is still sewage going to the sea, other
sources of pollution continue (at local and global scales), as well as the
destruction of coral reefs. This makes it difficult to implement the
Objective of Sustainable Development 14: Protect Life Below
Water. Microbiologist monitor the prevalence of bacterial pathogens and
their emerging resistance patterns

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4138442/

https://www.scielo.cl/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0718-560X2018000500880

My point is that unsustainable development is happening everywhere in the
Caribbean Sea, even in marine protected areas close to coral reef areas. It
is not vague on the basis of evidence that may prove a relationship with sewage
pollution on the sea, dredging, enlargement of channels and ports and
subsequent increase in the frequency and sizes of ships may cause
degradation of coral reefs. It is necessary to acknowledge this, to plan
the real recovery of the Caribbean coral reefs.

There is a need to look for other objectives, location and size
alternatives for the megaprojects to avoid further coral reef
deterioration. Only with promises of coral restoration justifying these
megaprojects will it not be viable to recover coral reefs after a high
environmental impact or disease outbreak.

The best way to stop a disease is to identify primary causes / factors and
stop them for effective coral reef conservation #OceanAction14819

Nohora Galvis
Expert in Transdisciplinary research to improve coral reef conservation
effectiveness
ICRO, International Coral Reef Observatory.
Follow us on Facebookcom/ICRObservatory
Instagram, Twitter and Twitter  ICR_Observatory

El lun, 6 mar 2023 a las 10:04, anthony priestas (<priestas at gmail.com>)
escribió:

> Thanks Nohora,
>
> I stand corrected, as I confused it with the 2015 completion time, and not
> the start of construction, from what I gather is November 2013.
>
> So far what we seem to have are associations with timing of certain
> events: thermal stress and dredging. Considering WPD and SCTLD have
> occurred regionally outside of dredging windows, how would you control for
> one or the other to determine causality? Are there other tests or
> observations to eliminate confounding factors? Or are we simply taking a
> precautionary approach in the absence of such knowledge? And to be sure, I
> am not downplaying the direct sedimentation impacts observed at Miami, but
> I think what you're saying is that dredging initiated (or could have), a
> coral disease outbreak. While certainly plausible and intriguing, it seems
> like conjecture to me based on the available evidence. Am I wrong? Correct
> me if I have misrepresented your views.
>
> "Unsustainable development" is too vague to be a mechanistic cause of
> something, just as cities are not a cause of traffic congestion. Perhaps
> I'm being picky with the semantics and spirit of your point, but I think
> being precise allows us to think deeply about cause and effect
> relationships, especially (and fundamentally) in our line of work.
>
> Development can (and should) occur with environmental prudence, but are
> many calls around halting development of practically any sort (especially
> along the coastlines) and human depopulation as the only viable long-term
> solutions. This is a view that I do not share and think is
> counterproductive. Ideas and suggestions have been put forth to explore
> other possible causitive agents, but the only ones that seem to get any
> traction are those that trace back to human activity. Why is that?
>
> Respectfully,
> ap
>
> On Sat, Mar 4, 2023, 9:56 AM International Coral Reef Observatory <
> icrobservatory at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Thanks Anhony, I shared the notification that I received from a NOAA
>> communicator.  We have also received reports from US government
>> employees from different agencies working on the impact of ballast water on
>> marine life, transmission of exotic species, and disease - including SCTLD.
>>
>> The unsustainable development is a fact that causes coral diseases and
>> the dredging and enlargement of ports increase the activity that may bring
>> more people to a coral reef area, more pollution be in the ballast water of
>> large ships that remove sediments on their transit.
>>
>> In 2013, started the The PortMiami Deep Dredge Project that expanded
>> PortMiami by dredging the bay to allow new, larger cargo ships to enter
>> the port.
>> https://www.miamidade.gov/portmiami/press_releases/2013-11-21-deep-dredge-construction-moving-forward.asp
>>
>> I respect very much the publications of Dr. Precht
>>
>> Precht, W. (2021). Failure to respond to a coral disease epizootic in
>> Florida: causes and consequences. *Rethink. Ecol.* 6, 1–47.
>>
>> Precht, W. F., Ginert, B. E., Robbart, M. L., Fura, R., and van Woesik,
>> R. (2016). Unprecedented disease-related coral mortality in Southeastern
>> Florida. *Sci. Rep.* 6:31374. doi: 10.1038/srep31374
>> Nohora Galvis
>> ICRO
>> International Coral Reef Observatory
>> El sáb, 4 mar 2023 a las 8:35, anthony priestas (<priestas at gmail.com>)
>> escribió:
>>
>>> Nohora,
>>>
>>> I think your statement on Port Miami is incorrect. Bill Precht reported
>>> SCTLD in 2014 prior to dredging.
>>>
>>> Anthony Priestas, PhD
>>> USACE-ERDC
>>>
>>> On Sat, Mar 4, 2023, 7:22 AM International Coral Reef Observatory via
>>> Coral-List <coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Dear Gene,
>>>>
>>>> Silting with related microbes may be one of the potential causes of
>>>> coral
>>>> diseases in the #Caribbean Sea. The enlargement of ports, channels and
>>>> the
>>>> increase in transportation with large vessels and cruises may be one of
>>>> the
>>>> causes of degradation besides the other threats from coastal and ballast
>>>> water pollution, direct destruction of coral reefs, overfishing, climate
>>>> change, etc. Most MPAs have enlarged ports, docks and navigation
>>>> channels
>>>> with the consequent increase of visitors and inhabitants related
>>>> pollution
>>>> that is not considered in the environmental assessment impacts nor in
>>>> the
>>>> identification of causes that hamper coral reef conservation
>>>> effectiveness.
>>>>
>>>> In the Seaflower Biosphere Reserve, SCTLD appeared after dredging to
>>>> enlarge ports and channels, increase of navigation with large vessels
>>>> and
>>>> increase in tourism, of course also after hurricanes that removed the
>>>> deposited sedimentation after dredging (308000m3).
>>>>
>>>> The following video was share to us recently from Key West, Florida, USA
>>>> showing a cruise maneuver
>>>>
>>>> https://twitter.com/ArrecifesCoral/status/1629251064208805888?cxt=HHwWgMC-wb7NoZwtAAAA
>>>> Also after a Coral Reef International Communicaation Workshop (Reef
>>>> Future), we received a notification from NOAA explaining that after the
>>>> enlargement of Miami Dade Port the SCTLD appeared in Florida...
>>>> https://twitter.com/ICRObservatory/status/1631778172202090496/photo/1
>>>>
>>>> Nohora Galvis
>>>> Expert in Transdisciplinary research to improve coral reef conservation
>>>> effectiveness
>>>> ICRO, International Coral Reef Observatory.
>>>> Follow us on Facebookcom/ICRObservatory
>>>> Instagram, Twitter and Twitter  ICR_Observatory
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> El jue, 2 mar 2023 a las 20:50, Eugene Shinn (<eugeneshinn at mail.usf.edu
>>>> >)
>>>> escribió:
>>>>
>>>> > I was fighting against dredging in the Florida keys in the mid 1950?
>>>> I
>>>> > thought it might harm the corals reefs. Jpwever coral diseases in the
>>>> keys
>>>> > and virgin islands began mainly in 1983. The biggest year of dust
>>>> flux from
>>>> > Africa. they have been dying ever since and there has been no
>>>> dredging in
>>>> > the Keys since the 1950s. Gene
>>>> > On 3/2/23 4:13 PM, International Coral Reef Observatory wrote:
>>>> >
>>>> > Dear Gene,
>>>> >
>>>> > According to the MIcrobiology Society: Viruses are the smallest of
>>>> all the
>>>> > microbes. ... A virus is made up of a core of genetic material, either
>>>> > DNA or RNA, surrounded by a protective coat ...
>>>> >
>>>> https://microbiologysociety.org/why-microbiology-matters/what-is-microbiology/viruses.html
>>>> >
>>>> >
>>>> > Regarding the influence of African Dust, let us also think about the
>>>> > effects of dredging on the health of coral reef areas...
>>>> >
>>>> https://www.wkcgroup.com/news/environmental-impacts-dredging-on-coral-reefs/
>>>> >
>>>> >
>>>> > Nohora Galvis
>>>> > Expert in Transdisciplinary research to improve coral reef
>>>> conservation
>>>> > effectiveness
>>>> > ICRO, International Coral Reef Observatory.
>>>> > Follow us on Facebookcom/ICRObservatory
>>>> > Instagram, Twitter and Twitter  ICR_Observatory
>>>> >
>>>> > El jue, 2 mar 2023 a las 14:30, Eugene Shinn via Coral-List (<
>>>> > coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov>) escribió:
>>>> >
>>>> >> Thanks Doug, I am remembering that back when we had a funded study of
>>>> >> microbes in African dust there were many times more viruses in the
>>>> dust
>>>> >> than microbes. We could not study viruses because we did not have a
>>>> >> level 3 or 4 lab. As you know dust circles the globe and more must
>>>> fall
>>>> >> into the oceans than on land.  Think about it. Gene
>>>> >>
>>>> >> https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-00558-4
>>>> >>
>>>> >> _______________________________________________
>>>> >> Coral-List mailing list
>>>> >> Coral-List at coral.aoml.noaa.gov
>>>> >> https://coral.aoml.noaa.gov/mailman/listinfo/coral-list
>>>> >
>>>> >
>>>> _______________________________________________
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>>>
>>>