[Coral-List] Coral reef health over time

[Eugene Shinn]

Dear Austin and Alena, What a treat to read your reports based on good 
observation and facts. Thank you so much. My experience in the Pacific 
is limited. I spent roughly 2-months on the reefs at Enewetak, a week or 
two on Philippine reefs, and a week on the Australian Great Barrier 
reef. This was all before the seemingly worldwide decline in coral reefs 
that began in the early 1980s. However, I did spend 2 and a half years 
diving in the Persian (Arabian Gulf) beginning in 1965, after a cold 
front (with snow) had decimated near-shore Acroporid reefs in 1964. 
However, the Acroporids began recovering during those years I was living 
in Qatar. What I vividly remember was how warm the Gulf water was during 
summer months. It resembled a tepid bath and a vigorous swim would bring 
on a head ache. Surprisingly, corals were not noticeably affected. 
Apparently all that changed in later years.

My work at Enewetak involved a lot of diving and under water core 
drilling in and around nuclear bomb craters created in the 1950s and 
early 1960s. Coral growth along with abundant marine life was abundant 
outside the craters probably because the majority of the radioactivity 
went into the atmosphere and was blown away and the native population 
had been removed. Any remaining radioactive metal had been collected and 
buried in a crater protected by a large cement dome. I feel lucky  to 
have had all of those experiences before coral demise set in. However, 
being a native Floridian and having learned to dive in the Keys as noted 
in a previous posting I watched all  starting in the 1950s and 
documented most of coral demise as it was happening during the 
population explosion in the Florida Keys. Gene