[Coral-List] Coral reef health over time

[Douglas Fenner]

Some may be surprised that quite a bit of the Pacific coral reefs are still
in pretty good condition, vastly better than Florida and most of the
Caribbean.  Not perfect, of course, corals may be reasonably good but
everywhere there are people the large fish are heavily overfished and the
medium fish are heavily fished.  You have to get to places with zero people
to see what natural reef fish communities are like.  There are, of course,
exceptions like Upolu Island in western Samoa, where about 90% of the
corals are dead currently.  That doesn't mean that the future doesn't
threaten the Pacific reefs, quite the contrary.  But the reef corals are
currently far from all dead.  That won't last.
     Cheers,  Doug

On Mon, Mar 27, 2023 at 7:40 AM Eugene Shinn via Coral-List <
coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov> wrote:

> 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
>
>
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