[Coral-List] Could foreign coral save dying reefs?

Tue Jan 16 16:32:50 UTC 2024

   Hi Steve.

   Those of us privileged to view the Fungia's happily (?) roaming around
   the north slope of Jamaica could also answer that question with "Hell,
   no!!"

   The initial premise, about differences between Caribbean and
   Indo-Pacific corals, also seems to have been crafted by people unaware
   of Paul Sammarco's pioneering work on this very subject.

   You have hit the nail on the head-and I note, with some asperity, that
   you are not a coral biologist. THEY are the ones who have dropped the
   ball here, and you have had to call them out. Not a week goes by
   without some new scheme to "save the reefs", in which some of our
   colleagues get to enjoy their 15 minutes of fame.

   Coral reef biology has, by and large, avoided dealing with root causes.
   This may be a question of survival-we all have stories about
   researchers who ran up against Big Something, and lost. I don't know
   the reasons, and it troubles me. I mention, again, that there have
   (only) been two studies of what happens to a dying reef when the WQ
   improves: Hawaii, and Barbados. In both cases, the corals improved
   quickly.

   Whatever happened to "First, clean up the water"?

   Mike
     __________________________________________________________________

   From: Coral-List <coral-list-bounces at coral.aoml.noaa.gov> on behalf of
   Steve Mussman via Coral-List <coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov>
   Sent: Tuesday, January 16, 2024 7:40 AM
   To: Douglas Fenner via Coral-List <coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov>
   Cc: coral list <coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov>
   Subject: Re: [Coral-List] Could foreign coral save dying reefs?

   Caution: External email.
   Hi Doug,
   Can foreign corals save a dying reef?
   I would suggest that the simple answer to that question is an emphatic
   "NO".
   One of the scientists in the Nature article is quoted as lamenting "How
   far do you go? When do we just give up?" she says. "I don't know."
   All this angst leads me to pose a responsive question.
   When will the coral sciences stop focusing on trying to find or develop
   corals that can survive in increasingly adverse conditions and finally
   realize that the only real solution is to address causation?
   Stop wringing your hands and focus on what we all know are the central
   issues at play; water quality, over-fishing and climate change.
   Such an approach might not create as many exciting opportunities to
   experiment with the manipulation the natural world, but it is becoming
   increasingly obvious that it is the last best chance we have to save
   it.
   Regards,
   Steve Mussman
   Sent from EarthLink Mobile mail
   On 1/15/24, 8:16 PM, Douglas Fenner via Coral-List
   <coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov> wrote:
   "Scientists are considering a desperate attempt to use non-native coral
   to
   restore long-struggling reefs in the Caribbean that were devastated by
   last
   year's heatwave. It's a controversial proposal
   that
   comes after efforts to rescue reefs with native corals have failed.
   Certain
   Indo-Pacific coral species easily colonize reefs, and might be able to
   survive pollution, heat extremes and diseases. But they could also
   disturb
   the local ecology in unpredictable ways. "It's an 11th-hour solution,"
   says
   coral geneticist Mikhail Matz, who presented the idea at a conference.
   "And
   it is now 11:45."" Nature Briefing
   Radical idea sparks debate
   [1]https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-024-00102-y
   open-access
   Cheers, Doug
   Lynker Technologies, LLC, Contractor
   NOAA Fisheries Service
   Pacific Islands Regional Office
   Honolulu
   and:
   Coral Reef Consulting
   PO Box 997390
   Pago Pago, American Samoa 96799-6298 USA
   Costanza, R. 2023. To build a better world, stop chasing economic
   growth.
   Nature 624: 519-521.
   [2]https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-04029-8
   Fossil fuel air pollution kills 5 million people world-wide per year
   [3]https://www.yahoo.com/news/research-shows-disturbing-between-million
   s-200000257.html
   World's richest 1% emit as much as 5 billion people
   [4]https://makerichpolluterspay.org/climate-equality-report/
   Huge expansion of fossil fuels planned, will be very destructive
   [5]https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/nov/08/insanity-petrost
   ates-planning-huge-expansion-of-fossil-fuels-says-un-report
   "without policy changes, the world will heat up enough by the end of
   the
   century that more than 2 billion people will live in life-threatening
   hot
   climates" Will you be in that area???
   [6]https://www.yahoo.com/news/scientists-sounding-alarm-dangerous-probl
   em-123000792.html
   World subsidies for fossil fuels reached an all-time high of over $1
   TRILLION in 2022, the last year for which data is available. The
   subsidies
   MUST end.
   [7]https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/fossil-fuel-subsid
   ies-must-end/
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References

   1. https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-024-00102-y
   2. https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-04029-8
   3. https://www.yahoo.com/news/research-shows-disturbing-between-millions-200000257.html
   4. https://makerichpolluterspay.org/climate-equality-report/
   5. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/nov/08/insanity-petrostates-planning-huge-expansion-of-fossil-fuels-says-un-report
   6. https://www.yahoo.com/news/scientists-sounding-alarm-dangerous-problem-123000792.html
   7. https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/fossil-fuel-subsidies-must-end/
   8. https://coral.aoml.noaa.gov/mailman/listinfo/coral-list
   9. https://coral.aoml.noaa.gov/mailman/listinfo/coral-list