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

JJ jeremybcjackson at gmail.com
Wed Jan 17 15:44:27 UTC 2024 

Very nice to read rational responses to yet again another ridiculous and
dangerous proposal. Thanks!

On Wed, Jan 17, 2024 at 9:47 AM Risk, Michael via Coral-List <
coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov> wrote:

>    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/
>    _______________________________________________
>    Coral-List mailing list
>    Coral-List at coral.aoml.noaa.gov
>    [8]https://coral.aoml.noaa.gov/mailman/listinfo/coral-list
>    _______________________________________________
>    Coral-List mailing list
>    Coral-List at coral.aoml.noaa.gov
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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
> _______________________________________________
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-- 
Jeremy Jackson
Author: *Breakpoint: Reckoning with America's Environmental Crises
<https://www.amazon.com/Breakpoint-Reckoning-Americas-Environmental-Crises/dp/0300179391/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1523815680&sr=8-1&keywords=jackson+breakpoint>*

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