Concrete and corals? | Jerusalem Post

 

 

 

For most people, the idea of concrete blocks replacing coral reefs might seem far-fetched. But for a group of marine scientists at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, it is just what the doctor ordered. Sturdy enough to last, yet porous enough to be implanted with corals, concrete is the basis for an innovative technique that may help save coral reefs in the Red Sea from further destruction from overzealous divers.

According to leading experts, more than 25 percent of the world's coral reefs have already been destroyed. The causes are varied, and they include pollution, global warming and irresponsible fishing, but another large factor is uncontrolled and careless tourism. And perhaps more alarming is the fact that although coral bleaching (the most obvious sign of sick and dying coral) has been happening since at least the turn of the last century, most of the dramatic damage has occurred over the last 20 years.

The Red Sea has a reputation for being one of the most spectacular places to dive, and Eilat attracts thousands of vacationers a year, most of whom come to dive and snorkel in the coral reefs. But the very attraction they come to enjoy is suffering from the intensive tourism, and more and more of it is disappearing every year.

Read Full Article: Concrete and corals? | Jerusalem Post

Save the Reefs

 

Learn how you can help save the reefs.  reef.org

The plight of the Great Barrier Reef - On Line Opinion - 7/5/2008

 

ver the past decades there have been many stories in the media about the plight of the Great Barrier Reef.

In the '60s and '70s we all heard that the Great Barrier Reef was about to be consumed by that voracious predator, the Crown of Thorns Starfish.

In the '80s and '90s, the principal threats turned out to be sediment runoff, to nutrients, over fishing and general habitat destruction.

For me, an ancient marine scientist who has spent thousands of hours diving on the Great Barrier Reef these past 40 years, each of these threats has been of concern. But nothing comes close to the devastation waiting in the wings at the moment.

Very likely you have a feeling that dire predictions about anything almost always turn out to be exaggerations. This view is understandable. Once I also would have thought it ridiculous to imagine that the Great Barrier Reef might have a limited future as a consequence of human activity. It would have seemed preposterous that the greatest coral reef on Earth, the biggest structure made by life on Earth, could be mortally threatened by any present or foreseeable change.

Read Full Article: The plight of the Great Barrier Reef - On Line Opinion - 7/5/2008

BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Catching corals' spectacular moment

 

The coral reefs in the tropical western Pacific are at the brink of one of the most spectacular and significant nights in their annual life cycle.

By the light of April's full moon on Sunday or, quite likely a night or two after, corals will be mating en masse.

Along the length of the island archipelago that makes up the Republic of Palau, millions of coral colonies will simultaneously release billion upon billion of eggs and sperm into the dark waters.

An hour or so after sunset, each spawning coral will discharge showers of sex cells, packaged in orange and pink blobs.

They will rise to the surface in such huge numbers that they may form oily slicks metres long.

If the sea conditions are right, spawn slicks can coalesce to be large enough to be visible from space.

Depressing need

Once on the surface, the packages burst open, liberating eggs and sperm for fertilisation.

Countless free-swimming coral larvae then develop and three or four days later, a few will have survived long enough to make it to the sea bed.

Read Full Article: BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Catching corals' spectacular moment

Nuked coral reef bounces back - earth - 14 April 2008 - New Scientist Environment

 

What does a coral reef look like 50 years after being nuked? Not so bad, it seems. Coconuts growing on Bikini Atoll haven't fared so well, however.

Three islands of Bikini Atoll were vapourised by the Bravo hydrogen bomb in 1954, which shook islands 200 kilometres away. Instead of finding a bare underwater moonscape, ecologists who have dived it have given the 2-kilometre-wide crater a clean bill of health.

"It was fascinating – I’ve never seen corals growing like trees outside of the Marshall Islands," says Zoe Richards of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies in Australia.

Richards and colleagues report a thriving ecosystem of 183 species of coral, some of which were 8 metres high. They estimate that the diversity of species represents about 65% of what was present before the atomic tests.

The ecologists think the nearby Rongelap Atoll is seeding the Bikini Atoll, and the lack of human disturbance is helping its recovery. Although the ambient radiation is low, people have remained at bay.

Read Full Article: Nuked coral reef bounces back - earth - 14 April 2008 - New Scientist Environment

New Coral Reef DiscoveredTaipei Times - archives

 

Much to the excitement of marine ecologists, new coral reefs have been discovered in Shanyuan Bay (杉原灣) off Taitung, a local biodiversity researcher reported on Monday.

"The Shanyuan Bay coral reefs span a broad area of water and contain a wide diversity of coral strains," said Chen Chao-lun (陳昭倫), an associate researcher at Academia Sinica's Research Center for Biodiversity.

"Coral communities can be found in waters 1km off the coastline at a depth of 8m to 10m," Chen said, adding that the coral reef located closest to the coast is only 50m away from the shore.

Chen surveyed waters in Shanyuan Bay earlier this month as part of a study of coral reef habitats in eastern coastal regions.

He recorded 110 coral strains, roughly one-third the total number of species documented in Taiwanese waters. Among them, 94 were stone corals, 11 were soft corals and five were polyp corals.

"The number indicates that Shanyuan Bay's coral diversity is similar to that around Green Island," Chen said.

Shanyuan Bay, just off the coast from Taitung City, also boasts a dense and diverse cornularia coral community in which a wealth of fish, shrimp and shell species live, a phenomenon not seen in the Kenting and Green Island areas, Chen said.

A mature, well-developed polyp coral community also exists in 3m to 5m-deep waters in the bay, another rarity for Taiwan, Chen said.

Most encouraging was that a stem of Oulophyllia bennetthae coral was discovered in the bay, Chen said, adding that it marked the first time that the coral strain normally seen in the Indian Ocean had been recorded in Taiwanese waters.

"Although this coral species is spread over a wide area, the frequency of its appearance is very low," Chen said, adding that the existence of the 1m high, 60cm-wide coral underscores the diversity to be found in Taiwan's coral communities.

Chen's study coincides with a UN global coral reefs survey, as this year has been designated the International Year of Reefs to enhance public awareness of the importance of protecting coral reefs and their ecosystems.

New Coral Reef Discovered Taipei Times - archives

Reef development independent of coral diversity | Practical Fishkeeping magazine

 

The development of coral reefs is independent of coral species diversity, scientists from UK and USA have found.
In a study published in a recent issue of the journal Science, Kenneth Johnson, Jeremy Jackson and Ann Budd compared changes in coral diversity and reef development within the tropical western Atlantic over the past 28 million years using new and published fossil and stratigraphic data.
Even though coral diversity on Indo-Pacific reefs is 10 times higher than on Caribbean reefs, the rates of carbonate production and reef growth are similar.

Read Full Article: Reef development independent of coral diversity | Practical Fishkeeping magazine

Reef specialists decline when corals suffer | Practical Fishkeeping magazine

 

Scientists have confirmed that reef specialists suffer more when corals decline by studying damselfishes (pomacentrids) in the Great Barrier Reef.
The study by Shaun Wilson, Scott Burgess, Alistair Cheal, Mike Emslie, Rebecca Fisher, Ian Miller, Nicholas Polunin and Hugh Sweatman examined habitat use and specialization of pomacentrids, and determined which species are susceptible to declines in coral cover due to disturbance induced by crown-of-thorns starfish (Acanthaster planci).

Read Full Article: Reef specialists decline when corals suffer | Practical Fishkeeping magazine

Giant waves break up Caribbean coral - Yahoo! News

 

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico - Unusually large waves churned by an Atlantic storm system have littered the beaches of Barbados with broken coral in what could be a sign of damage to reefs across the region, a scientist said Sunday.

 

Read Full Article: Giant waves break up Caribbean coral - Yahoo! News

Giant marine life found in Antarctica - Yahoo! News

 

WELLINGTON, New Zealand - Scientists who conducted the most comprehensive survey to date of New Zealand's Antarctic waters were surprised by the size of some specimens found, including jellyfish with 12-foot tentacles and 2-foot-wide starfish.

 

Read Full Article: Giant marine life found in Antarctica - Yahoo! News

Rabbit Fish To The Rescue Of The Reef

 

ScienceDaily (Mar. 21, 2008) — While rabbits continue to ravage Australia’s native landscapes, rabbit fish may help save large areas of the Great Barrier Reef from destruction.

The reason, say scientists, is the same in both cases – both rabbits and rabbit fish are efficient herbivores, capable of stripping an area of vegetation. However, in the case of the Reef, it is the vegetation that is the problem – and the rabbit fish, the answer.

“When a coral reef is weakened or damaged through human activity such as climate change or pollution or by a natural disaster like a cyclone, the coral will usually recover provided it is not choked by fast-growing marine algae,” explains Professor David Bellwood of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies and James Cook University

Read Full Article: Rabbit Fish To The Rescue Of The Reef

Grief on the reef - CNN.com

 

The world's coral reefs are under threat. Overfishing, unsustainable tourism, coastal development, pollution, the global aquarium trade and climate change are having a devastating effect on these fragile ecosystems, according to the International Coral Reef Initiative.

 

In Mexico and across the world, the fragile ecosystems of coral reefs are under threat from human activity.

The group has designated 2008 as International Year of the Reef in a bid to publicize the reefs' precarious predicament.

Meanwhile fellow conservation group, Nature Conservancy, warns that if destruction continues at its current rate, 70 percent of the world's coral reefs will have disappeared within 50 years.

A report released in January by the World Conservation Union concluded that hurricanes and rising sea temperatures in 2005 -- the hottest year since records began -- caused large-scale examples coral bleaching, in which corals lose the essential algae that coat their surfaces, devastating more than half of the Caribbean's reefs.

But human activity at ground level is having an equally damaging effect, says Paul Sanchez-Navarro, Director of Centro Ecologico Akumal, an organization that monitors the impact of development on the reefs that thrive off the coast of Mexico's Quintana Roo province. Pollution spilled into the sea by the thousands of hotels on the Mexican Riviera is "stressing" the coral reefs.

Grief on the reef - CNN.com

Manila Ocean Park

 

Barely two weeks since its soft opening last February 29, the Manila Ocean Park, Metro Manila’s newest landmark, has been drawing in tourists and city residents who are curious to experience being surrounded by countless fish species.

But it’s not all just fun at the oceanarium.

The park’s owners also promise to do serious conservation work other than raising environmental awareness:

§ banning endangered species in the park unless captive-bred in accredited farms;

§ promoting coastal resources management in communities where some species exhibited in the park are taken from;

§ reducing energy use in the park’s operations;

§ doing research on endangered and threatened species;

§ being transparent about the park’s operations with independent environmental auditors.

ABS-CBN Interactive-Manila Ocean Park

Fast-growing corals key to Caribbean reef: study | Environment | Reuters

 

LONDON (Reuters) - Two dominant coral species have built a good chunk of the Caribbean reef, and their ability to grow quickly may help the region's coral reefs keep pace with rising sea levels caused by global warming, researchers say.

The staghorn and elkhorn corals grow about 10 times faster than any other in the Caribbean and reproduce in part by breaking into bits for easy ocean spread.

Ken Johnson, who led the study published in the journal Science, said researchers had found that the staghorn and elkhorn coral were not that important until about 1 million years ago, when half the Caribbean coral species went extinct.

Today about 60 coral species remain.

Johnson said one reason they quickly became dominant was they may have been able to keep up with rapid sea level rise by growing quickly, Johnson said.

Fast-growing corals key to Caribbean reef: study | Environment | Reuters

Kansas.com | 03/09/2008 | See them before they're gone

 

That dream vacation -- diving along the Great Barrier Reef, skiing in the Swiss Alps -- could remain a dream forever if you don't get a move on.

The brilliant coral off the coast of Australia could be largely gone by 2050, says a 2007 report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. And the cost of snowmaking equipment in the Alps is already forcing operators to invest in more snowmaking equipment, says Forbestraveler.com.The attention lately focused on these changes, and the overall issue of global warming, has already prompted one latter-day oracle to predict we will travel differently in 2008 and beyond.

"Let's face it, Al Gore's 'An Inconvenient Truth' and the time-lapse photography were not lost on a number of people," says Ann Mack, director of trend-spotting for JWT, the nation's largest advertising agency. "And increasingly, people are wanting to see these sights of the world before they change shape or change form. As global warming is rising up the world's agenda, ecotourists are flocking to previously ignored places."

It's been called climate sightseeing, a kind of farewell tour of Earth's greatest hits. Hard data is not available -- determining exactly why people go where they do is next to impossible. But a clear interest in ecotourism, coupled with much greater accessibility to places like the Earth's poles, means more people are visiting faraway and endangered sites, whatever their motives.

The subject is full of paradoxes: The more you travel, for example, the more you're contributing to the problem that made you go to an endangered site in the first place. And some places -- Canada, perhaps Russia and other cold climes -- are likely to attract more tourists as they warm.

Read Full Article: Kansas.com | 03/09/2008 | See them before they're gone

SDSUniverse | Microbes Threaten Coral Reefs

 

While fish populations have been decimated by overfishing worldwide, a research team led by San Diego State University biology professor Forest Rohwer have recently found how the practice can also endanger coral reefs.

According to the team's research in the Line Islands, located in the Central Pacific, overfishing leads to an excess of microbes that kill off coral.

Read Full Article: SDSUniverse | Microbes Threaten Coral Reefs

Divers help reduce starfish threat to coral reefs - INQUIRER.net, Philippine News for Filipinos

 

MABINI, BATANGAS – Coral reefs off this town have been spared, albeit temporarily, from yet another ecological threat by the predatory Crown of Thorns starfish (COTs), thanks to clean-up operations by a group of divers.

At least 40 volunteer divers, boatmen, Bantay Dagat members and municipal officials joined the Feb. 6 activity organized by the Mabini Tourism Office. The campaign aims to reduce and control COT outbreak or infestation in the dive sites.

"Crowns of Thorns are eating the corals, which are the ones being visited by divers," said Mabini administrative officer Omar Evangelista.

Mabini, a third-class municipality (annual income: P30 million-P40 million) has 15 dive spots that offer coral reefs as main attractions. It has 19 coastal villages and 48 mostly dive resorts, which often employ residents.

At least 700 divers arrive weekly to see the reefs, according to tourism officer Michelle Magmanlac.

Marine sanctuaries

The volunteer divers swept marine sanctuaries, such as Arthur's Rock, Eagle Point, Koala and Cathedral in Barangay Balangit, and retrieved at least 10 sacks of COTs. They used tongs to hold the naturally poisonous starfish and brought them to the beach where they would rot.

Read Full Article: Divers help reduce starfish threat to coral reefs - INQUIRER.net, Philippine News for Filipinos

Cayman Islands - Cay Compass News Online - LC reefs show resilience

 

Coral reefs around Little Cayman have almost completely recovered from a 2005 ocean warming event that caused the most extreme coral bleaching and mortality ever seen in the wider Caribbean.

Marine scientists at the Central Caribbean Marine Institute’s Little Cayman Research Center carried out a survey of reefs around Little Cayman in January.

While the bleaching that was recorded in 2005 – the hottest year on record in the Northern Hemisphere – was the worst ever seen in the Cayman Islands, reefs in Little Cayman have come back stronger than most other Caribbean reefs, they say.

According to a report published by the Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network in January, other reefs in the region have not fared so well. The US Virgin Islands lost over 50 per cent of coral reef cover; Barbados experienced 17 per cent to 20 per cent coral mortality; losses in the French West Indies ranged between 11 per cent and 30 per cent; while sites in the Dominican Republic suffered up to 38 per cent mortality.

“The reefs are regenerating at a high level,” said CCMI President Ms Carrie Manfrino. “This is very good news and illustrates a level of resilience in Cayman that is not common on Caribbean reefs.”

Read Full Article: Cayman Islands - Cay Compass News Online - LC reefs show resilience

NOAA - National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration - NOAA Helps Nat’l Coral Reef Institute to Grow Coral in Laboratory to Restore Damaged Reefs

 

Scientists at the National Coral Reef Institute are currently growing more than  400 corals from the larval stage as part of NOAA-funded research, and will transplant them to restore damaged coral reefs.

Producing juvenile corals from the larval stage for transplantation is better for the health and longevity of coral reefs because it produces new coral, rather than moving around already existing fragments collected in the field. NCRI is also evaluating this technique to raise and restore populations of staghorn coral, a species recently listed by NOAA as threatened under the Endangered Species Act.

"NOAA strongly supports research that will help managers develop new tools to address coral restoration,” said retired Navy Vice Adm. Conrad C. Lautenbacher, Ph.D., under secretary of commerce for oceans and atmosphere and NOAA administrator. “In this Year of the Reef, such innovative approaches may provide a new way forward to protecting these valuable resources.”

Read Full Article: NOAA - National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration - NOAA Helps Nat’l Coral Reef Institute to Grow Coral in Laboratory to Restore Damaged Reefs

Butterfly Fish Faces Possible Extinction - Science - redOrbit

 

The beautiful black, white and yellow butterflyfish, much admired by eco-tourists, divers and aquarium keepers alike, may be at risk of extinction, scientists have warned.
The case of the Chevroned Butterflyfish is a stark example of how human pressure on the world’s coral reefs is confronting certain species with ‘blind alleys’ from which they may be unable to escape, says Dr Morgan Pratchett of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies and James Cook University.
In a study published in the journal Behavioural Ecology and Sociobiology, Dr Pratchett and Dr Michael Berumen of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (USA) warn that the highly specialized nature of the feeding habits of this particular butterflyfish – the distinctively patterned Chaetodon trifascialis - make it an extinction risk as the world’s coral reefs continue to degrade due to human over-exploitation, pollution and climate change.
“The irony is that these butterflyfish are widespread around the world, and you’d have thought their chances of survival were pretty good,” Dr Pratchett said today.
“But they only eat one sort of coral – Acropora hyacinthus – and when that runs out, the fish just disappear from the reef.”

Read Full Article: Butterfly Fish Faces Possible Extinction - Science - redOrbit