and it finally begins, en masse :(

[Anonymous]

an email from coral-list :

Caribbean Coral Suffers Record Bleaching, Death

March 31, 2006 - By Seth Borenstein, Associated Press

WASHINGTON - A one-two punch of bleaching from record hot water followed by
disease has killed ancient and delicate coral in the biggest loss of reefs
scientists have ever seen in Caribbean waters.

Researchers from around the globe are scrambling to figure out the extent of the
loss. Early conservative estimates from Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands
find that about one-third of the coral in official monitoring sites has recently
died.

"It's an unprecedented die-off," said National Park Service fisheries biologist
Jeff Miller, who last week checked 40 stations in the Virgin Islands. "The
mortality that we're seeing now is of the extremely slow-growing reef-building
corals. These are corals that are the foundation of the reef ... We're talking
colonies that were here when Columbus came by have died in the past three to
four months."

Some of the devastated coral can never be replaced because it only grows the
width of one dime a year, Miller said.

Coral reefs are the basis for a multibillion-dollar tourism and commercial
fishing economy in the Caribbean. Key fish species use coral as habitat and
feeding grounds. Reefs limit the damage from hurricanes and tsunamis. More
recently they are being touted as possible sources for new medicines.

If coral reefs die "you lose the goose with golden eggs" that are key parts of
small island economies, said Edwin Hernandez-Delgado, a University of Puerto
Rico biology researcher.

On Sunday, Hernandez-Delgado found a colony of 800-year-old star coral -- more
than 13 feet high -- that had just died in the waters off Puerto Rico.

"We did lose entire colonies," he said. "This is something we have never seen
before."

On Wednesday, Tyler Smith, coordinator of the U.S. Virgin Islands Coral Reef
Monitoring program, dived at a popular spot for tourists in St. Thomas and saw
an old chunk of brain coral, about 3 feet in diameter, that was at least 90
percent dead from the disease called "white plague."

"We haven't seen an event of this magnitude in the Caribbean before," said Mark
Eakin, coordinator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's
Coral Reef Watch.

The Caribbean is actually better off than areas of the Indian and Pacific ocean
where mortality rates -- mostly from warming waters -- have been in the 90
percent range in past years, said Tom Goreau of the Global Coral Reef Alliance.
Goreau called what's happening worldwide "an underwater holocaust."

And with global warming, scientists are pessimistic about the future of coral
reefs.

"The prognosis is not good," said biochemistry professor M. James Crabbe of the
University of Luton near London. In early April, he will investigate coral reef
mortality in Jamaica. "If you want to see a coral reef, go now, because they
just won't survive in their current state."

For the Caribbean, it all started with hot sea temperatures, first in Panama in
the spring and early summer, and it got worse from there.

New NOAA sea surface temperature figures show the sustained heating in the
Caribbean last summer and fall was by far the worst in 21 years of satellite
monitoring, Eakin said.

"The 2005 event is bigger than all the previous 20 years combined," he said.

What happened in the Caribbean would be the equivalent of every city in the
United States recording a record high temperature at the same time, Eakin said.
And it remained hot for weeks, even months, stressing the coral.

The heat causes the symbiotic algae that provides food for the coral to die and
turn white. That puts the coral in critical condition. If coral remains bleached
for more than a week, the chance of death soars, according to NOAA scientists.

In the past, only some coral species would bleach during hot water spells and
the problem would occur only at certain depths. But in 2005, bleaching struck
far more of the region at all depths and in most species.

A February NOAA report calculates 96 percent of lettuce coral, 93 percent of the
star coral and nearly 61 percent of the iconic brain coral in St. Croix had
bleached. Much of the coral had started to recover from the bleaching last fall,
but then the weakened colonies were struck by disease, finishing them off.
Eakin, who oversees the temperature study of the warmer water, said it's hard to
point to global warming for just one season's high temperatures, but other
scientists are convinced.

"This is probably a harbinger of things to come," said John Rollino, the chief
scientist for the Bahamian Reef Survey. "The coral bleaching is probably more a
symptom of disease -- the widespread global environmental degradation -- that's
going on."

Crabbe said evidence of global warming is overwhelming.

"The big problem for coral is the question of whether they can adapt
sufficiently quickly to cope with climate change," Crabbe said. "I think the
evidence we have at the moment is: No, they can't.

"It'll not be the same ecosystem," he said. "The fish will go away. The smaller
predators will go away. The invertebrates will go away."

Source: Associated Press

 

[Anonymous]

How long before the hobby gets the blame?

 

[moggyhill]

this is all so very sad

 

[Anonymous]

Adapt or be destroyed in our new Glorious new Warmer earth. Soon I will not have to even wear clothes to work. The puritanical mores of America will dissappear and people will be hanging out nekkid all the time.


Woot!

 

[Anonymous]

They should now allow people to aquaculture those corals before they're gone for good.

Illegal, indeed. :roll:

Peace,

Chip

 

[Kalkbreath]

This is not warm water bleaching! this is coral disease,
The water is not record warm right now, they are trying to link this disease to SUV driving.
The urchins died long before this warm water spell ,
The tangs disappeared ten years ago,
The dying Caribbean reefs have little to do with warm water.
The pacific reefs recover quickly from warm water events. Because those reefs don't have near the soil runoff that south America and the USA flush.
The Atlantic is disease ridden and warm. Thats why its dying.
Atlantic corals dont "bleach".......they "Rot."

 

[PeterIMA]

Coral Bleaching is now world-wide. Every major reef area has had some bleaching. There is rising concern among the scientific community (as indicated by the Coral Reef list server). My questions to the trade and the hobby are the following:

1) Assuming that the harvest and trade becomes banned because of the concern to protect and conserve coral reefs (not because of the trade but from concern about coral warming and the need to protect what is left in the oceans), can the trade hobby sustain these species in aquaria long-term?

2) In other words is the trade and/or hobby capable of culturing/propagating corals so that it does not need to continue to exploit natural coral reefs? Or, does the trade and hobby still depend on the harvest of wild corals from coral reefs? This can be broken down further into additional questions.

3) Has the focus of the trade shifted from the common types of corals (Acropora, Porites) that are mostly SPS, to rarer corals like the LPS?

4) Are the LPS what are now needed from the wild?

5) My final question is whether coral culture has gotten to the point where the trade and hobby in first world countries could sustain common and/or rarer corals during periods of extreme global warming? In other words could the trade and/or hobby act like Noah's Arc to save corals if they become extinct in the wild?

Peter Rubec

 

[Anonymous]

And Noah called all the shrimp gobies, and purple monster acropora into the ark two by two....

 

[Anonymous]

This is not warm water bleaching! this is coral disease,
The water is not record warm right now, they are trying to link this disease to SUV driving.
The urchins died long before this warm water spell ,
The tangs disappeared ten years ago,
The dying Caribbean reefs have little to do with warm water.
The pacific reefs recover quickly from warm water events. Because those reefs don't have near the soil runoff that south America and the USA flush.
The Atlantic is disease ridden and warm. Thats why its dying.
Atlantic corals dont "bleach".......they "Rot."

Are you still spouting off here? I thought you had left or been banished? My mistake.

Pacific corals do not recover quickly from bleaching. Furthermore, I've seen no studies suggesting that "runoff that South American and the USA flush" is doing any damage to Caribbean reefs. And I can say with absolute certainty that Atlantic corals most definitely bleach. We've published papers to prove it.

 

[naesco]

Very sad but, on the positive side, the reefs move north

 

[Kalkbreath]

This is not warm water bleaching! this is coral disease,
The water is not record warm right now, they are trying to link this disease to SUV driving.
The urchins died long before this warm water spell ,
The tangs disappeared ten years ago,
The dying Caribbean reefs have little to do with warm water.
The pacific reefs recover quickly from warm water events. Because those reefs don't have near the soil runoff that south America and the USA flush.
The Atlantic is disease ridden and warm. Thats why its dying.
Atlantic corals dont "bleach".......they "Rot."

Are you still spouting off here? I thought you had left or been banished? My mistake.

Pacific corals do not recover quickly from bleaching. Furthermore, I've seen no studies suggesting that "runoff that South American and the USA flush" is doing any damage to Caribbean reefs. And I can say with absolute certainty that Atlantic corals most definitely bleach. We've published papers to prove it.

The Maldives Islands suffered 80 percent bleaching in 97 and today are fully recovered.
Fiji has warm water bleaching and yet no white band.
Most of the dead coral in the Caribbean died from disease.
White band is is not caused by warm water, its warm water that makes it thrive. Healthy reefs which are not silt ridden (or African dust} recover quite quickly
The 1970s and early 1980s were record cold decades. Some corals in the Keys actually died fron too cold of water on the reefs.
White band disease and its source(runnoff)was not an issue because the Caribbean and Atlantic waters were below normal temps.
So were the 1880s by the way......(recordcold temps)

Scientist like to tout that the Caribbean reefs are no more polluted then twenty years ago ........but then over look that the Caribbean has been in a refrigerated state for most of the 70s and 80s.
If these crocks really want to find the answers, then look to the reason tangs cant digest their food in the Atlantic, why Atlantic fish do so poorly in aquariums and why the urchins died before SUVS were driving around.
Its because the natural bacteria has been replaced by a terrestrial one.
and its the same one that in your bowls right now.
And it didn't get in the ocean from warm water spikes du to solar flares.........

 

[Kalkbreath]

Coral Bleaching is now world-wide. Every major reef area has had some bleaching. There is rising concern among the scientific community (as indicated by the Coral Reef list server). My questions to the trade and the hobby are the following:

1) Assuming that the harvest and trade becomes banned because of the concern to protect and conserve coral reefs (not because of the trade but from concern about coral warming and the need to protect what is left in the oceans), can the trade hobby sustain these species in aquaria long-term?

2) In other words is the trade and/or hobby capable of culturing/propagating corals so that it does not need to continue to exploit natural coral reefs? Or, does the trade and hobby still depend on the harvest of wild corals from coral reefs? This can be broken down further into additional questions.

3) Has the focus of the trade shifted from the common types of corals (Acropora, Porites) that are mostly SPS, to rarer corals like the LPS?

4) Are the LPS what are now needed from the wild?

5) My final question is whether coral culture has gotten to the point where the trade and hobby in first world countries could sustain common and/or rarer corals during periods of extreme global warming? In other words could the trade and/or hobby act like Noah's Arc to save corals if they become extinct in the wild?

Peter Rubec

Most sps collected for the trade are in deeper water then the warm water bleachings. {Its a warm shallow reef thing}
And LPS like brains plates and softies dont really dye from bleachings like shallow SPS corals .......Next, youll be demanding that there be an association overseeing the collection of corals for the trade..........
Wait there already is ! its called CITES Peter.
They monitor the reefs and determin how much is sustainable.
the coral dying in the Carib and shallow water bleachings in the Pacific dont involve the trade much at all.......sorry to burst your bubble

 

[Anonymous]

This is not warm water bleaching! this is coral disease,
The water is not record warm right now, they are trying to link this disease to SUV driving.
The urchins died long before this warm water spell ,
The tangs disappeared ten years ago,
The dying Caribbean reefs have little to do with warm water.
The pacific reefs recover quickly from warm water events. Because those reefs don't have near the soil runoff that south America and the USA flush.
The Atlantic is disease ridden and warm. Thats why its dying.
Atlantic corals dont "bleach".......they "Rot."

Are you still spouting off here? I thought you had left or been banished? My mistake.

Pacific corals do not recover quickly from bleaching. Furthermore, I've seen no studies suggesting that "runoff that South American and the USA flush" is doing any damage to Caribbean reefs. And I can say with absolute certainty that Atlantic corals most definitely bleach. We've published papers to prove it.

The Maldives Islands suffered 80 percent bleaching in 97 and today are fully recovered.
Fiji has warm water bleaching and yet no white band.
Most of the dead coral in the Caribbean died from disease.
White band is is not caused by warm water, its warm water that makes it thrive. Healthy reefs which are not silt ridden (or African dust} recover quite quickly
The 1970s and early 1980s were record cold decades. Some corals in the Keys actually died fron too cold of water on the reefs.
White band disease and its source(runnoff)was not an issue because the Caribbean and Atlantic waters were below normal temps.
So were the 1880s by the way......(recordcold temps)

Scientist like to tout that the Caribbean reefs are no more polluted then twenty years ago ........but then over look that the Caribbean has been in a refrigerated state for most of the 70s and 80s.
If these crocks really want to find the answers, then look to the reason tangs cant digest their food in the Atlantic, why Atlantic fish do so poorly in aquariums and why the urchins died before SUVS were driving around.
Its because the natural bacteria has been replaced by a terrestrial one.
and its the same one that in your bowls right now.
And it didn't get in the ocean from warm water spikes du to solar flares.........

You sound like someone who has researched this quite a bit.

I'm betting you've got a Ph.D. An M.S. at the very least? And hundreds of hours of dive time with several pubs no?

 

[clarionreef]

"It's an unprecedented die-off," said National Park Service fisheries biologist
Jeff Miller, who last week checked 40 stations in the Virgin Islands. "The
mortality that we're seeing now is of the extremely slow-growing reef-building
corals. These are corals that are the foundation of the reef ... We're talking
colonies that were here when Columbus came by have died in the past three to
four months."


Coral reefs are the basis for a multibillion-dollar tourism and commercial
fishing economy in the Caribbean. Key fish species use coral as habitat and
feeding grounds.
On Sunday, Hernandez-Delgado found a colony of 800-year-old star coral -- more
than 13 feet high -- that had just died in the waters off Puerto Rico.
________________________________________________________

Any knee jerk reaction I had to this is kept in check by reverance for the dead. 800 years old corals handed down thru history to die on our watch? Thats terrible!
Sure the aquarium trade had nothing to do with it but that doesn't give cause for dancing in the streets.
It underscores the fact that our struggles to save reefs and spare them from the damage we do...may be trumped by other assaults on them and greater assaults at that.
If we would just get the crowbars and cyanide bottles out of the hands of our own fisherfolk, then we would be much more removed from the line-up of usual suspects and be out of the limelight as far as reef killers go.
Clearly reefs die with or without our participation. We should make sure thats its all without our participation.
Steve

 

[Anonymous]

This is not warm water bleaching! this is coral disease,
The water is not record warm right now, they are trying to link this disease to SUV driving.
The urchins died long before this warm water spell ,
The tangs disappeared ten years ago,
The dying Caribbean reefs have little to do with warm water.
The pacific reefs recover quickly from warm water events. Because those reefs don't have near the soil runoff that south America and the USA flush.
The Atlantic is disease ridden and warm. Thats why its dying.
Atlantic corals dont "bleach".......they "Rot."

Are you still spouting off here? I thought you had left or been banished? My mistake.

Pacific corals do not recover quickly from bleaching. Furthermore, I've seen no studies suggesting that "runoff that South American and the USA flush" is doing any damage to Caribbean reefs. And I can say with absolute certainty that Atlantic corals most definitely bleach. We've published papers to prove it.

The Maldives Islands suffered 80 percent bleaching in 97 and today are fully recovered.
Fiji has warm water bleaching and yet no white band.
Most of the dead coral in the Caribbean died from disease.
White band is is not caused by warm water, its warm water that makes it thrive. Healthy reefs which are not silt ridden (or African dust} recover quite quickly
The 1970s and early 1980s were record cold decades. Some corals in the Keys actually died fron too cold of water on the reefs.
White band disease and its source(runnoff)was not an issue because the Caribbean and Atlantic waters were below normal temps.
So were the 1880s by the way......(recordcold temps)

Scientist like to tout that the Caribbean reefs are no more polluted then twenty years ago ........but then over look that the Caribbean has been in a refrigerated state for most of the 70s and 80s.
If these crocks really want to find the answers, then look to the reason tangs cant digest their food in the Atlantic, why Atlantic fish do so poorly in aquariums and why the urchins died before SUVS were driving around.
Its because the natural bacteria has been replaced by a terrestrial one.
and its the same one that in your bowls right now.
And it didn't get in the ocean from warm water spikes du to solar flares.........

You sound like someone who has researched this quite a bit.

I'm betting you've got a Ph.D. An M.S. at the very least? And hundreds of hours of dive time with several pubs no?

So much for no personal attacks. :roll:

Kalk, Why dont you just add a Dr. to your nick and be Dr. Kalkbreath. Then you will have more credibility.

 

[mkirda]

In other words could the trade and/or hobby act like Noah's Arc to save corals if they become extinct in the wild?

Peter Rubec

Peter,

Undoubtedly the answer is no.

Regards.
Mike Kirda

 

[mkirda]

Very sad but, on the positive side, the reefs move north

Not in near-term time scales.
The best estimates would be that it will take at least a 1000 years for the loose soil covering the bedrock to be swept away, providing a location for the corals to recruit. Corals don't recruit very well on sand and muck, and the entire US coastline is sand and muck all the up to the Carolinas and beyond.

Given the expected 1 meter sealevel rise over the next century, and what that will end up covering, I'd add another 1000 years to be on the safe side.

Whether or not there will be any corals left to recruit in 2000 years is another question.

Regards.
Mike Kirda

 

[mkirda]

The Maldives Islands suffered 80 percent bleaching in 97 and today are fully recovered.

An analogy: Imagine a forest that was completely devastated by fire. When it is covered in green again, is it fully recovered? Even if the green are dandelions?

Reefs take longer then 10 years to 'recover'. Ten years gets you nice dandelion growth, but it doesn't get you old-growth corals back. That takes 50 to 60 years of being left completely alone.

If the redwoods were all gone, do you declare everything ok when a christmas tree farm crops up in their place???

Regards.
Mike Kirda

 

[Kalkbreath]

Thats a perfect example: no meadows, no dear, very little diversity.
mono specific forrests or reefs support less life then diverse ones.
There is a certan Ponderosa pine beatle knocking out billions of trees in and around the Redwood national Parks which ilustrates my point.
Having forrests dominated by one or a few species is a disaster waiting to happen. This beatle is leaving giant sections of forrests dead... completely dead as far as the eyes can see. When one species dominates the forrests or reef, that eccosystem is unprepared for what nature might bring to it.
When the wild fires in Yosemite and Kings Canyon parks returned,
{because the park Rangers ended the fifty year practice of putting out natural wildfires}......the forrest became less old growth dominated and more ballanced with areas of open meadows and grassy sections where the trees were burned away letting in wild flowers and shrubs which had been previously missing from the habbitat. Old growth forrests are dull and borring...nothing for the rabbits and dear to eat. Even the Redwoods need wildfires to germinate their seedlings. The reefs of The Maldive islands are better and more ballanced now then when domnated by old growth corals heads. {fish populations are double that of before the ocean wildfires} They also are more resistant to the next warm water event.
Speaking of Redwoods, have you even noticed that only three Giant trees seem to be of a generation which is a thousand years older then the other two thousand southern redwoods. Three trees the"Sherman" ,
"Grizzle giant "and the "Grant tree'.... are a thousand years older. that means these three trees were alone in the forrest {the only Redwoods} for maybe 1000 years as the younger Redwoods sprouted and grew up.{dead readwoods remain laying on the ground for five to six hundred years}
Seems the idea that even the Rewoods are not imune to wipe out.
neither are thousand year old corals.

 

[Anonymous]

Thats a perfect example: no meadows, no dear, very little diversity.
mono specific forrests or reefs support less life then diverse ones.
There is a certan Ponderosa pine beatle knocking out billions of trees in and around the Redwood national Parks which ilustrates my point.
Having forrests dominated by one or a few species is a disaster waiting to happen. This beatle is leaving giant sections of forrests dead... completely dead as far as the eyes can see. When one species dominates the forrests or reef, that eccosystem is unprepared for what nature might bring to it.
When the wild fires in Yosemite and Kings Canyon parks returned,
{because the park Rangers ended the fifty year practice of putting out natural wildfires}......the forrest became less old growth dominated and more ballanced with areas of open meadows and grassy sections where the trees were burned away letting in wild flowers and shrubs which had been previously missing from the habbitat. Old growth forrests are dull and borring...nothing for the rabbits and dear to eat. Even the Redwoods need wildfires to germinate their seedlings. The reefs of The Maldive islands are better and more ballanced now then when domnated by old growth corals heads. {fish populations are double that of before the ocean wildfires} They also are more resistant to the next warm water event.
Speaking of Redwoods, have you even noticed that only three Giant trees seem to be of a generation which is a thousand years older then the other two thousand southern redwoods. Three trees the"Sherman" ,
"Grizzle giant "and the "Grant tree'.... are a thousand years older. that means these three trees were alone in the forrest {the only Redwoods} for maybe 1000 years as the younger Redwoods sprouted and grew up.{dead readwoods remain laying on the ground for five to six hundred years}
Seems the idea that even the Rewoods are not imune to wipe out.
neither are thousand year old corals.

even more so when people like you keep spreading falsehoods about cyanide's lethality to the above