Posts Tagged ‘corals’

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April 16, 2010 – At Sea, 16º 26’N, 099º 34’W
By Herb McCormick

To paraphrase Galapagos Island oceanographer and scientist Stuart Banks, perhaps one of the biggest reasons coral reefs are underappreciated by the wide masses is because relatively few people actually get to see them: Out of sight, out of mind. Unlike rainforests, strip mines or oilrigs, they aren’t readily visible to terrestrial or even boat-bound beings. You need to immerse yourself, quite literally, to understand. But once you do, you’ll be forever changed.

Nearly two decades ago, for the singular reason of wanting to see coral reefs – I was sailing amongst them all the time, and it seemed ridiculous that I’d never truly jumped in the water and experienced them – I took the course to secure my scuba-diving certificate and dive card. Despite almost drowning on a freezing New England day with zero visibility on my very first open-water dive, I’ve never regretted the decision. In the years since, I’ve dove on coral reefs in the South Pacific, Belize, the British Virgin Islands, the Bahamas, and numerous times on Australia’s Great Barrier Reef. My rewards have been many. I’ve been enveloped in beauty of almost indescribable dimensions.

None of those dive trips, however, have come close to topping an adventure about ten years ago to scuba in the aptly named Coral Sea. After setting out from Queensland on the eastern Australia coast and picking our way out through the Great Barrier Reef, we spent two solid days on a wet, shaken sailboat bashing upwind into the teeth of the powerful easterly trades. I tossed my cookies every third wave; it was the most miserable sail of my life. Then, suddenly, there was breaking water, and in its lee, a rolling but relatively flat expanse of calm sea. We’d found what we were looking for – the first in a series of remote, uninhabited, pristine, rarely visited coral reefs and atolls.

An hour later, we were in the drink. Instantly, we realized the awful, bone-jarring, stomach-turning rollercoaster ride had been worth the considerable bother.

What we saw that day and for the next long week was an amazing array of coral beyond anything we could ever have dreamed of or imagined. We didn’t see just coral reefs, but coral caves and coral arches and even coral corridors that opened up into coral rooms and coral amphitheatres. It was a cornucopia of coral. The colors were as vivid and natural and pure as anything on the planet; the plentiful fish were as tame and curious as we were; the clarity of the ocean was as clear and fresh as rainwater. We returned to the boat only long enough to rest, eat, hydrate and change tanks. Our trips above sea level were an imposition; all we wanted to do was get back in the aquarium.

When you witness coral like that, you never forget it. You wish all your best mates could see it. You don’t ever want anything bad to happen to it. Then you return to shore, and just about the whole clueless, unknowing world seems to have other priorities.

On Friday afternoon, the crew of Ocean Watch was on the final stretch of their run from Costa Rica to Acapulco, Mexico, to clear Mexican customs and take on fuel. Early this afternoon, off to starboard, the profile of the coastal mountains south of Acapulco hove into view. We’ll have a further report on our arrival to the resort city later this weekend. But today, we’re concentrating on the third and final installment of our short series on coral and coral reefs.

Thus far, we’ve concentrated on the hazards and dangers to coral reefs. But there’s positive news and developments as well. Consider the efforts of the United States Coral Reef Task Force, established in 1998 by presidential order to lead U.S. efforts to preserve and protect coral-reef ecosystems. The USCRTF incorporates 12 Federal agencies as well as several U.S. states and territories, and helps build partnerships, strategies and support for on-the-ground action to conserve coral reefs. Here’s a small sampling of the interagency efforts currently underway on behalf of coral conservation:

NOAA’s Coral Reef Conservation Program has a large grant program funding major coral reef research and management initiatives in the U.S. and abroad. NASA’s ongoing Millennium Coral Reef Mapping Project conducts cutting-edge coral monitoring and imaging research by mapping all reefs found in all tropical oceans, an invaluable service that Stuart Banks of the Charles Darwin Foundation in Galapagos cited as one of the most important inputs in his ongoing research through the archipelago.

The Fish and Wildlife Service manages 15 coral reef National Wildlife Refuges and four National Marine Monuments that represent the largest and most ecologically comprehensive series of fully protected marine areas under unified conservation management in the world. The National Park Service has ten National Parks in the Pacific, Florida and the Caribbean with coral reef ecosystems. The United States Coast Guard provides assets to assist with the removal of fishing gear and other debris affecting coral reefs, including 510 metric tons of underwater junk from Hawaii since 1996. The list goes on and on.

In Guam and the Hawaiian islands, the United States Geological Survey’s ongoing studies of coral reefs focus on mapping, monitoring, remote sensing, sediment transport studies, and collection of tide, wave and current data from remote stations. “From this work,” says their website, “we are gaining new insight into the structure of coral reefs, providing the basis for future monitoring, and understanding better both the influences of natural processes and impacts of human activities on coral reef health. These efforts will help to preserve and protect the biodiversity, health, and social and economic value of these remarkable habitats.”

Furthermore, 45% of coral reefs worldwide – a considerable percentage, though not where we need to be – are currently healthy, and as Stuart Banks noted in yesterday’s log, coral reefs have the ability to recover over time after major bleaching events. One can encourage recovery of the remaining reefs by backing agendas, politicians and corporations that help put an end to damaging fishing practices, adopt sustainable fishing practices, regulate sediment and run-off pollution and prevent further acidification in the oceans by reducing atmospheric carbon that is absorbed by the ocean.

That’s all on a global scale. There are ways individuals can “act locally,” too. Here are just a few:

• Like the crew of Ocean Watch, refrain from buying coral jewelry and souvenirs, and promote and patronize companies that do not profit from selling coral and which are committed to proactive conservation efforts. We’re extremely proud of our association with The Tiffany & Co. Foundation, one of our primary corporate sponsors and partners, who forever removed coral products from their stores and catalogs nearly ten years ago.

• When vacationing in tropical locales and snorkeling or diving on coral reefs, do not unwittingly compound the risk to coral by applying harsh, chemical-based sunscreens that can damage reefs and reef life. Instead, wear a t-shirt or “rash-guard” garment favored by surfers. Once in the water, do not step on coral, use it as a handhold or take coral souvenirs. If chartering a vessel, pick up moorings in coral-sensitive areas whenever possible, and when it isn’t, carefully choose an anchorage with a sandy bottom before dropping your anchor.

• Educate yourself about coral and coral reefs. There are numerous books and websites devoted to coral dangers and conservation efforts. You don’t need to be a scuba diver to grasp a better understanding of coral.

• Better yet, however, take the plunge and become a certified scuba diver. Local courses are available in most every coastal community, and dedicated vacations incorporating dive certification with coral-reef exploration are available the world over. Diving on coral reefs will give you an appreciation for their exquisiteness, and fragility, like no other activity.

That’s what happened to me on that dive trip to the Coral Sea. I can still remember a single moment that crystallizes the entire journey. At one point, hovering over a coral shelf about thirty feet below the shimmering surface, I rolled over on my back and drifted upside down; breathing in, breathing out; suspended weightless in the sea, going nowhere, bathed in rays of light; surrounded by reef, silence and splendor.

The world and its problems were someone else’s worry. There was nowhere else I wanted to be. Had my air supply been unlimited, I might be there still.

-Herb McCormick with photographs by David Thoreson

*This crew log submitted by Iridium OpenPort and Stratos

*To add a comment to this story click on the comment link below the post title. Please direct your messages for the crew to crew@aroundtheamericas.org instead of submitting them here. Thanks for following the Around the Americas Expedition.

Open the below photos in a full-screen slideshow in Flickr

April 15, 2010 – At Sea, 15º 18’N, 097º 26’W
By Herb McCormick

On every dive, we saw more coral. During Ocean Watch’s recent layover in the amazing Galapagos Islands, for David Thoreson and I the absolute highlight of the visit was the time we spent with the divers at the Scuba Iguana dive shop checking out the undersea world. Divers and tourists from around the globe come to Galapagos to get up close and personal with the amazing wildlife and sea life, and there’s no question that the animals above and below the waterline are unforgettable. But David and I had also hoped to see some coral, and we weren’t disappointed.

Galapagos isn’t the Great Barrier Reef by any means, but there’s plenty of coral around and in a variety of species. On most dives, we saw coral heads or “bommies,” intricate expanses of coral reefs, undulating sea fans and big, oval sculptures of brain coral, and other varieties, as well. Almost always, there were reef fish or sharks nearby, in various stages or acts of feeding or cleaning. It was a vivid, industrious, colorful and vital panorama.

It wasn’t until later that we discovered how fragile and delicate the entire spectrum of light and life before us really and truly was.

Today on Ocean Watch, executive decisions have been made, and the course altered accordingly. We are now angling in towards the famous Mexican resort city of Acapulco, at mid-afternoon some hundred a fifty miles away. In the interests of full fuel tanks – a necessity on what, after the first rollicking day, has become a wind-less passage – the previously unscheduled stop at Acapulco will be our first port-of-call in Mexico, with an ETA of Friday afternoon.

Though the sailing has been kept to a minimum, we’ve enjoyed all sorts of visual treats and diversions. Mate Dave Logan today caught a young marlin on his troll line, which was returned immediately to the sea with a fine tale for the billfish back home. The night sky has been clear, moonless and gorgeous. We’ve slalomed through virtually hundreds of turtles. But the wildest sight of all, something none of us had ever seen before, was last evening’s pulsing glow of what we believe are jellyfish – perhaps full of tasty meals of bioluminescent plankton – that lit up the ocean surface from dusk to dawn as if it were a flashing disco floor.

The vision was almost as memorable as Galapagos, the focus of today’s second installment in our three-part series on endangered coral reefs, a concern we share with our expedition partners and supporters, The Tiffany & Co. Foundation, which in 2002 stopped selling coral in order to raise awareness for coral-reef conservation.

Due to both its protected status and its exceptional biodiversity, the Galapagos archipelago had been called a living laboratory for scientists and oceanographers, and as such it also serves, in some ways, as a concentrated, accessible microcosm of the wide world and its vast oceans. Perhaps no one understands this better than Stuart Banks, a senior marine scientist and oceanographer at the Charles Darwin Foundation, who has been studying Galapagos coral for nearly a decade. Shortly after our own dives, Stuart met with the crew of Ocean Watch for a wide-ranging interview about his collaborative efforts with other scientists and marine researchers, and the unique waters in which they work.

“A large part of what we do is make sure we can represent what’s happening below the waves,” he said. “Most people who come to Galapagos aren’t really immediately aware of this huge diversity and incredible species richness that you have here because not everyone has access to what is under the water; for instance, not everyone is a diver. So part of what we do is try to bring that whole marine realm, which to a large extent is invisible to a lot of people, to the attention of conservation groups and other organizations. If there is a particular threat to the islands we try to identify it before it’s too late.”

Of course, the same sorts of things that may threaten the islands may also have the potential to wreak vast havoc in other waters, too.

Take, for instance, climate change, a phenomenon to which coral reefs are particularly susceptible. “Global climate change is something that we know is happening over the next 50-100 years,” said Stuart. “It’s an inevitability which we need to confront.”

In Galapagos, however, regular El Niño events – like the current, 2009-2010 episode – compound the climate situation.

“When we get a strong El Niño it can drastically change the entire marine ecosystem,” he said. “We’ve seen that already. We know that Galapagos corals are some of the most sensitive groups to climate change, and in the (very intense) 1982-1983 El Niño, Galapagos lost about 97% of its reef-forming corals in a year and a half. They were just bleached through hot-water stress, where algae that forms in the corals is naturally expelled. It can always re-integrate back into the skeleton if conditions change, and the coral can recover. But when that stress is sustained for long periods it’s not possible. Then the coral starts to die.”

The broader problem, of course, is that coral reefs are building blocks, even frameworks, for entire undersea communities. Stuart said, “A whole host of other species – sea urchins, sea cucumbers, sea stars, reef fish – are all interactive and interdependent on this coral resource. So within about a year the entire character of the ecosystem in Galapagos changed, because these are habitat-forming species, species that are particularly important in nursery areas; they give shelter and protection but they also give kind of a three-dimensional complexity and structure in which other species can co-exist.”

Natural phenomenon are only one part of the potential problem. Humans, naturally, are the other. Over-fishing also can topple the delicate balance in reef life. When lobsters and other reef fish were taken off the reef in abundance, the sea urchin population skyrocketed. “The sea-urchin explosion infiltrated the reef structure and started breaking apart these reefs from the inside,” said Stuart. “In the past, people tended to look at conservation in terms of a particular species, like turtles or sharks, but you also need to understand the wider ecosystem function, and the interdependency, if you’re actually going to make some kind of difference.”

Tourists, and specifically divers, are another potential threat. “If you have eight dive boats and each boat is dropping its anchor, the damage can be enormous,” he said. “If you were arranging your garden you wouldn’t throw a refrigerator out the window and expect it wouldn’t do any damage.”

We’ve made this point before, but it’s worth making again. The Around the Americas expedition was founded on the premise that the continents of North and South America are one island surrounded by a common ocean. In the Galapagos isles – this active laboratory, this bellwether of ocean health and conservation – in the coral reefs beneath the sea, the point is again underscored. Everything, and everyone, is a piece of an important puzzle, dependent on one another, a cog in the wheel that does not stop turning.

A second El Niño in the late 1990s caused more destruction to the reefs. “Today, coral reefs are fragmented across the entire archipelago,” said Stuart. “What we think has happened in the last ten years since the last strong El Niño event is that the natural capacity or resilience of the system to recover has been compromised. And only now is it starting to show some promising signs of recovery after ten years.”

In Galapagos, ironically, coral has been victimized, if you will, by the incredible life that surrounds it. At-risk species in the archipelago are “red-listed” if considered at all endangered, and, as Stuart says, the “charismatic species – sea lions, dolphins, whales – are all well represented. These red-listing processes are there to try and raise people’s awareness, a benchmark if you like, to try and follow and prioritize conservation measures.” Tellingly, before 2007, two important groups of Galapagos marine life – corals and marine algae – were never represented. In a positive development, that’s no longer the case.

“Within about a year, we doubled the marine species in Galapagos that were considered threatened, vulnerable and endangered…and most of those are corals and algaes,” said Stuart.

The question is, will that trend continue?

“Conservation in the future in Galapagos relies on two things,” said Stuart. “It relies on the interests of the public to actually care about the environment and what we’re actually doing to the environment. And locally, it’s extremely important for people to understand and become stewards of their own resources. If you can’t do that somewhere with such a high profile as Galapagos – with such an amazing diversity of wildlife and endemic life; which is like no place on the planet; which gets so much attention and is very much in the world’s eyes; which is one of the frontiers of conservation, one of the world’s last remaining wild places – if you can’t do that in Galapagos, where can you do it?”

Excellent point. But when it comes to coral reefs, clean coastlines and healthy waters, of course, the same could be said of your own backyard.

-Herb McCormick with photographs by David Thoreson

*This crew log submitted by Iridium OpenPort and Stratos

*To add a comment to this story click on the comment link below the post title. Please direct your messages for the crew to crew@aroundtheamericas.org instead of submitting them here. Thanks for following the Around the Americas Expedition.

Open the below photos in a full-screen slideshow in Flickr