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Posts Tagged ‘corals’

Crew Log 220 – Reefs of Coral, Reefs in Peril (Part 3)

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

Herb's HeadshotTo 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.

Crew Log 219 – Reefs of Coral, Reefs in Peril (Part 2)

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

Herb's Headshot

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.

Crew Log 218 – Reefs of Coral, Reefs in Peril (Part 1)

Apr 14th, 2010
by Herb McCormick.
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April 14, 2010 – At Sea, 14º 01’N, 095º 01’W
By Herb McCormick

Herb's Headshot

The signs on the backs of the endless series of tractor-trailer trucks should’ve been the first clue. Route 36 in Costa Rica is the coastal “highway” between the bustling Caribbean port city of Puerto Limon and the sleepy towns of Cahuita, Puerto Viejo and Manzanillo just a few miles north of the Panamanian border. For all the semis rolling up and down the highway, you might as well be on the Costa Rican version of the New Jersey Turnpike, with one important difference.

In “Joisey,” the truck traffic is a variety of car carriers, tankers, freight haulers, refrigerated vehicles and so on. But in Costa Rica, nearly all the logos on the big rigs along Route 36 say one of three things – “Dole” or “Chiquita” or “Del Monte” – and the cargo therein is dominated by a single commodity: bananas. For many, many miles, plantations border Route 36.

At first, we didn’t make a connection. After all, my mates from Ocean Watch and the Around the Americas expedition – fellow crewman David Thoreson, engineer Dan Clark and shore-side team member Mario Gomez – were bound for Cahuita not to visit the plantations but to swim and snorkel on the coral reef off Playa Blanca (White Beach) in Cahuita National Park.

The last time David T and I had spent a lot of time in the water was in the Galapagos Islands, where the rich and (mostly) healthy assortment of coral reefs and gardens we encountered was a pleasant surprise; the volcanic Galapagos archipelago is probably better known for its wildlife and rock formations than it is for its coral. So we were eager to have another look around.

What we encountered off Playa Blanca was not so pleasant.

The water was a milky blue following the previous day’s heavy winds so the visibility was limited, but it made the snorkel even eerier than it might’ve been. Out of the murk, we’d happen upon another section of reef, and though some of the brain, star and fire coral we saw was radiant and robust, the majority of the reef appeared bleached, damaged or dying. You can’t snorkel in the park without a guide; ours was a local fellow named Antonio, who’d been guiding tourists to the reef for eight years. Once we were back in the boat, we asked him what was going on.

“Lots of things,” he said, gesturing towards shore. “But mostly the banana plantations. They’re just over there, behind those trees. They spray the plants with chemicals and pesticides, they get in the river and run off on to the reef…”

His voice trailed away. There wasn’t anything else to say.

Today on Ocean Watch, we’re continuing on our mostly wind-less way towards Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. Having now crossed into Mexican territory, we’re encountering more ship traffic: small fishing boats, big freighters running to or from the Panama Canal, even the first yacht we’ve seen at sea in quite some time. And turtles: none of us have ever seen so many turtles basking on the surface, literally dozens and dozens over the course of a few hours. However, as we’re putting a major dent in our diesel reserves to keep to our ever-looming deadlines on the West Coast, we may be forced to make an unscheduled fuel stop in a couple days time in Acapulco. Stay tuned.

As we journey northward, over the next several days we’ll present a three-part special report on coral and coral reefs, a subject we’ve not yet had the opportunity to focus upon in our stories thus far. That’s not because coral isn’t an important part of the discussion on ocean health – in fact, the world’s vast coral reefs are in deep peril on countless fronts, and flourishing, vital reefs are crucial not only to healthy waters and sea life, but to a healthy planet as well. But most of our voyaging thus far has taken place far from the tropics and the coral reefs. That is, until recently. And what we’ve seen and learned has left us shocked and saddened.

The state of the world’s coral is also a primary concern of The Tiffany & Co. Foundation, one of the major funders and partners of the Around the Americas expedition. In order to raise awareness for coral reef conservation, in 2002 Tiffany & Co. stopped selling coral, and the foundation continues to support research and conservation endeavors to protect corals and reef ecosystems, such as our circumnavigation of the Americas.

“We are aware of the damage coral harvesting inflicts on critically important marine ecosystems,” Fernanda Kellogg, the President of The Tiffany & Co. Foundation, said recently. “Our support of the Around the Americas expedition is an exciting and important way to increase awareness about the health of the oceans, the important role that coral reefs play, and the necessary and important steps to take to protect these species.”

So what, exactly, is that role, and why are the reefs at such risk? Everyone who cares about the vast blue oceans needs to begin to understand the answers to those questions.

On the United States Geological Survey’s Pacific Coral Reefs website, coral reefs are described as “the ocean equivalent of rainforests…unique ecosystems of plants, animals and their associated geological framework (that are) home to 25% of all marine species.” Like the rainforests in the Amazon and elsewhere, however, the living reefs are endangered species. “It is estimated that many of the world’s reefs will be destroyed or significantly damaged in the next twenty years,” warns the USGS.

The assaults on the reefs are twofold: Both manmade and natural causes can be hazardous to healthy reefs. The sort of bleaching we witnessed off Cahuita was largely the result of run-off pollution, but fierce Caribbean storms the last couple of years have also taken a heavy toll. So, too, have warmer waters, heightened this season by the prominent El Niño event that is still ongoing. Higher seawater temperatures make reproduction and regeneration difficult, exasperating an already complicated situation. Overfishing, increased sedimentation and nutrient overloading are other factors that cause reefs to bleach, a recent phenomenon not only off Costa Rica but the entire Caribbean Sea.

In a recent Associated Press story with the ominous headline, “What if all coral reefs die? Experts are scared,” reporter Brian Skoloff writes, “Coral reefs are dying, and scientists and governments around the world are contemplating what will happen if they disappear altogether. The idea positively scares them.

“Coral reefs are part of the foundation of the ocean food chain,” he continues. “Nearly half the fish the world eats make their homes around them. Hundreds of millions of people worldwide – by some estimates, 1 billion across Asia alone – depend on them for their food and their livelihoods. If the reefs vanished, experts say, hunger, poverty and political instability could ensue.

“Numerous studies predict coral reefs are headed for extinction worldwide, largely because of global warming, pollution and coastal development, but also because of damage from bottom-dragging fishing boats and the international trade in jewelry and souvenirs made of coral. At least 19 percent of the world’s coral reefs are already gone, including some 50 percent of those in the Caribbean.”

Skoloff quotes Kent Carpenter, the director of a worldwide census of marine species, who says that if global warming continues unchecked, all corals could be extinct within a hundred years. “You could argue that a complete collapse of the marine ecosystem would be one of the consequences of losing corals,” said Carpenter. “You’re going to have a tremendous cascade effect for all life in the oceans.”

So, do we have your attention?

After our visit to the reef, the dive boat dropped us off at Punta Cahuita for a walk back to town through the National Park, where we were immediately greeted by a big group of cappuccino monkeys and Antonio sliced up a fresh pineapple for a snack. I asked him for his thoughts about the damaged coral we’d just witnessed.

“It’s pretty simple,” he said. “Fifty percent of the people are for the coral, and fifty percent are against it.” I understood what he meant even before he elaborated; roughly half the folks on the planet are aware and proactive about protecting coral reefs, and the other half couldn’t care less. “Even the local people who should know better are out fishing on the coral (in prohibited areas).”

I was feeling slightly smug about being on the “right” half of the equation until Antonio added, “Even the tourists who wear too much sunscreen are damaging the reef.” I thought about the big glob of SPF 30 I’d slathered on before jumping into the water, when a long-sleeved t-shirt would’ve done the job just as well.

Part of the solution? Nope, even a guy off a boat called Ocean Watch can be part of the problem.

-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.

Crew Log 116 – Charleston: Sea Grant, Hollings Marine Center and Coral Diseases

Nov 6th, 2009
by Dr. Michael Reynolds.
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November 6th 2009 – From the On-Board Scientist
by Dr. Michael Reynolds

Michael Reynolds, Ph.D.We have been in Miami for six days now and the pace has been withering. The Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science (RSMAS) of the University of Miami has hosted us beyond par with tours, outings, and a fantastic cruise followed by a most elegant dinner. However, in this report I want to return to Charleston, South Carolina–a couple of weeks ago but it seems like months–where we learned about local environmental research activities, especially research in toxicology and coral disease.

This story begins when I was walking home from the usual southern breakfast of eggs, country ham, toast and grits. When you get grits you know you are in the South.  When you get grits with gravy, you are in the deep South. I had gravy.  In front of a beautiful restored old building was a sign telling me that this was the office of the South Carolina Sea Grant Consortium.  I knew this was a place I wanted to visit.  And it was.  But before continuing let me tell you about the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Sea Grant program.

What is Sea Grant?
The Sea Grant program was instituted in 1966 when the Congress passed the National Sea Grant College Program Act; it is administered by NOAA. Sea Grant is one of Lyndon B. Johnson’s “Great Society” programs that included laws to protect civil rights, Medicare, Medicaid, environmental protection, aid for education, and his attempt to help the poor in the “War on Poverty.” As time has borne out, Sea Grant has been very good for the ocean.

The Take-Home Messages

  • Sea Grant is “science serving America’s coasts.” South Carolina has a consortium approach.
  • The Hollings Marine Lab is a nexus of collocated city, state, and national research laboratories.
  • Medical research techniques are being applied to address marine (esp. coral) health issues.
  • Key terms in understanding coral.

Coral - any of 6000 species of cnidarian (incl. jellyfish and anemones) many of which build hard reefs made of calcium.

Coral reef – a mass of calcium carbonate assembled from coral, algae, clams, worms, and so on.  Corals contribute less than half of the reef material.

Zooxanthellae – one-celled plants that live in the coral and help in rapid building of the calcium reef. Reefs like warm sunny water to please the zooxanthellae.

A stated goal for Sea Grant is to use academic research, education and extension to create a sustainable coastal economy and environment.

Sea Grant is a nationwide network of 32 university-based programs that work with coastal communities. The National Sea Grant College Program engages this network of the nation’s top universities in conducting scientific research, education, training, and extension projects designed to foster science-based decisions about the use and conservation of our aquatic resources.

The South Carolina Sea Grant program is a true consortium, an independent, university-based state agency, which now consists of The Citadel, Clemson University, Coastal Carolina University, College of Charleston, Medical University of South Carolina, S.C. Department of Natural Resources, S.C. State University, and University of South Carolina. The synergy from such a fertile combination is evident in a first-class research laboratory in Charleston; the Hollings Marine Laboratory.  (Since we have been in Miami we have met with Florida Sea Grant representatives where an emphasis is on the effects of global warming on the Florida coast economy and population.)

The Hollings Marine Laboratory
The Ocean Watch schedule in Charleston was crowded with boat maintenance and meetings. Nevertheless, three of us, David Thoreson, Sarah Bradshaw, and me, were able to get away to Fort Johnson for a visit to the Hollings Marine Laboratory (HML) where we were met by Dr. Susan Lovelace who provided a complete tour of the facility and descriptions of the varied programs underway there. HML is only about six years old. Located on the site of the first shot of the Civil War, HML is the nexus of several research laboratories who found their way to this beautiful coastal site. (Main photo above shows the entry to the Hollings Marine Laboratory.) These include the Medical University of Charleston, the State Department of Natural Resources, College of Charleston’s Grace Laboratory, and NOAA who manage the HML and provide oversight. Collaboration is key and the HML provides the venue for true collaborative association, from lunch to seminars.

Connections between environmental health and public health – is a core issue at HML and its contributing

Coral Colors
A method for early detection of disease in corals is spectrophotometry, or analyzing a specimen under different colors of light.  Three images of the same specimens are shown with different filtered light. Catalogs of imagery showing healthy and diseased coral viewed in this way are being developed as one of several diagnostic tools.

laboratories.  Here is a short list, taken from my sparse notes, of the programs in marine health at the HML complex:

Marine genomics – structure, function, evolution, and mapping of genomes for marine biota.

Chemistry and toxicology – poisons in the environment, one of the best facilities in the U.S.

Sentinel studies – defining harbingers of problems in advance (Canary in the coal mine).

Tissue bank – the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) maintains a marine tissue bank at HML where samples from marine mammals, birds, and invertebrates are stored as a long-term baseline resource.

Coral disease – studied using approaches drawn from medicine, including genetics, toxicology.

Estimating the cost of bad practice – Dr. Lovelace works to try to derive cost estimates associated with bad environmental practices and to educate the public about the implications.  This work is of critical importance if we are to grasp and assume responsibility for personal actions and their cost to the global environment.

Coral diseases and medical diagnoses – were of definite interest to the Ocean Watch  group.  As we visit the University of Miami, we will be writing and describing corals and coral health in additional science reports as we focus on this important area.  Here at HMS, coral health is considered from a very different angle – from the point of view of medical research.

Coral Researcher Tom Bartlett
Researcher Tom Bartlett examines corals in a CEHBR aquarium. These are immense single polyp corals that are being raised to provide standard specimens for multi-sample studies.  Many different environmental and genetic variables confuse the research process so a consistent source of standard coral is essential to the application of the scientific method.

Consider what happens if you are ill and go to see a doctor. He/she looks at your skin, the color of your tongue, and asks questions.  Tests on blood chemistry, DNA, urine, and maybe x-ray scans contribute to a diagnosis of what might be wrong. The diagnosis is based on many medical analyses and known outcomes.  Medical diagnosis is primarily based on experience. (As an aside, it has been said that the biggest advance in medical science occurred only a couple hundred years ago when doctors began washing their hands.)

While a coral can’t tell the doctor where it hurts, it does experience color changes, skin and tissue changes, and related responses to its particular disease. It remains for the “doctor” to develop the catalog of tests and test results to characterize the wide spectrum of diseases that the coral may experience.

Dr. Cheryl Woodley comes from the medical world and now heads the Center

Coral Aquaria
Tom Bartlett shows coral specimens to Jennifer Keller and Rusty Day from MANTA, and Sarah Bradshaw, the Ocean Watch onboard educator.

for Coastal Environmental Health and Biomolecular Research (CEHBR), a sister laboratory to HML, which focuses primarily on coral medical diagnoses. Dr. Woodley applies the same techniques used to diagnose human sickness to assess and diagnose coral sickness, that is a biomedical approach where “stressors” are identified and used to define “early warning” indicators.

Toxicology is an important aspect of the studies. That is the effects of pollution, personal care products, and surprisingly antidepressants in the coastal waters.

Remember: all views, ideas, and comments here are ad hoc, off the cuff, minimally researched, and subject to revision at any moment.

-Michael Reynolds with photographs by David Thoreson
michael@rmrco.com

This crew log submitted by Iridium OpenPort and Stratos

References — an incomplete list, but good

The medical lexicon in the CEHBR was somewhat overwhelming to this humble physical oceanographer. An interested reader will find ample material to read in the Internet links below.

NOAA Sea Grant
http://www.seagrant.noaa.gov/
http://scseagrant.org/
http://www.scseagrant.org/pdf_files/04_06_biennial_report.pdf (6 MB pdf)

Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_society

Center for Human Health Risk (CHHR) – Hollings Marine Laboratory
http://www.hml.noaa.gov/

Center for Coastal Environmental Health and Biomolecular Research
http://www.chbr.noaa.gov/

Coral Disease & Health Consortium
http://www.coral.noaa.gov/coral_disease
http://www.coral.aoml.noaa.gov/mailman/listinfo

U.S. Coral Reef Task Force
http://www.coralreef.gov/

MANTA-Online – Youth education in marine ecology in the Caribbean
http://manta-onlne.org/

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.

Crew Log 113 – Beginning to Appreciate Corals

Oct 31st, 2009
by Dr. Michael Reynolds.
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October 31st, 2009 – From the On-Board Scientist
by Dr. Michael Reynolds

Michael Reynolds, Ph.D.

First thoughts on Coral

We are currently sailing through a part of the world where coral reefs are found (The West Indies, Caribbean Sea, and the north coast of South America), so it is a good time to begin a discussion of coral and coral reefs. The purpose of this and following reports on coral and related research is to help the reader gain a better understanding and appreciation of coral. This article draws upon excellent online resources, principally material from National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and Wikipedia. These, and a few additional sources are listed at the end of this report.

    The Take-Home Messages

  • Shallow-water coral are reef building animals that are are found in tropical waters around the world.
  • Hundred of thousands of coral polyps work together to build vast reef complexes.
  • Survival depends on a relationship with one-celled algae plants, zooxanthellae.
  • When zooxanthellae die, the reef turns white, bleaching, and dies soon after.
  • Shallow water coral are dying and the reasons are not fully understood.
  • Dying comes from natural processes and man made activity.
  • However, much permanent dying is attributable to human activity.
  • Causes include commercial harvest, rising temperature, trash, pollutants, garbage, and physical ravaging.

What is a coral?
First, a coral is an animal, not a plant, so corals do not require sunlight or warm water to live. Most people associate corals with clear, warm tropical seas and fish-filled reefs. In fact, stony, shallow-water corals-the kind that build reefs-are only one type of coral. There are also soft corals and deep water corals that live in dark cold waters.  We will discuss deep water corals in a subsequent article; here, we will focus on shallow water coral communities.

Coral are sessile (they are permanently attached to a rock or self-made reef) creatures with tentacles that surround a centrally located mouth. They are relatives of the larger anemone who transform the ocean floor into magic flowing carpets of color. They feed, mostly, by capturing small fish, plankton, or detritus with their tentacles. Stinging cells called nematocysts in the tentacles are often used to disable tiny creatures, making them easier to eat.  Everything that comes to the tentacles of a coral is eaten and unfortunately this includes plastic, styrofoam, and other pollutants.

Except for a few rare cases, corals live in large communities called reefs. Each individual coral is called a polyp and a single community can have hundreds of thousands of member polyps. Most of the time polyps are hidden during the day and they come out to feed at night, so casual divers must go out in the night to see a reef glory in full color.

What are zooxanthellae?
Life in tropical waters is tough, especially for sessile creatures. For example, tropical waters are clear because they are defic ient in nutrients such as iron, minerals, protein, and vitamins.  To overcome this deficiency shallow water coral have established a close relationship with a species of one-celled algae called zooxanthellae. The corals and algae have a mutualistic relationship, which is an association between organisms of two different species in which

Coral Reef Map
A map of the distribution of shallow water coral reefs. See http://www.nasa.gov/vision/earth/lookingatearth/coral_assessment.html. NASA produced the map by examining over 7000 Landsat images for evidence of reef. This map would not include the deep water coral which are being discovered around the globe. (Note: don’t be fooled by the Mercator map projection. One half of the surface of the globe lies between 30N and 30S latitudes, approximately from Jacksonville Florida to Buenos Aires Argentina. So we can say that coral reefs cover half the surface of the Earth.)

each member benefits. The coral provide the algae with a protected environment and compounds they need for photosynthesis. In return, the algae produce oxygen for the coral and help it remove waste. Most importantly, zooxanthellae supply the coral with the products of photosynthesis: glucose, glycerol, and amino acids.  Coral use these products to make proteins, fats, and carbohydrates, and produce calcium carbonate, which is the composition of their hard exterior.

Sometimes when corals become physically stressed, the polyps expel their companion algal cells causing the

Large single coral polyp under filetred light
A large single coral polyp under filtered light. This form of chromatography is used to diagnose disease in corals. The mouth is the vertical slit in the center.

colony to take on a stark white appearance referred to as “coral bleaching”. If the polyps go for too long without the zooxanthellae algae, coral bleaching will lead to the coral’s death.

Why are coral reefs important?
Coral reefs provide the foundation for a vast ecosystem of other creatures; the entire food chain from algal plants to sharks, coexist in this important environment.  Coral reefs support over 4,000 species of fish, 800 species of hard corals and hundreds of other species – more species per unit area than any other marine environment- and are among the most diverse and valuable ecosystems on Earth. It is estimated there may be another 1 to 8 million undiscovered species of organisms that live in and around reefs. This biodiversity is considered key to finding new medicines for the 21st century; many drugs are now being developed from coral reef animals and plants that could serve as possible cures for cancer, arthritis, bacterial infections, viruses, and other diseases.

Does this all sound like the way we discuss tropical rain forests?

Why are coral reefs in danger?
Coral reefs are vulnerable to both natural and man-made (anthropogenic) activities. Naturally occurring processes that can damage coral reefs are waves from hurricanes and storms, as well as low tides that expose reefs to excess sunlight, and cold or warm ocean temperatures from seasonal variability. Increased sea surface temperatures, decreased sea level and increased salinity from altered rainfall occur naturally, caused by weather patterns such as El Niño. Together these conditions can have devastating effects on a coral’s physiology (Forrester, 1997.) During the 1997-1998 El Niño season, extensive and severe coral reef bleaching occurred in the Indo-Pacific and Caribbean oceans, and approximately 70 to 80 percent of all shallow-water corals on many Indo-Pacific reefs died as a consequence.

Predation from other animals is a periodic problem that can also cause severe damage. Fish, marine worms, barnacles, crabs, snails and sea stars all prey on the soft inner tissues of coral polyps. In an extreme case, in 1978 and 1979, there was a massive outbreak of the crown-of-thorns starfish (Acanthaster planci) that threatened to destroy the entire Great Barrier Reef in Australia.

Damselfish on bleached coral
Bleached coral with damsel fish. From http://www.coralcoe.org.au

As if natural threats weren’t bad enough, living near humans has been especially lethal to coral. Coral reefs exist along shorelines as does much of the human population. This is an unfortunate juxtaposition for animals with a fragile constitution.  Coral bleaching is currently occurring on an epidemic scale and large areas of dead or dying coral can be found just about everywhere. To try to stave off this threat, there is a large US and international response to coral disease (described in some links provided below).

Pollution, destructive fishing practices using dynamite or cyanide, overfishing, collecting live corals for the aquarium market and mining coral for building materials are some of the many ways that people damage reefs all around the world every day.  Fifty years ago the world population stood at 2.2 billion and today it is 6.6 billion.  Human pressure on all ocean life, particularly those living close to the continental coasts, is enormous.

Michael Reynolds
michael@rmrco.com

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.

References — an incomplete list, but good

NOAA tutorial on coral
http://www.oceanservice.noaa.gov/education/kits/corals/welcome.html

http://oceanservice.noaa.gov/education/kits/corals/lessons/corals_tutorial.pdf

Wikipedia is always a good first stop.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coral

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coral_reef

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deep_water_coral

Center for Coastal Environmental Health and Biomolecular Research
http://www.chbr.noaa.gov/

Center for Human Health Risk (CHHR) – Hollings Marine Laboratory
http://www.hml.noaa.gov

Coral Disease & Health Consortium

http://www.coral.noaa.gov/coral_disease
http://coral.aoml.noaa.gov/mailman/listinfo

U.S. Coral Reef Task Force
http://www.coralreef.gov

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