CORAL REEF BLEACHING & EL NINO - INDIAN OCEAN ********************************************** Date: Fri, 13 Nov 1998 Source: Electronic Telegraph, Nov 13, Charles Clover, edited] A significant proportion of the world's coral has died this year as a result of the highest sea temperatures on record, while in the areas surveyed in the Indian Ocean, between 70 and 90 per cent is dead, scientists said yesterday in Buenos Aires. In the Indian Ocean, thousands of miles of reef have been killed including in tourist areas such as the Seychelles, Mauritius and the Maldives. Thousands of miles of corals in the Western Pacific, from Vietnam to the Philippines and Indonesia, have died or bleached as they have been starved of the symbiotic algae that provide their food and energy. The only large areas of coral to have escaped some devastation are the atolls of the central Pacific. Dr Thomas Goreau, a scientist working with the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, told a meeting at the climate change talks in Buenos Aires: "The coral reefs are the canary in the mine for global warming. They will go first." IUCN, the World Conservation Union, said coral reefs provided over 100 countries with fish and other services such as tourism worth $500 billion a year. They also prevented tidal waves and erosion. They supported 93,000 fish species - 25 per cent of the total - in 0.3 per cent of its sea area. A joint statement by IUCN's reef scientists said: "Unless this conference takes effective action to stop global climate change, coral reefs and the benefits they provide will be condemned to death. Other ecosystems will follow." *** Related websites: Coral Reef Research Institute, Univ. Sydney <http://www.bio.usyd.edu.au/CRRI/crri-ind.html> Reef survey, 1998 <http://www.ust.hk/~webrc/ReefCheck/reef.html> On the latter website I found this global report of their 1997 'Survey'. It has been extensively edited for length. I can support their comments on Sarawak as I was in Sabah in 1986 and the coral reefs there were totally dead thanks, I was told, to the widespread use of dynamite. - Mod.MHJ Reef Check 97 Press Conference Background Material October 16, 1997 3:00 pm Institute for Environment and Sustainable Development Hong Kong University of Science and Technology Reef Check '97, the first global survey of human impacts on the world's coral reefs has been completed as part of the International Year of the Reef, and the preliminary results are being released today. Organized by HKUST's Institute for Environment and Sustainable Development, the survey involved over 100 marine scientists and 750 recreational divers who surveyed 300 coral reefs in 30 countries and territories between 15 June and 31 August 1997. Each Team Scientist was responsible for training the team divers in use of Reef Check methods, then leading them on the actual field surveys, checking and submitting data to headquarters in Hong Kong. The Reef Check methods differ from those used in traditional ecological surveys in that they were focused specifically on detecting the effects of humans on the coral reef ecosystem. A large sample size (800 m2) was selected -- to be surveyed twice, once for shellfish and once for fish. A third survey along a 100 m line would be used to determine the condition of the corals themselves. Teams were instructed to survey reefs which they believed were in relatively untouched condition first. The preliminary results from about 230 sites are being released today because they reveal such a clear pattern of global damage to coral reefs, particularly due to overfishing and destructive fishing. The results for lobsters, which used to be abundant on reefs throughout the world, were dismal. None were recorded at 81% of reefs surveyed. In the Indo-pacific region, out of 179 reefs checked only 25 lobsters were found, and 11 of these were recorded at one reef in an Indonesian marine reserve. Large grouper are heavily fished throughout the world, and none were reported at 40% of the study reefs, with small numbers at most. However, more than 20 large grouper were recorded at two sites in the remote Maldive Islands, and at three sites in the Red Sea where no poison or dynamite fishing occurs, giving a hint of what populations used to be like in other areas. In the Caribbean, the highly prized and previously common Nassau grouper was found at only 4 of 51 sites, giving a total of 12 fish. The corals themselves appeared to be in better shape globally than the fish and shellfish. The mean percentage of living coral cover on reefs was 31% globally, with the Caribbean recording the lowest value at 22%, possibly reflecting recent losses due to bleaching and diseases. In the Red Sea, there was less than half the dead coral (3%), than the other two regions. The ratio of live to dead coral was highest in the Red Sea, suggesting that these reef corals are the healthiest in the world. One apparent bit of good news is that only 7 sites showed greater than 10% cover of fleshy algae, indicating that nutrient enrichment associated with sewage pollution was not a problem at most of these "good" sites. Sewage pollution may be more important at reefs near urban areas which were not common in this study. In the Indo-pacific, the humphead wrasse and barramundi cod were once moderately abundant on reefs, but none were reported at 85% of 179 reefs surveyed. Of more than 25 km of Indo-pacific reef surveyed in detail, only 26 humphead wrasse were seen. At the 125 Asian and Australian reefs surveyed, only 5 barramundi cod were recorded. These results suggest that cyanide and other forms of fishing have severely damaged populations of these once moderately abundant species. High-value, edible sea cucumbers used to litter the seabed around many reefs. The three species included in Reef Check were totally absent from 41% of Indo-pacific reefs surveyed demonstrating the extent of over-harvesting. An average of 17 giant clams was found on the Indo-pacific reefs. An indication of what natural populations used to be like was provided by the 150 to 250 giant clams recorded at several protected sites in the Red Sea and Australia. Hong Kong provides an example of coral reefs subjected to almost every form of disturbance: overfishing, poison and dynamite fishing, pollution and sedimentation. Out of 11 collectible or edible indicator species only two (Trochus shells and butterflyfish) were recorded. Several of these once-abundant species are now effectively extinct in Hong Kong. In addition to making measurements, each team subjectively assessed the intensity of human impacts at their sites. Based on this, 45% of the reefs were rated as being subjected to low or no human impacts. In contrast, the low numbers of fish and shellfish recorded in the surveys indicate that almost all sites have been affected by heavy fishing of one or more indicator species. One reason for this is that many fishing activities occur at night, when sport divers are not present. In some areas such as the east coast of Borneo, the reefs had not been previously surveyed, and some scientists previously assumed that they would still be untouched. But according to the Sarawak Reef Check team, "99% of the reefs have been damaged by blast fishing." =========================================================================== /`\ /`\ RABBIT INFORMATION SERVICE: _ _ (/\ \-/ /\) P.O.Box 30, Riverton, Western Australia 6148 (.\_/.) )6 6( http://www.wantree.com.au/~rabbit/rabbit.htm \6 6/ >{= Y =}< VEGETARIAN PAGE =\ /= /'-^-'\ http://www.geocities/RainForest/4620 /O\ / (_) (_) / \ ( | . | U U ) | |} Pity the human race its illusion of permanence (| |)/ \_/^\_/ w'-'w ===========================================================================
