Coral Species Put on 'Threatened' List

[Anonymous]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060505/ap_ ... oral_reefs

Coral Species Put on 'Threatened' List

By ADRIAN SAINZ, Associated Press Writer 1 hour, 26 minutes ago

MIAMI - Two coral species in Florida and the Caribbean now have a spot on the federal threatened list because of dangers posed by human activity, hurricanes and higher water temperatures.

The elkhorn and staghorn coral species have suffered a 97 percent decline in areas off the Florida Keys and in the Caribbean since 1985 and must be protected, National Marine Fisheries Service biologist Stephania Bolden said Friday.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which oversees the fisheries service, made the announcement Thursday in Washington, making the species the first coral to earn a threatened distinction. The move was praised by scientists and environmentalists.

The federal government will hold forums in Florida and the Caribbean to discuss suggestions for rules to protect the coral under the Endangered Species Act, Bolden said.

A species is considered threatened if it's likely to become an endangered species. The rules involving threatened species are not as strict as those involving endangered species, which face extinction.

Both coral species have protruding branches that look like antlers. They are part of reefs that are home to fish, crustaceans and other invertebrates. Reefs also serve as barriers from storm waves.

Several factors have harmed the coral in the past 20 years. Disease, temperature-induced bleaching, hurricanes, more nutrients in the water, damage from anchors or boat groundings and increased sediments and contaminants from land-based sources have hurt the coral species.

Off the U.S. Virgin Islands, as much as 40 percent of coral died in some reefs last year, and the coral that survived probably isn't healthy enough to survive another hot summer,
U.S. Geological Survey biologist Caroline Rogers told The Associated Press last month. Some 100-year-old colonies are reported to have died.

Coral bleaching is attributed to higher-than-normal water temperatures and causes the coral to lose color and its food source. Hurricanes have always been present, though Bolden points out that the most recent die-off also corresponds with a cycle of increased storm activity.

Tyler Smith, a coral researcher at the University of the Virgin Islands, welcomed the ruling because it will "give a respect for the species." Smith and other scientists were mapping reefs around the islands and Puerto Rico to asses the extent of the massive coral die-off last year.

The California-based Center for Biological Diversity had filed a petition to raise the coral from a "species of special concern."

"If these losses are not arrested and reversed, Florida's corals could go extinct within the foreseeable future, resulting not only in the loss of these irreplaceable forms of life, but also billions of dollars in tourist, recreational, medicinal, and subsistence income," the group said in praising the government's decision.

 

[Anonymous]

MIAMI - Two coral species in Florida and the Caribbean now have a spot on the federal threatened list because of dangers posed by human activity, hurricanes and higher water temperatures.

Actually know one knows the ultimate threats that these three factors pose, nor what caused their current decline.

Oh yeah, and being on the threatened list will sure help those water temperature and hurricane effects :roll:

The elkhorn and staghorn coral species have suffered a 97 percent decline in areas off the Florida Keys and in the Caribbean since 1985 and must be protected, National Marine Fisheries Service biologist Stephania Bolden said Friday.

And we have no idea why those 97% actually died, so we can't protect them from whatever causes it.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which oversees the fisheries service, made the announcement Thursday in Washington, making the species the first coral to earn a threatened distinction. The move was praised by scientists and environmentalists.

It was not praised by all of us.

The federal government will hold forums in Florida and the Caribbean to discuss suggestions for rules to protect the coral under the Endangered Species Act, Bolden said.

I'm trying to make it down to one of these.

Some 100-year-old colonies are reported to have died.

What does this have to do with elkhorn and staghorn?

"If these losses are not arrested and reversed, Florida's corals could go extinct within the foreseeable future, resulting not only in the loss of these irreplaceable forms of life, but also billions of dollars in tourist, recreational, medicinal, and subsistence income," the group said in praising the government's decision.

They have no idea how to arrest and reverse these losses, and "protecting" the coral using legislation will be counterproductive to reaching this end.

 

[Anonymous]

Will "protection" limit the research, Chris?

Peace,

Chip

 

[CiXeL]

theyre having some public meetings and ill be attending one in key largo. its already difficult to help with coral restoration because noaa and the legislation makes it nearly impossible for them to propagate corals and use reef balls or other structures to create new healthy reefs or repair existing ones. the only other thing i know of is a nature conservancy project in tavernier key where theyre propagating corals and putting them out on a reef somewhere. trying to get involved in it myself. the reef ball foundation recently was allowed some project off miami beach or biscayne key i believe but i need more info. if anything i think more laws will hurt the conservation efforts rather than help them but i am going to that meeting to find out and ask questions. theres one legal loophole i can think of but it may be closed by this new legislation. it may be possible to get a legal line of caribbean stony corals because people aquaculturing rock are entitled to any corals that seed themselves on the rock. so technically you could legally take any elkhorn (a. palmata) or staghorn (a. cervicornis) or any other stonies that started to grow on the rock from a spawn and from there you could probably frag it and get a legal line of corals. but its a really fine line.
i like what mote is doing down in summerland key. theyre taking corals from areas that have bleached and take the survivors and frag them, grow them out and put them back on reefs. essentially theyre selectively breeding for bleaching resistance.

if i was goign to blame anything for the decline of the reefs it would be this stuff:

1. sewage/fertilizer/pesticide run off. theres wayyyyyyyyy too much nitrogen in the water out here and it causes algae to go haywire and theres been an expansion of turtle grass beds further and further out (this is what older folks tell me). all the ground is porous limestone here, any fertilizer or pesticide you dump on it goes immediately into the water table and out to sea. tropical fruit growers here joke with me that farming in south florida is like hydroponics on a grand scale! and indeed you can dump a pile of mulch on the ground and watch it dissolve over the summer till nothing but the coral rock underneath remains. without fixing this, any rebuilding effort is futile. we need pipes dumping sewage out into the abyssal plane not just offshore.

2. the caribbean wide die off of the native sea urchin. i hear they think it was a virus that did it but it allows too much seaweed to grow and smother reefs. they (nature conservancy) have survivors theyre propagating and reintroducing, i wish them luck.

3. fishermen. i blame fishermen. i know florida is like fishing capital of the country and itd crash the economy to stop it but there are fish in reefs that eat turtle grass and other algaes and prevent it from growing out of control. you take away the fish and the algae flourishes in its absense. a friend of mine has also spotted hooks stuck in brain corals growing under bridges in the keys.

anyways. that sorta sums it up.

 

[corallimorph]

Who are you, and how do you know so much about what I'm doing?
-The guy from MOTE

 

[CiXeL]

pure admiration and lots of internet research.
one reason i moved out here from LA was to help but its never really gone anywhere and not for lack of trying.
i just dont know the right people i guess.