Odd chill kills florida corals

Cold water burbling up from the depths has stunned and killed some of Florida's endangered coral.

...as if the ocean acid monster, global warming, and eutrophication weren't enough of a problem already...

Nobody knows why, but a spate of cold water squirted up from the deep ocean--where it's always cold--and gave corals and fish an icy bath that was too much for some. Dead tropical fish on the ocean bottom was one of the first signs of trouble, according to a dive instructor.

The cold water was especially harmful since it came during the warmest time of year, in summer. Alternately heating and chilling corals and fish is even more stressful than either warm or cold water alone.

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Coral recovery in the Pacific

Bleached corals are staging a surprising recovery in Kiribati's Phoenix Islands.

Great news for a world where climate change may challenge corals with more bleaching in the future. Scientists are studying the recovery to learn more about what we can expect when our oceans boil in 100 years.

OK, it's not really that bad, just wanted to see if you were paying attention.

Coral bleaching is when corals decide that they don't like their color, and go for something "jazzier" like a nice off-white instead of the more typical greens, reds, and yellows. They bleach themselves by convincing humans to burn lots of CO2 so our atmospheric blanket thickens and warms the ocean.

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Finding coral

You think it's easy to find coral? Then you're not thinking about that rarest and most special of corals, the deep sea variety.

The Finding Coral expedition, sponsored by the Living Oceans Society, is doing heroic work in finding deep corals in British Columbia's ocean waters, and documenting threats to their survival.

The videos are great, they give a sense of what it's like to go deep looking for corals, with a strong dose of threats along with the beautiful footage.

Stop by and join the expedition...

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Great barrier reef coral recovery

Good news from the Great Barrier Reef--bleached corals recovered 10 times faster than anyone expected.

Corals bleached (got very sick) in 2006 on the Great Barrier Reef, due to high temperatures. Experts thought the corals would die, but they didn't. Instead, corals have made a spectacular recovery. What happened? According to Science Daily:

the rapid recovery is due to an exceptional combination of previously-underestimated ecological mechanisms.

“Three factors were critical. The first was exceptionally high re-growth of fragments of surviving coral tissue. The second was an unusual seasonal dieback in the seaweeds, and the third was the presence of a highly competitive coral species, which was able to outgrow the seaweed.

“But this also all happened in the context of a well-protected marine area and moderately good water quality”, said Dr Diaz-Pulido.


“It is rare to see reports of reefs that bounce back from mass coral bleaching or other human impacts in less than a decade or two,” he adds

Before we get too smug about the future, we must heed the warnings of scientists that this is not going to be a typical outcome. OK, but I still want to be happy about a bit of good news.

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Yes we can save coral reefs

And here's a specific action plan that makes a good start.

This action plan is a collaborative effort by a broad range of groups and individuals, including the groups listed at right.

The coalition is presenting the action plan today at a meeting of the Coral Reef Tast Force, with the hope that it will inspire and guide progress on coral reef conservation.

I applaud the efforts of the coalition and share their enthusiasm and optimism that the new Adminstration and Congress will move forward on coral conservation.

Thanks to Angelo at The Saipan Blog for posting the text of the action plan.

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The last days of coral reefs

UPDATE: The coral reefs of New Caledonia were just recognized as a UN World Heritage Site. Book your tickets soon...

This week is the International Coral Reef Symposium, down in Fort Lauderdale. The news is not hopeful. NOAA's triennial state of the reefs report says half of all corals in U.S. waters are in trouble, with two species of coral making the threatened species list under the ESA.

What with damage from hurricanes, pollution, ships, marauding crown-of-thorns starfish, and the threat of an acid ocean it's hard to find good news about corals, though NOAA does try in its text-laden summary from the report's press kit. You get one "good news" bit and one "bad news" bit for each location.
An example:

U.S. Virgin Islands

GOOD Marine Conservation Districts covering 45 km2 now protect important fish spawning aggregations south of St. Thomas and have increased the mean size and number of some species in St. Thomas but not in St. Croix
BAD A regional mass coral bleaching event and subsequent coral disease epidemic in 2005-06 reduced overall coral cover by about 50%.

Most of the news is in a similar vein: we're taking some action, but our measurements show corals in decline.

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Congress considers climate change impacts on oceans

Will our oceans get hammered by climate change? Is it true that corals are already being harmed by climate change? The US Congress wants to know, and decided to ask a panel of experts in a hearing today.

The answers? Climate change is already harming oceans, and corals are the canaries in the coal mine, showing impacts before most other ocean life. Climate change is first an ocean issue. Should people care? Well, our oceans absorb over a third of the greenhouse gases produced and up to 80% of the world's excess heat, so oceans truly are the engine that drive and steer the earth's climate

What to do? Ocean Conservancy President Vikki Spruill suggested the following actions:

First, every climate change bill should include support for adaptation strategies. Mitigation alone won't solve the problem. We need to take on both the cure and the recovery of this disease called climate change. Second, this Congress should pass three ocean bills that are already in the pipeline: Oceans 21, the Coral Reef Conservation Act and the National Marine Sanctuary Act. Lastly, do no harm. There are ocean sequestration proposals to deposit the CO2 underwater that would be potentially devastating to the health of the ocean and need to be researched further.

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Love corals, and corals will love you

Yes, it's true for corals just like people. Share the love and you'll be glad you did.

Saving corals is an economic miracle. Worldwide, corals generate $9.6 billion per year in money that people can put in their pockets, thanks to coral-related tourism alone. That's a lot of love that corals give us.

Will we return the favor and do what it takes to save corals? Or will we piss away all that money as we over-love the world's beautiful corals?

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Coral week

Hold onto your hats, it's Coral Week at Deep-Sea News. Did you know that some corals glow? Or why some places have more corals?

Well, join your genial hosts Craig (right), Peter, and Kevin, along with some special guest bloggers, as they tell you some strange and wonderful things about corals. And who is that man in the photo anyway, looking so Neptune-ish? Go to Deep-Sea News and find out.

Here's their latest, on bioluminescent corals.

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Acid oceans threaten ocean life

It's the little known CO2 problem that is real, scary and already happening. It's acid oceans, brought to you by human CO2 production.

Our oceans are becomming more acid, and this problem threatens to dissolve corals and other important ocean animals, and it looks like it's already happening. YIKES! The acid levels don't sound too bad, in the language of chemistry. Just a few tenths of a pH unit--doesn't sound too bad, right?

But ask a coral and you might get a different answer. If there were such a thing, newspapers written for corals would be screaming bloody murder. Or maybe screaming "acid threatens to dissolve you and your family!" Let's think like a coral and get worried about acid oceans.

Out of sight, out of mind? Or will we rally to the cause and save our oceans from the acid plague?

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Ocean vacuum cleaner saves corals from algae

If there's something strange
in your neighborhood
Who ya gonna call?
ALGAEBUSTERS

If there's something weird
and it don't look good
Who ya gonna call?
ALGAEBUSTERS

And in this case the algaebusters come equipped with a giant algae vac that sucks smothering algae mats off of coral reefs.

It's one of those sounds good ideas that might come from an 8 year old, but it actually works. It's being used in Hawaii to remove a nasty invasive algae called "gorilla ogo" from coral reefs. Compare before the super sucker vacuum hits the algae (lower picture) and after vacuuming the reef (upper picture).

There is an overfishing connection, algae-eating fish used to keep corals clean but overfishing has ended this free algae-busting service.

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