C oral reefs are very sensitive to slight changes in water temperature and light intensity levels making them the best barometers of global warming. And life is heating up on coral reefs!
Currently reef-building corals are living close to their upper thermal limit and become stressed by higher than normal light intensities that cause coral bleaching. Elevated ocean temperatures of as little as 2.7 ºF. (1.5 ºC) over the average summer temperature destroy the symbiotic algae resident in corals. This causes the coral animal to become transparent, revealing the white limestone coral skeleton beneath, hence the term "coral bleaching." This causes corals to die in great numbers if conditions do not return to normal. The worst coral bleaching event on record occurred in 1998, which saw the complete loss of live coral from some reefs around the world. This is best explained as a result of global climate warming, according to many experts.
According to our records, the worst bleaching event in the Keys occurred in 1997. Images from Craig Quirolo's Photomonitoring Survey can be found on the Reef Relief website in the section entitled Coral Stress and Disease. Recently published scientific information on the subject is available on our web-site in the Science Section.
The recent paper released by Greenpeace entitled Climate Change, Coral Bleaching and the Future of the World's Coral Reefs. by Ove Hoegh-Guldberg, Associate Professor, School of Biological Sciences, University of Sydney concluded that:
This is very alarming for those of us who live around and care for coral reefs. The direct links between coral reefs and climate change have been the subject of another document from the World Wildlife Fund Climate Change Campaign. America's Global Warming Solutions (Bernow et al 1999) reports that if the United States were to reduce its annual carbon dioxide emissions by about 654 metric tons of carbon by 2010, the result would be a net economic savings, almost 900,000 net additional jobs and significant decreases in pollutant emissions that damage the environment and are harmful to human health, especially of children and elderly.
Even tourism affects the climate, especially air travel, the fastest growing source of greenhouse gas emissions according to Tourism: facing the challenge of climate change, compiled by World Wildlife Fund from a report by David Viner and Maureen Agnew of the Climatic Research Unit, University of East Anglia, Norwich, U.K. Numbers are forecast to leap from 594 million international travelers in 1996 to 702 million by next year, 1018 million by 2010 and 1600 million in 2020.
We should be making our best efforts to stop polluting our atmosphere. This is a huge project, both on a large-scale through governments and international companies and on a small-scale through our own personal efforts. Beginning on a personal level, we can all do our part by reducing our use of fossil fuels (that means getting out the bicycle or walking instead of driving or car-pooling or using public transportation, if available; by recycling; and by cutting down on our use of plastics.)
Reef Relief Founder Craig Quirolo and Videographer Tom Jackson have released the
second video in the Coral 2000 series, entitled Volume 2: Coral Photomonitoring and The Coral
Nursery Project (26 minutes).
The video reviews techniques utilized by Dr. James Porter of the University of Georgia and Craig
Quirolo of Reef Relief to document changes in the coral reef over time. It also describes the
efforts of Reef Relief and Harold Hudson of the Florida Keys N.M.S. to establish a Coral Nursery at
Western Sambo Reef in the Florida Keys.
The video is now available at Reef Relief for a cost of $25 each. It is an excellent educational
tool for students and educators interested in coral monitoring and restoration. Visit us at the
Reef Relief Environmental Store at the foot of William Street or purchase the video online now by
clicking here.
T he US Environmental Protection Agency is in the early stages of a year long process in setting water quality criteria for nutrients, the most persuasive water pollution problem in the United States. It is hoped that these criteria will be used to protect our nation's waters from problems associated with high nutrient loads such as nuisance algal blooms that can lead to biological and public health problems, such as is occurring on our coral reefs.
Last July the agency released the first of a three part document covering criteria for rivers, streams and reservoirs. Next spring they will consider criteria standards for estuaries and near shore coastal waters. The EPA has divided the entire US into 14 ecoregions, South Florida is included in the Southeast ecoregion. They are proposing to set all rivers and stream criteria for all regions based on a suite of physical (geology, soil, geomorphology) and biological (natural vegetation) criteria, which is most appropriate. However, the details of how these criteria will be established and how they will be enforced and implemented by the states is of high concern.
Reef Relief has been actively following this process through our participation in the Clean Water Network, a coalition of environmental organizations coordinated through a group in Washington, DC. The group has met with the EPA a number of times and has involved Reef Relief in the proceedings through conference calls and informational exchanges. Reef Relief has commented on the rivers and streams criteria for nutrients as it concerns the downstream flow of nitrogen and phosphorus levels from the Everglades into Florida Bay and onto the shallow coral reefs off the Florida Keys.
Coral reefs require clear, nutrient-free waters to survive and flourish and are, therefore, extremely sensitive and susceptible to damage from increased nutrients. We are concerned that the criteria established for other areas of the Southeast will not take this into consideration when establishing the national standards. Coral reefs should be the biological criteria for south Florida, not the vegetation. We also want the adjacent land use of south Florida, including agriculture, to be considered in viewing corrective actions for the Florida Keys subregion.
Reef Relief will continue to follow this effort by EPA to establish nutrient criteria to ensure that the coral reef ecosystem is given the special attention it needs and deserves to survive.
F or years, Florida Keys activists fought the specter of offshore oil development only 25 miles from Key West. Along with a national coalition of concerned people from all over America, we won a drilling ban on our coast that was recently extended by President Bush so that we will not have offshore oil drilling in South Florida until at least 2012. However, the trade-off for that protection was that pristine Alaskan lands would be opened up to oil development.
Recently, efforts have been launched to dedicate billions of dollars that is generated from oil development in the United States. House Resources Committee Chairman Don Young (R-AK) and ranking member George Miller (D-CA) have reached general agreement on the Conservation and Reinvestment Act (CARA, H.R. 701) with Resources 2000 Act (H.R. 798) to dedicate $3 billion in federal Outer Continental Shelf oil and gas revenues into various conservation programs, especially land acquisition.
Florida has 10 sponsors of CARA and Keys representative Peter Deutsch was a sponsor of Resources 2000 and is expected to join the others in supporting this new legislation. It meets the goals of Teaming with Wildlife (TWW), an ambitious coalition of over 3,000 organizations and businesses (more than 60 in Florida alone) who sought a surtax on outdoor products for states to restore wildlife. TWW has also joined the ranks of supporters of CARA.
This is an election year and both California and Florida electoral votes are considered decisive in the upcoming Presidential election. This bill will render highly-publicized campaign commitments to protect the coastlines of these states all but irrelevant as drilling incentives will promote new oil development on the already-leased offshore tracts the Democratic candidates have pledged to protect.
Here at Reef Relief, we have a problem supporting such legislation, even though it may go far in providing funds for conservation. Making deals with the devil is never wise. Encouraging oil development by insuring states new funding is a sure way of opening up the door to more oil development. Instead, the United States should be looking at reducing fossil fuel depletion, and promoting energy efficiency and alternative energy sources. Instead, a huge contributor to global warming, a real threat to coral reefs, is given a boost. And who knows what concessions will be made to further sweeten the pot next year? We hate to rain on your parade, but get real. Oil is a dirty business, one that we do not want to promote for any amount of land acquisition.
