Coral Reefs // Current TV

Taiwan coral turning black with disease

Coral reefs off the southeast coast of Taiwan have turned black with disease possibly... more

JanforGore
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Nearly 200,000 sq miles declared National Marine Monuments by Bush

Largest Marine Reserve Declared; Home to Mariana Trench Dina Cappiello in Washington,... more

cyman01
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4 years ago
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Hot Southern summer threatens coral with massive bleaching event

"A widespread and severe coral bleaching episode is predicted to cause immense... more

naty_forty
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4 years ago
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Ocean acidity vs Great Barrier Reef

A rising carbonic acid level means a more acidic ocean. And a more acidic ocean is... more

uponrooftops
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4 years ago
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Coral reefs showing rapid recovery after tsunami

"Scientists have reported a rapid recovery in some of the coral reefs that were... more

mako2424
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4 years ago
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Coral reefs symbolize renewal

Southeast Asia's tsunami-ravaged coral reefs have bounced back with surprising... more

TravG73
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4 years ago
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Coral reefs could be gone by 2050

The International Union for Conservation of Nature has released a report saying the... more

nazbags
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4 years ago
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Bury your dead at sea to help save coral reefs

"Reef balls" are hollow structures made of the cremated remains of the... more

phillyharper
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4 years ago
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U.S.: Killing the Earth?

By now, both candidates agree that global warming is a reality but they don't... more

CJCollectiveWorks
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4 years ago
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Hundreds of new animal species found

Australian scientists discover brilliant soft corals, tiny crustaceans on reefs

starr111
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4 years ago
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Tuamotus

Looking for an island paradise? Then book a flight soon. They could be vanishing under... more

Vierotchka
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4 years ago
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Australia lobbied to protect Coral Sea - World environment- msnbc.com

Australia asked to create a park in the Coral Sea to protect the environment and WWII... more

starr111
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Climate change could stop corals fixing themselves

Climate change is depriving coral reefs across the globe of the building materials used to make their shells. Current plans to curb greenhouse gas emissions may not be enough to fix the problem, according to new research.

The daily life of corals is a constant battle against erosion. The reef builders patch up holes in their shells, left by nibbling sea creatures, using a mineral called calcium carbonate. To keep up with repairs, corals in the wild usually require three times as much of the mineral as sheltered corals grown in laboratories.

Before the industrial revolution, says Ken Caldeira of Stanford University, 98% of all corals lived in waters above the required calcium carbonate threshold.

But the situation is changing, according to Caldeira, who has built a model to study how greenhouse gas emissions tinker with the chemistry of open water oceans.
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Oceans are becoming saturated with Co2 and corals are suffering for it. This is important because corals play a very important role in the health of our oceans, which in turn plays a very important role in the health of the web of life in our oceans, which then plays a vital role in our own health. Mitigating carbon emissions is now key: how many times does it have to be said?

The impasse between what politicians in this country want and what this world now needs is vast and bringing dangerous consequences to us. We can no longer afford to ignore scientific warnings regarding the deterioration of our oceans, and we cannot wait until politicians see it as politically expedient to do something or until we have passed the point of no return.

Besides carbon mitigation and freezing emissions, I believe we need a major global tree planting initiative to be undertaken. Planting trees in areas of great deforestation can help to return many of the carbon sinks that have been lost to us from illegal logging practices and overconsumption. This would then hopefully help to balance the amount of Co2 in the atmosphere instead of most of it being soaked up by oceans. This is a human made catastrophe and only humans can reverse it. Hopefully, it is not too late.Climate change is depriving coral reefs across the globe of the building materials... more

JanforGore
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4 years ago
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Reefs will be dead within 30 years, expert warns

THE world's reefs, including Australia's Great Barrier Reef, will be dead... more

JanforGore
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4 years ago
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World's largest marine sanctuary proposed by U.S.

A proposal by U.S. President George W. Bush could give national-monument status to... more

jefftego
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4 years ago
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Cut greenhouse gases to save coral reefs: scientists

To keep coral reefs from being eaten away by increasingly acidic oceans, humans need... more

jefftego
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4 years ago
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Restoring a Coral-Reef Fishery in the Philippines

In a remote fishing village in the Philippine archipelago, coastal fishers responded to falling fish stocks by working harder to catch them. The combination of dynamite, longer workdays, and more advanced gear caused stocks to fall faster. On the edge of crisis, this small community decided to create a no-take marine sanctuary on 10% of its coral-reef fishing grounds. This initiative sparked a renaissance of not only their fishery, but also their cherished way of life.

Apo Island provides a relatively simple but very real case study for exploring how EcoTipping Points work in practice. Apo is a small island (78 hectares), 9 kilometers from the coast of Negros in the Philippine archipelago. The island has 145 households and a resident population of 710 people. Almost all the men on the island are fishermen. The main fishing grounds are in the area surrounding the island to a distance of roughly 500 meters, an area with extensive coral reefs and reaching a water depth of about 60 meters. Fishermen use small, paddle-driven outrigger canoes, though a few fishermen (particularly younger ones) have outboard motors on their canoes. The main fishing methods are hook and line, gill nets, and bamboo fish traps.

Apo Island’s “negative tip” started about forty years ago. Before then, there was a stable fishery with ample harvest to support fishermen and their families. During the years following World War II the growing human population and increasing fishing pressure made the fishery increasingly vulnerable to unsustainable fishing. The “negative tip” came with the introduction of four destructive fishing methods to the Philippines:

* Dynamite fishing, which started with explosives left over from World War II and gained momentum by the 1960s;
* Muro-ami (from Japan). Fish are chased into nets by pounding on coral with rocks.
* Cyanide, introduced during the 1970s for the aquarium fish trade. Aquarium fish are no longer collected in this region, but cyanide remained.
* Small-mesh nets. Worldwide marketing of newly developed nylon nets brought small-mesh beach seines and other small-mesh nets to the region in the 1970s.

Dynamite, cyanide, muro-ami, and small-mesh nets are more effective than traditional Filipino fishing methods, but they are seriously detrimental to the sustainability of the fishery. Not only do they make overfishing and immature fish harvesting easier, they also damage fishing habitat. These fishing methods have been illegal since regulations were imposed in the early 1980s. The Philippine Coast Guard and National Police are responsible for enforcing fishing regulations, but their vast areas of jurisdiction have made it virtually impossible for these agencies to stop destructive fishing.

In a remote fishing village in the Philippine archipelago, coastal fishers responded... more

MeganMcKenzie
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Coral Reef 'Glue' Damaged By Climate Change

The cement that buttresses coral reefs, giving them the strength to withstand crashing... more

JanforGore
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4 years ago
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Tainted African Dust Clouds Harm U.S., Caribbean Reefs

[eXcERpTs] "Coral reefs in the United States and the Caribbean may be under... more

DeliaTheArtist
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4 years ago
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One third of reef-building corals face extinction, study shows

Almost one third of all the coral species that build reefs could be heading for extinction, according to a new comprehensive study published today, which showed that the double assault of climate change and human exploitation could wipe out 231 species of the atoll-building polyps.

Coral reefs are a vital part of the ocean ecosystem, providing a habitat for more than a quarter of all marine species, and generating an income for an estimated 200 million people.

Drs Kent Carpenter and Suzanne Livingstone, of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), report in the journal Science that they and 37 other scientists from 14 nations have just completed their detailed study of the conservation status of the creatures that grow imperceptibly, stay below the waterline and leave their skeletons as stone monuments.

In total, there could be 1,400 species of hard coral, and more than 840 that form the living structures that endure as reefs. Carpenter - based at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia - and his colleagues decided that they knew too little about 141 of these to form a judgment. But of the remaining 704, they found that 231 could be classified as critically endangered, endangered or vulnerable enough to be placed on the IUCN's "red list" of threatened species.

Before the heat waves that "bleached" or killed corals in the tropical oceans in 1998, only 13 species would have been included in the threatened or vulnerable categories, they report.

"The results of this study are very disconcerting," Carpenter told the International Coral Reef Symposium in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. "When corals die off, so do the other plants and animals that depend on coral reefs for food and shelter, and this can lead to the collapse of entire ecosystems."

Among the threatened species are some of the most attractive and iconic animals, the acroporid or staghorn corals. These creatures prefer shallow waters, and grow relatively quickly, branching to provide a submarine forest canopy that shelters smaller sea creatures. But because their habitat is shallow, they are particularly vulnerable to lethal episodes of ocean warming, which affect surface layers first.

They are also vulnerable to infectious disease and predation by the crown of thorns starfish, and because they are brittle, the branching "antlers" are easily broken by human interference.

Coral reefs provide a refuge for a major proportion of marine life. "All you have to do is go into a reef in the Pacific to get a good sense of that," Carpenter said. "There can be hundreds of fish around one coral clump the size of a table. They rely on the branches to hide in when a predator approaches, which makes them virtually impossible to feed on."

Reefs also provide livelihood and protection for humans. They are a buffer that absorbs the pounding of the ocean and prevent coastal erosion, shelter rich fisheries and offer incomes from tourism. Their loss would be catastrophic for hundreds of millions of people.

Shallow water corals live in a symbiotic relationship with algae, but this relationship tends to break down when the seas become too warm. Coral reefs could bounce back from such occasional "bleaching" events, but the combined onslaught of global warming, the increasing acidity of the oceans, pollution and human exploitation could finally overwhelm the most vulnerable species. The result could be compared with the catastrophe 65m years ago that wiped out the dinosaurs.

"Everybody knows about the cretaceous-tertiary boundary when all the dinosaurs went extinct," said Carpenter. "But what people don't know is that 40% of all the corals went extinct at the same time, and an even higher percentage of those were the reef-building ones. These conditions that existed in geological times could be mimicked by what is happening on Earth today."Almost one third of all the coral species that build reefs could be heading for... more

jefftego
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