What do you think about the disappearing of coral reef around the world?

[Allmost]

well looking at history of "earth" we see it has gone through many "changes".

I think we are giving ourselves too much credit for thinking we are causing this "change".

but with that said, I still am all for better collection, culturing corals, and jimmy had a great point about the fertilizers, and I believe I saw a documentary on how devastating the effect of all the fertilizers being washed by the recent flood was ....

 

[Luiz Rocha]

Here we go again, just keep believing 7 billion people cannot "change" a planet, but the fact is that we can. Short list of ways we (humans) do affect reefs, none of which are related to global warming:

1. Pollution (self-explanatory);
2. Sedimentation (most coastal forests are gone, without the forests all the sediment washes up in the reef);
3. Overfishing causing changes in the ecosystem equilibrium;
4. Destructive fishing (cyanide, dynamite, trawling);
5. Physically breaking the reef (either walking on it, dropping anchors, making ship channels or harvesting coral for limestone);
6. Marine debris (a.k.a. trash).

 

[keywestcoralboy]

Ocean pollution due to sewage, fertilizer runoff from the west coast and south florida and the biggest contributor is huge amounts of sand and sediment kicked up by the cruise ships literally smothering what's left of the living reef.. I hate cruise ships they ruin everything now they will expand the main ship channel to accomidate bigger ships that will kick up more sand.

 

[alton]

Great posting everyone, if you are wondering about fertilizers? Go buy a bottle of liquid and pour it in your tank. Todays farmers do not waste fertilizer like the farmers of old so that is getting better, pollution is a problem along with over fishing. And you are right ships in general coming to this country have brought all types pollutants and pest. From Fire Ants to pesty algaes

 

[prop-frags]

Decline of Coral Reefs

"The problem is human activities assault reefs on many different levels," says Dustan. In Florida people drain their septic tanks directly into the ocean. The additional nitrates in the human waste cause algae to grow on top of the coral structures and deprive the coral polyps of sunlight. In the Indian Ocean around Sri Lanka, fishermen often use dynamite to catch fish and in the process end up blowing the reefs to bits. Around the islands of the Philippines and Japan, over fishing of natural predators has allowed the Crown of Thorns starfish to run rampant and devastate the coral in the area (Miller and Crosby 1998). The world over, global warming, which many believe to be caused by human greenhouse gas emissions, is warming the top layers of the seas in the tropics and causing the coral to turn white and lose their polyps"”a condition known as "bleaching" (Pockley 2000).

 

[Allmost]

has there been any reports of how healthy reef have been for say last million years ? maybe from skeleton of corals and reef bones ? has it always been healthy for billions of years, and now it is declining ?

 

[billsreef]

has there been any reports of how healthy reef have been for say last million years ? maybe from skeleton of corals and reef bones ? has it always been healthy for billions of years, and now it is declining ?

There is a very good record of historical coral reefs found by doing cores of existing reefs, as well as fossilized reefs. That natural change happens has never been argued, it's well known. It also gives us some comparisons to rate of change...it's that rate of change that is tremendously faster now, and most scientists attribute to human induced factors. To figure we are indeed making changes doesn't take much more than looking around. We've got huge concrete jungles (aka cities), sewage plants dumping nutrient loaded wastes into the water...and even enough hormones to actually skew sex ratios in fish, garbage found far out to sea as well as washing up on our beaches, garbage dumps that tower above the surrounding landscape, lots of visually obvious smog producing entities...the list goes on. Yup, it's kind of hard to look at all that and not think we are having an impact.

 

[Allmost]

There is a very good record of historical coral reefs found by doing cores of existing reefs, as well as fossilized reefs. That natural change happens has never been argued, it's well known. It also gives us some comparisons to rate of change...it's that rate of change that is tremendously faster now, and most scientists attribute to human induced factors. To figure we are indeed making changes doesn't take much more than looking around. We've got huge concrete jungles (aka cities), sewage plants dumping nutrient loaded wastes into the water...and even enough hormones to actually skew sex ratios in fish, garbage found far out to sea as well as washing up on our beaches, garbage dumps that tower above the surrounding landscape, lots of visually obvious smog producing entities...the list goes on. Yup, it's kind of hard to look at all that and not think we are having an impact.

thanks Bill

I found this which is kind of interesting as well
http://www.globalreefproject.com/coral-reef-history.php


7 billion of us, cant disagree, but we have whipped out alot of other creatures, but your are right, the overall impact is that we have increased the bioload on the oceans I guess [the creatures and animals we have whipped out didnt have coal burning factories ]

 

[Luiz Rocha]

Yes, as Bill said there are many reports out there showing that the corals today are dying at a much faster rate than before. Historical (previous) sea level changes are for the most part not fast enough to kill coral: when you have a healthy reef it will grow upwards as fast as the sea level rises.

The problems that we face today are very different, we are killing coral (and/or decreasing their overall health) by pollution, sedimentation, destructive fishing, etc., and at the same time the climate is changing (by human influence or not). If it was "only" climate change I would be confident that coral reefs would survive well, but with all those other impacts it is hard to be optimistic.

 

[Allmost]

I see what you mean, thanks.

2012 stuff are starting to look very attractive to coral reefs with human population cut to 500 mil. lol

so from the page, last time, it took great barrier reefs 20 million years to re grow. WOW !

 

[chilwil84]

the bloom of death that comes out of the mississippi every year shows the destruction that agriculture produces. these foods are not just for consumption but for running our transportation in the form of ethanol

 

[Paaxil]

The dominance of a certain clade of symbiodinium (the algae that lives within the coral). Certain clades of algae allow the corals to withstand higher temperatures, or grow at a certain rate. Some are beneficial while others are parasitic.

 

[Josh_Canada]

i'm rattled by the topic. Heard a redneck call coral 'alien plants' the other day...

 

[MimicOcto8]

lot of good opinions and facts here.

I'm saying its humans that are the cause. not global warming necessarily but how we impact it. For one, I've heard on average each wholesaler get in around 1400 pieces of corals a week. This is supposedly control too....

 

[doctorgori]

the bloom of death that comes out of the mississippi every year shows the destruction that agriculture produces. these foods are not just for consumption but for running our transportation in the form of ethanol

What is it, 40 or 60 million people live in the Mississippi drainage? NTM the original forest cover (which soaks up silt & nitrogen) is like 40% (don't quote me)... Of Course the Steel Mills and general industrialization of the Ohio Valley can't be helping

At anyrate, my guess is only the Yellow Sea is subject to more abuse than the Gulf

...I'll keep saying this: these eco/green discussions alomst always start with "education", "awareness" but consequently terminate with resolve
in the form of regulations and laws (goverment/political solutions) ....
basically these topics are limited to the "awareness" end since the "solution" end involves more taboo political discussion

 

[moorish idol 1]

There are multiple different reasons for the destruction of reefs part of it is the crown of thorns sea star we all but eliminated it's main predator and as a result there is an epidemic of them in many reefs around the world.

 

[r-balljunkie]

Ill chime in. I'm on the reef every week, at least once a day every week, whether walking the low tide, snorkeling, diving, collecting fish. I think a biggest factor going is larger populations of people. No people generally equals no problem.

there's no corals in Hawaii near densely populated areas, Oahu, Hono. you go north up the chain where its protected, tons of stuff.
Coral degradation in Oz, namely GBR and all the cities along the gold coast on the east side…. more human population to impact the reef.
huge die off in the Andaman sea off coast of Thailand a few years ago, massive coral bleaching due to higher temperatures reaching and sustaining themselves at 90+ degrees. I can't prove it, but large once again, large population.
all said, I was impressed with the wildlife in the Andaman, and the corals have made a remarkable recovery in the few short years. generally speaking, the Thai divers I met appreciate and respect their waters.
its a relatively low footprint where I live (1400 people), and the corals are thriving fine, plenty of clams, reef fish, turtles, rays etc even with the impact of the adjacent island, population 15,000. recently, there's been a bit of a shift in the reef here locally, namely less sharks. the Marshallese government has been generous with fishing licenses, so loads of long liners are skirting our island. they take all the big tuna's and now we have less sharks on the reef. used to be dozens in the water when you dove.....we still see them, but not in such great numbers.....once again the impact of people.

all the reefs aren't disappearing, IMO they're in decline around populated areas.

no good answer, it is what it is

 

[oflaherty21]

agree with luiz, this is actually a topic of much debate in my aquatic ecology course

 

[oblongshrimp]

While its impossible to tell if we are cause for sure we should still do our best to stop it.

 

[jdhuyvetter]

I'm still waiting for someone to talk about the "new" reefs that are being discovered!