Save Eco Destinations

(This is part one of a two-part series on a report regarding the dismal state of our oceans. Part two of the series tackles the situation’s repercussions on humans and what we can do to help our oceans recover.)

A team of marine experts announced this week a new summary report arguing that climate change and other man-made factors will spur colossal levels of extinction in the world’s oceans. The catastrophe is forecasted to be “unprecedented in human history.”

The proverbial excrement, it seems, is about to hit the fan.

Not surprisingly, it appears that changes in our atmosphere, ecosystems, and habitats across the planet are accelerating too quickly for many species to adapt and be able to survive.

Dr. Alex Rogers. Photo from the University of Oxford.

“The speed of change, particularly related to climate change, is so great there simply isn’t time for marine life to adapt to these new conditions,” said Alex Rogers, a professor of conservation biology at the University of Oxford.

He explained that mass extinctions have been tied to considerable changes in the oceans’ carbon systems in the past.

“That’s what we’re bringing about through our own actions today,” he noted, reports ABC News.

Rogers and a team of 26 other researchers from various countries met earlier this year for a three-day workshop in England to study ocean stressors. Their full report is set to be published in the near future.

Ocean stressors at play

Ocean acidification is one key factor. Here’s what it’s about: carbon dioxide (CO2) (along with methane and other gasses) plays a huge role in heating up our planet and thereby causing climate change, which includes melting polar ice caps and rising ocean levels. Okay. What you might not know is that one-third of the planet’s CO2 is absorbed by the ocean, and that the more CO2 the ocean absorbs, the greater the waters’ acidity. This phenomenon is called ocean acidification and it’s noxious to our planet for many reasons. For example, rising acidity levels in our oceans have been found to:

• Impair fish hearing and smell, putting their survival in danger
• Kill off endangered species such as northern abalone
• Threaten the survival of krill, itself the basic food source of nearly all animals in the ocean

Coral reef in Papua New Guinea. By Mila Zinkova via Wikimedia Commons

Apart from ocean acidification, rising water temperatures, overfishing, pollution, and even tourism are all exacerbating the rapid decline of species such as reef-forming coral. (Go here, here, and here for more on the state of coral reefs.)

Sharks and other species may be next, warned Rogers, lead author of the International Programme on the State of the Ocean (IPSO) report.

Further, he said that, in many cases, the impacts of ocean stressors were found to have a greater overall effect than any single effect when taken together. For example, the decline of coral reef ecosystems due to overfishing and reef bleaching, plus the acidification that causes bleaching, will eradicate “the most diverse marine ecosystems on the planet.”

Chilling.

“As we considered the cumulative effect of what humankind does to the ocean, the implications became far worse than we had individually realized,” Rogers said. “This is a very serious situation demanding unequivocal action at every level.”

Stay tuned for part two of this 2-part series.

A diving buddy pair taking Reef Check Australia substrate data on the Great Barrier Reef.

In this last of four posts, I will discuss some unknown causes of coral reef mortality. In the first post, I looked at the dismal situation of coral reefs and their lack of official protection from trade, plus the incredible importance of these species for the survival of marine life and, in turn, human life. In the second post, I explored how climate change is jeopardizing the existence of coral reefs across the world’s oceans. And in the third post, I wrote about the overexploitation of pink and red corals in particular.

Unknown causes of seaweed overgrowth

Australia’s 345,000-square-km Great Barrier Reef has been found partly choked by seaweed, according to surveys conducted in 2009. Over 40% of the coral reef areas closest to shore were found clogged with the weed.

“We are concerned about it because it does look like a lot of weed and in other places in the world, weed is an indication of decline,” said marine biologist Professor David Bellwood from James Cook University.

Bellwood suspects the overgrowth has been caused by the depletion of algae-eating fish around the coral reef. Without the presence of fish to feed on algae, of course, the plant is allowed to flourish unfettered and smother coral polyps.

“The question is, does this mean the Barrier Reef is in real trouble? That the reef is rotting from the inside out? Or does it mean to say that that amount of weed is natural? And the answer is: it’s hard to say,” he said.

Yet, alarmingly, he assured that

“The Great Barrier Reef is in the best condition of any reef in the world.”

Yowza. Sounds like dire news to me. It’s like saying that guy who suffers from asthma still breathes better than everyone else. He’s still got asthma, so how well can he really be doing?

As well, algae growth is caused by elevated nutrient levels in the water due to fertilizer runoff (from golf courses, farms, and so on) and untreated sewage.

It has also been suggested that sedimentation—possibly caused by heavy rainfall—can spark algal overgrowth. Other ways sedimentation promotes coral death is by smothering or burial (reef-building corals depend on high light, high oxygen, low turbidity, low nutrients, and open ocean salinity to remain healthy); decreasing growth through coral abrasion and shading; increasing the production of respiration and mucus; and by reducing coral reproduction, coral larval settlement, and early survival.

Unknown causes of coral malformations

White warts and tumors that show up on coral reefs are irregular shaped skeletal abnormalities. Because these malformations display fewer protective mucous cells than regular corals, and a porous skeleton, they are especially vulnerable to predation and erosion from algae and other organisms. In turn, damaged coral abnormalities cause local coral mortality and can thwart colony fitness and fecundity.

The causes of coral malformations are speculated to “range from biological pathogens transmitted by corralivore fishes, genetic mutations and external environmental conditions such as excessive UV radiation exposure,” according to APEX Environmental.

Yellow-band disease on a stony coral

Unknown causes of coral diseases and syndromes

These conditions are usually prompted by stresses such bacteria, fungi, and viruses, as well as rising sea temperatures, UV radiation, sedimentation, and pollution. These stresses can exacerbate each other.

The causes of most coral diseases remain unknown, however, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) of the U.S.

Coral diseases include black-band disease, coral bleaching, dark-spots disease, red-band disease, white-band disease, white-plague disease, white pox, and yellow-blotch disease.

Of course, the topic is nearly inexhaustible.

You can follow this link and the ones above to learn about additional causes of coral reef mortality.

Pink coral

In this third of four posts, I will discuss the overexploitation of pink and red coral in particular. In the first, I looked at the dismal situation of coral reefs and their lack of official protection from trade, plus the incredible importance of these species for the survival of marine life and, in turn, human life. In the second, I explored how climate change is jeopardizing the existence of coral reefs across the world’s oceans. In the fourth, I will talk about unknown causes of coral reef mortality.

The problem with harvesting pink and red coral

I recently wrote about the bleak state of coral reefs around the globe. In this post, I would like to examine why harvesting pink and red coral, or Corallidae, in particular, is problematic.

The coral trade is worth tens of millions of dollars per year. Some 30-50 tons of pink and red coral are harvested yearly. A coral necklace can go for as much as hundreds of thousands of dollars in the jewelry market.

You’ve surely seen jewelry made from pink and red coral beads – pendants, earrings, and so forth. Well, much of this coral is harvested unsustainably (can you even sustainably harvest a living thing that grows at a rate of less than 1 mm in thickness per year and can live up to 100 years? This is why I am suspicious of the claims defending the sustainable harvest of coral reefs.).

The use of red and pink coral can be substituted with black coral, a species already protected by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES). CITES, by the way, refused to add red and pink coral to its Appendix II listing during its two-week-long March meeting in Doha, Qatar, where it discussed the state of myriad ecosystems currently in calamitous straits.

Red coral

“Coralliidae are in desperate need of a mechanism that controls the immense trade in these species. CITES could have provided that, but today the representatives failed to heed the science showing these populations are in steep decline,” said Kristian Teleki, vice president of science initiatives for SeaWeb, whose campaign Too Precious to Wear had called for governments to protect Coralliidae.

“It is now up to the jewelry and design industries, and their customers, to act where governments have failed.”

Even elite jewelry retailer Tiffany & Co., jewelry designer Temple St. Clair, ocean conservationist Celine Cousteau and numerous others voiced support for the proposal to add red and pink coral to CITES’ Appendix II listing.

Please reject the use and purchase of red and pink coral until proper management measures are implemented to protect these fragile species from extinction. Also, spread the word! Knowledge is always power.

Coral bleaching

This post is part two of a four-part series. Here I will look at how climate change is jeopardizing the existence of coral reefs across the world’s oceans. In the third part of the series, I will explore coral reefs’ overexploitation, and in the fourth, I will explore some unknown causes of coral reef mortality.)

(Here is the first post of the series, which covers the general dismal situation of coral reefs and their lack of official protection from trade, plus the incredible importance of these species for the survival of marine life and, in turn, human life.)

How climate change is threatening coral reefs

Ocean acidification

Carbon dioxide (CO2), as we know, plays a huge role in warming up our planet and causing climate change. What you might not know is that one-third of the planet’s carbon dioxide is absorbed by the ocean, and the more CO2 the ocean absorbs, the greater the waters’ acidity. The effects of ocean acidification, as this phenomenon is called, remain partly unpredictable.

Scientists do know, however, that worsening ocean acidification harms coral reefs, crustaceans, and shellfish because it weakens these species’ calcium carbonate shells. These animals thus become unable to build thick, protective shells for themselves and turn into easier prey for predators and pollution.

Coral reefs located near the poles will suffer these effects more sharply than those in warmer waters for two reasons: first, colder water absorbs more CO2 than warm water, and second, coral reefs in cold water grow at a slower pace than other coral reefs.

Bleached corals

Coral bleaching and disease

Warming waters also cause the bleaching of coral reefs. Naturally occurring, beneficial bacteria living on coral turns begins to disappear as temperatures rise, facilitating the onslaught of pathogenic bacteria that cause bleaching and other types of disease.

Moreover, the type of pathogenic bacteria that take over coral reefs sticks even if the temperature drops low enough to provoke the return of beneficial bacteria. By this time, the coral is too sick to recover and dies.

For those interested, here is an article on a recently created mathematical model that explains how coral reefs die due to warming waters.

Here is the U.S.’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) explanation:

“Because many corals live in water which is already near their upper temperature limit, a water temperature increase of only a few degrees can be deadly. As water temperatures rise, corals become increasingly stressed. When stress levels get too high, corals expel the symbiotic algae, or zooxanthellae (tiny one-celled plants) which live within the thin layer of live coral tissue. Zooxanthellae are important because they turn sunlight into food for their coral hosts. They also facilitate the formation of the coral skeleton — the main structural component of coral reefs. Because zooxanthellae give corals their various rich colors, a coral without zooxanthellae appears bleached. Corals can not thrive without zooxanthellae. For coral reefs that are already stressed due to poor water quality, destructive fishing, or frequent interactions with irresponsible divers and snorkellers, increased water temperatures could become the proverbial straw that breaks the camel’s back.”

(For more information, here is a previous post I wrote on the effects of climate change on coral reefs.)

Healthy coral reef on the North coast of East Timor.

In this first of four posts, I will explore the dismal situation of coral reefs and their lack of official protection from trade, plus the incredible importance of these species for the survival of marine life and, in turn, human life. In the second part of this series, I will look at climate change and unknown causes jeopardizing the existence of coral reefs across the world’s oceans. In the third part of the series, I will explore coral reefs’ overexploitation,and in the fourth, unknown causes of coral mortality.

Coral reefs are facing increasing danger due to various factors, ranging from climate change and harvesting to different types of pollution, tourism, and outbreaks of disease, to fishing, overexploitation, infestation by pestilent species and even unknown causes.

Exacerbating these problems is a lack of legal protection for coral reefs by international official organizations.

Coral reefs suffer from a massive lack of protection

The world’s largest international ocean conservation organization, Oceana, recently released a statement chastising the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) for refusing to grant trade protection to 31 threatened species of red and pink coral. The convention voted to exclude these corals from its Appendix II listing during CITES’ two-week-long March meeting in Doha, Qatar, where it discussed the state of myriad species and ecosystems in dire straits.

“An Appendix II listing would require the use of export permits to ensure that the species were caught by a legal and sustainably managed fishery,” said Oceana.

These 31 species of coral from the western Pacific Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea are being increasingly harvested for their use in jewelry, souvenirs, and even homeopathic products, according to Oceana, a phenomenon is leading to the extinction of coral reefs. This issue alone (which I will look at in the third part of this series of posts), many insist, is enough to warrant the species’ listing under Appendix II.

Locations of coral reefs across the globe.

The importance of coral reefs

Coral reefs provide uncountable species with shelter and the foundation of an intricate and fragile marine food chain. By extension, hundreds of millions of humans worldwide obtain their food and livelihoods from the life that thrives off coral reefs. Thus, without them, these masses would be left with a dearth of food and income, which would lead not only to famine and poverty, but also possibly to wars through political upheaval.

“Whole nations will be threatened in terms of their existence,” said Carl Gustaf Lundin of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature.

Grouper, snapper, oysters, clams, and other commonly consumed species would disappear without coral reefs.

“Fish will become a luxury good,” said Cassandra deYoung of the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization. “You already have a billion people who are facing hunger, and this is just going to aggravate the situation,” she added. “We will not be able to maintain food security around the world.”

Old Dominion University professor Kent Carpenter is the director of a worldwide census of marine species. He warned that if climate change continues to wreak havoc on the planet, all coral reefs could be extinct within a century.

“You could argue that a complete collapse of the marine ecosystem would be one of the consequences of losing corals,” Carpenter said. “You’re going to have a tremendous cascade effect for all life in the oceans.”

Clearly, this is a key issue for the entire planet, for the balance of ecosystems worldwide, and thus the wellbeing of non-humans and humans alike.

Stay posted for the rest of this series on coral reefs!

A natural bug repellent: Herbal Armor

Biodegradable skincare protects the environment – and you – from carcinogens e.g. parabens

Many tour companies will demand that you slather on biodegradable sunblock and bug repellent for diving into the ocean and cenotes, going kayaking, and so on. It would be fantastic to adopt this preference constantly, though. It’s the same as littering: shouldn’t we refrain from littering all the time rather than only when we are asked to?

First of all, regular sunscreens bleach corals, which are already dying off at an alarming rate due to several factors, this one included, and also global warming, irresponsible human activities, and other types of pollution. So any time you get in the water – even into a pool, as all water ends up in the ocean eventually and it is not treated for toxic chemicals, and even less in remote areas such as Tulum and Xcacel Xcacelito – you would be helping to take care of the environment by using only environmentally-friendly products.

Last, I will reiterate that regular sunblock contains carcinogenic ingredients – that is, they cause cancer. You would thus be doing yourself a favor as well by staying away from those products.

FYI: I found Hawaiian Tropic Biodegradable sunscreen in SPF 30 and 50 as well as a natural bug repellent in Tulum, on the road where myriad hotels are located on the coast. And you can, of course, find many such products online by conducting a simple Google search (such as this one). You can also search the Cosmetic Safety Database for details and products.

Check your cosmetics and ingredients here for safety.

Surely you remember what a mess the world’s coral reefs are in (and shellfish reefs too, although we haven’t discussed that) not just because of fuck-up humans, but also because of global warming. Wait, that’s our fault too (unless you believe that the world was already warming up anyway).

Well, I have some good news: 6 Asia-Pacific countries— Indonesia, Malaysia, East Timor, the Philippines, Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands—have committed to protecting a stretch of reef called the Coral Triangle, which holds 76% of all known coral species and provides a hot place for tuna to sex it up and make more of themselves.

The bad news is that the agreement is non-binding, say green groups. Plus, not all details have been ironed out.

“[The agreement is] non-binding and it’s not a treaty but as a commitment to each other it’s quite important,” said James Leape, international director general of the World Wildlife Fund. “The most important thing is the political platform that the declaration provides and some were quite explicit about creating new marine protected areas.”

But let’s focus on the positive.

By “protect,” these countries mean that they will collaborate to end illegal fishing/poaching and pollution. This is in their best interest because they are big tuna fishers, so they want to both protect the tuna’s spawning grounds and prevent the “bad guys” from stealing their bounty.

The agreement opens the door for these 6 countries to devise sustainable fishing laws over the next 3 years, according to Reuters. (I know, I know—but remember, *positive*!)

Really positive: it may ultimately be in these nations’ best interest to curb tuna fishing in these areas. Yay. (Yeah, I knew you’d like that one.)

So then, by being eco-smart everybody wins, right? Well, yeah…but the bastards are greedy (no shit, right?) so they need more incentive. The idea is that in exchange countries like the US, who purchases lots of tuna every year, will compensate them, or the 6 countries will be allowed to go nuts in other parts of the Coral Triangle. Yea. As if these tiny and poor nations would be able to keep dirt-poor fishers—and greedy, generally destructive assholes—from poaching anyway. It’s not like officials aren’t hungry for bribes, cuz they are.

Still, it’s a relatively big deal. Check out what this guy said:

“In 30 years of conservation work, I have never seen anything like this: six leaders signing a commitment to protect their marine resources,” Peter Seligmann, head of Conservation International, said in a statement.

It’s something. So let’s buck up and smile for the camera.

photo from novenet.com.mx

(Scroll down for the latest news.)

Background (a few years ago):

The pier was built on a public beach and is located a mere 118 meters from the Jardines reef, all despite extensive opposition from environmental groups and companies and 3 years of lawsuits.

The pier was built illegally, as that type of infrastructure is prohibited in the area, according to the 2003 Local Environmental Ordering Plan (rough translation). Sediments flew, as the lawfully mandated precautions for such a structure were ignored. And so on.

2009:

“There were instructions to demolish the pier because it harms the coastline and the surrounding environment. We will have to address those who were involved in the building of the pier and we won’t take technical decisions lightly. The environment and coast of Quintana Roo, and in particular where this pier was build, is fragile and we have to be alert to the decisions the government takes so they don’t damage the environment,” said  State Governor Félix Arturo Gonzalez Canto during an interview held in late March.

Okay. At the same time…

Federal Attorney of Environmental Protection (Profepa) Delegate Luis Jorge Morales Arjona claims the Ultramar-Aquaword pier does not affect the Jardines reef – at all.

Sure, we believe him.

He said that after the pier was reopened (oh yeah, it was shut down) Profepa conducted an inspection of the area underwater during 4 days. “Several tests were done,” Morales Arjona said.

But wait.

He said Profepa verified the organisms that were transplanted (so they woulnd’t die) from the pier area, which were originally on the surface the pier was built on. “There they are, alive,” he said.

And.

However, “We don’t know how many organisms survived. We don’t know how many there were and which area they spanned,” he said.

He also assured the pier is not located close to a reef that could be affected by ships. And that the pier counts with the authorization of the Environmental Impact Manifestation (MIA) and the concession of the sea-land federal zone.

*Headdesk*

Environmentalists protest to have pier torn down

And that’s not all

100 shopkeepers and merchants signed a document stating they support the Ultramar pier. In that document, they wrote that the coral reef exists only in the minds of their opponents.

Essentially, a group of pissed off folks wrote a letter stating that they are not associated with the pier, but anyone who’s against it is a stupid jerk who wants them to starve to death when they lose business due to a non-existent pier.

It’s almost funny how they use both legal and rude language in the same document, accusing anyone who wants the pier gone as an immoral agitator. I mean, I get what they’re saying,  but, geez, get a grip.

Imagine going on vacation somewhere with azure waters. You decide to go snorkeling, check out the local underwater fauna and flora and head toward the local coral reefs. You wonder if your goggles are dirty-the corals look black! (Who knew they could turn a color different from white?) Very unfortunately, the corals are black, so forget rubbing your goggles clean (if only it were that easy!).

On the (somewhat) bright side, this phenomenon is currently limited to Taiwan’s southeast coast. The corals turned black from disease. The culprit is probably untreated sewage. Can you believe this?

Damn, I can.

For a long time, people had suspected this would be a problem-black corals-that more reefs were turning black, and so on. People only suspected because there was no available information to look at on this situation, no research had been done on it, and nobody knew enough about it to speak up or call for action.

Finally, Chen Chao-Iun, a researcher from Taiwan’s Academia Sinica, said that the problem is worst in areas of waters up to 5 m. (16.4 ft.) deep and 300 m. offshore from a couple of Taiwan’s outlying islands.

Chao-Iun seems mostly concerned about the effects this will have on tourism: “If you snorkel, you’ll see it’s black. If it’s all black, there won’t be too many tourists,” he told Reuters.

The Taiwanese researchers have communicated their findings to the government. Next, they will check other offshore areas where coral reefs are found for damage.

Andrew Baker holds coral he wants to coax into teaming up with more heat-resistant algae

Remember all those awful news about coral reefs being on their way out? Here’s another thought: heat-tolerant algae might save them by helping coral adapt to climate change.

As we know, coral reefs are very fragile creatures. Tourism, sunscreen, and myriad other factors contribute to the reefs’ bleaching and death all over the globe. Global warming is largely thought to be, basically, a death sentence for coral everywhere.

But wait! Andrew Baker, a scientist at the University of Miami’s Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science, disagrees. He says that (1) corals can inherently adapt to rising temperatures and (2) we can help! (Let me explain the exclamation mark – I am excited about this!)

This year Baker set up a project to research the relationship between reef-building coral polyps (a relative of jellyfish) and their symbiotic algae, zooxanthellae. The algae seek shelter in the reefs, and in return, the algae feed the corals sugar, which corals turn into energy. The problem with higher temperatures is that they can destroy this give-and-take relationship between the algae and the corals: they make algae leave the corals, depriving the reefs of the sugar they need to remain healthy. Without this source of energy, the corals become very weak, and often die.

What Baker wants to do to prevent these coral deaths is inoculate corals, or make them immune, with the help of a different kind of algae that can resist heat better. Once these algae are administered, so to speak, to the corals, the reefs adapt and can live in higher-temperature waters.

Apparently, some corals have always attracted algae more tolerant to heat than the typical zooxanthellae and therefore became more heat-resistant themselves and resisted bleaching, e.g. in the Persian Gulf. Sometimes corals switch from zooxanthellae to heat-resistant algae during hotter seasons. That’s pretty neat.

The downside – humans have been tinkering with nature for, hmm, ever. And most usually the results are catastrophic. Some people think Baker’s idea, thus, shouldn’t be taken seriously out of fear that it may harm corals instead of help them.

But Baker says, screw it, it’s worth a try. I think I agree. After all, the plan is to introduce corals to a more heat-resistant type of algae, not to inoculate them with pharmaceutical drugs (a plan that, unfortunately, wouldn’t surprise me).

Read the whole, detailed article at the Christian Science Monitor.