Japan Aff Michigan


Relocation Kills Coral Reefs



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Relocation Kills Coral Reefs



Relocation of the base would kill Coral Reefs and the local tourist industy

Packard, ’10 (George R., President of the United States-Japan Foundation, Foreign Affairs, March/April 2010, “The United States-Japan Security Treaty at 50,” C^2)

Hatoyama is in a difficult position. His partners in the Social Democratic Party want the Futenma base out of Japan entirely and have threatened to leave the ruling coalition if the 2006 agreement is implemented. But he needs their support in the upper house, at least until July, when an election is scheduled to take place. Other opponents of the 2006 agreement argue that relocating the Futenma base to Nago could harm the coral reefs offshore and thus the future of the local tourist industry.



The transportation of the Futenma base to Hyoko takes up land home to the coral reef

Inoue et al 97-- (Masamichi Sebastian Inoue is the Associate Professor for the Coastal Studies Institute, & Department of Oceanography and Coastal Sciences, John Purves, and Mark Selden is a Coordinator of the open access journal the Asia Pacific Journal ,and a Senior Research Associate in the East Asia Program at Cornell University and Bartle Professor of History and Sociology at Binghamton University, “Okinawa Citizens, U.S. Bases and the Dugong”, Bulletin of Concerned Asian Scholars, http://www.questia.com/read/97983386?title=Okinawa%20Citizens%2c%20U.S.%20Bases%2c%20and%20the%20Dugong)
As preliminary surveys for the heliport began in May 1997, strong resistance surfaced, both in Nago and beyond. A public opinion poll found that more than 78 percent of Okinawans favored removing the Futenma Base from the prefecture or unconditionally eliminating it. 4 On May 6, surveyors conducting feasibility studies were picketed by citizens (including members of the "Society for the Protection of Life," based in Henoko [population 1,400]), who shouted and waved placards proclaiming "Life is more important than money and wealth" and "The sea is the mother of all life." That evening, nearly 300 local residents gathered in protest. Three days later, labor unionists and representatives from the Henoko PTA, Women's Association, and Senior Citizens Group braved a driving rain to protest the surveying. By this time, U.S. and Japanese military authorities were committed to a heliport site offshore near Henoko, an area with one of Japan's few remaining relatively intact coral settings and home to many endangered species. Henoko has been in severe decline since the 1970s when the 200-300 honky-tonk brothels that serviced U.S. Vietnam-era soldiers on R & R closed their doors. In the midst of this economic desolation, citizens of Henoko and Nago — farmers, fisherfolk, homemakers, artists, and others — launched a movement that turned discussion of the heliport into a referendum on a range of issues related to the U.S. military, the U.S.-Japan-Okinawa relationship, peace and war, the social influences of U.S. forces, Okinawan development, the Japanese government's treatment of Okinawa and the Okinawan people, and the environment. Environmental concerns included the fate of the dugong, a large endangered marine mammal weighing up to one thousand pounds, and other protected natural treasures, some unique to coastal Okinawa. On June 6, 1,300 heliport opponents, including local labor unionists and opposition political party members, gathered at Nago City Hall for the launching of a "Council for the Promotion of a Referendum on the Construction of an Offshore Heliport." Charging that Mayor Higa Tetsuya's decision to permit the heliport survey to proceed was undemocratic, the group set out to secure more than 10,000 signatures on a referendum petition. Many also demanded his resignation for having flouted the views expressed at two large opposition rallies and in a city council resolution. On June 4, the beleaguered mayor stated that local approval was "necessarily required if construction of the heliport was to proceed." 5 He would soon have to eat those words. On August 13, the anti-base group submitted a referendum petition containing 19,734 signatures, from more than half of all of Nago's eligible voters. 6 The city authorities submitted the bill to the City Council. "This is the first step toward real democracy...the result of the common sense of the citizens of Nago," anti-heliport leader Miyagi Yasuhiro commented. 7 For the first time anywhere in Japan, a referendum would be held giving citizens the opportunity to express their views on the construction of a U.S. military base in their community. While not binding on the Mayor or the Governor, the unprecedented referendum nevertheless carried great moral and political weight.

Coral Reefs KT Bio-D



Coral reefs key to biodiversity.

Ogden, et al., 96- director of Florida Institute of Oceanography (John C., 1996, Terence J. Done, Dr. William J. Wiebe, professor emeritus at the University of Georgia, B.R. Rosen, PhD. Professor in Radiology at Harvard Medical School Director, “Biodiversity and Ecosystem Function of Coral Reefs,” http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:c38hm1PKMbIJ:www.icsu-scope.org/downloadpubs/scope55/scope55-ch15.pdf+coral+reef+biodiversity&cd=9&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&client=firefox-a )
The world has many thousands of living coral reefs, located in the tropics and sub-tropics between approximately 30° N and 30" S, where the minimum sea surface temperature rarely falls below 18°C (Figure 15.1). Collectively, they cover an area in excess of 6 x 105 km2 (Smith 1978) and encompass a wide range of forms, biological composition, diversity and structural organization. This reflects disparate bio-geological origins, ages, biogeographic settings and environments (Figure 15.2). The largest coral reefs are oceanic atolls on top of submerged volcanoes, often measuring up to tens of kilometers across (Figure 15.2). The largest continuous tracts of coral reefs occur on shallow (<100m deep) continental shelves (Figure 15.2a). Reef forms include both coastal and island fringing reefs, and autonomous platforms located from a few to tens of kilometers from the nearest land, and hundreds of meters to tens of kilometres from each other. For example, in eastern Australia, the Great Barrier Reef occupies a region approximately 2000 km long and 50-150 km wide, and contains almost 3000 fringing and platform reefs ranging in length from less than 1 km to about 30 km (Hopley 1982). Continental shelf reef systems with similar diversity of form can be found along the eastern coasts of Africa, Asia and Central America. Biodiversity and the products of ecosystem function are both very apparent on coral reefs. Through geological time scales, their ecosystem processes produce, accumulate and cement limestone skeletons of a diversity of taxa into wave-resistant structures which can dwarf the tallest forests. Through evolutionary, ecological and human time scales, they provide focifor speciation and habitats for a spectacular variety and a substantial biomass of other biota. Today, they provide important ecosystem services to humans, ranging from the material needs of tropical populations who exploit their carbohydrate, protein and limestone resources, to recreation for millions of tourists, and a contribution to biogeochemical cycling. Although they transform C02 to CaCC>3, the process actually contributes to atmospheric CO2 (Smith and Buddemeier 1992). However, the relatively small global area of reefs makes their contribution to the global carbon cycle small compared with that of other sources and sinks (Smith 1978).
Futenma base is threatening Okinawa’s coral reefs- endangered species prove.
Center for Biological Diversity, n.d. - specialist center that works to create protection of species (n.d., Center for Biological Diversity, “Help Save Okinawa Dugong and Coral Reef Ecosystem,” http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/2167/t/5243/p/dia/action/public/index.sjs?action_KEY=1798 )
Okinawa is home to ecologically significant coral reefs that support more than 1,000 species of reef fish, marine mammals, and sea turtles. Creatures like the highly imperiled dugong, a critically endangered and culturally treasured animal, rely on these reefs for their survival. But the U.S. government is planning to build a new American military base atop a healthy coral reef that will likely destroy the diverse array of animal life the reef supports, including at least nine species threatened with extinction. Okinawa's coral reefs are already threatened by global warming and pollution: More than half have disappeared over the past decade. We must protect the reef and its inhabitants. American, Japanese, and international organizations have spoken out for this critical area and against the potential harm that the new military base would cause. Back in 1997, Japan's Mammalogical Society placed the mighty dugong, a distant relative of the manatee, on its "Red List of Mammals," estimating the population in Okinawa to be critically endangered. Our own Endangered Species Act lists the dugong and three sea turtles affected by the project as endangered. The U.S. government's Marine Mammals Commission is weighing in with fears that the project would be a serious threat to the dugong and other animals' survival, and the World Conservation Union's dugong specialists have expressed similar concerns. Construction of the offshore facility will devastate the marine environment and have dramatic consequences for oceangoing birds and coastal species as well. In addition to destruction of the coral reef off the coast of Henoko village, the planned base will deplete essential freshwater supplies, increase the human population in sensitive areas, and encourage more environmentally harmful development -- causing irreversible ecological damage to one of the most diverse ecosystems on earth. The U.S. government must abandon this plan.

Coral reefs are produced by diverse species that are critical to their biodiversity.
Ogden, et al., 96- director of Florida Institute of Oceanography (John C., 1996, Terence J. Done, Dr. William J. Wiebe, professor emeritus at the University of Georgia, B.R. Rosen, PhD. Professor in Radiology at Harvard Medical School Director, “Biodiversity and Ecosystem Function of Coral Reefs,” http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:c38hm1PKMbIJ:www.icsu-scope.org/downloadpubs/scope55/scope55-ch15.pdf+coral+reef+biodiversity&cd=9&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&client=firefox-a )
The primary producers of coral reefs are extremely diverse. Like most shallow hard and sandy substrata throughout both tropical and temperate seas, they are inhabited by all the major algal groups (benthic micro- and macro-algae, coralline algae), and commonly by seagrasses. What sets coral reefs apart are the symbiotic zooxanthellae, the single-celled, dinoflagellate algae of many species (Trench 1987; Rowan and Powers 1991) which live within the cells of many animal calcifiers (notably corals, foraminifera and mollusks) and are the powerhouses of coral reefs (see Section 15.2.3). Planktonic primary production (phytoplankton) is sometimes important in lagoons (Charpy-Roubard el al. 1988), but usually minor compared with overall benthic production on hard substrata and sands. The relative amounts of carbon going into the trophic as opposed to the bioconstructional pathway depends on the apportionment of plant standing crop between calcifiers and all other algae. Primary producer populations (density and biomass per hectare) vary greatly within and among reefs as a function of ambient nutrient regime, successional status, wave energy and grazing pressure (Littler and Littler 1985; Birkeland 1987, 1988). A diverse and abundant array of vertebrate and invertebrate grazers scrape, browse, crop and suck this plant production (Hatcher 1983), often inadvertently ingesting varying amounts of detritus, limestone and living material (e.g. coral tissue, epiphytic micro-invertebrates) in the process. Coprophagy is common among certain reef fishes, and is believed to be of major importance in sustaining fish biomass in areas in which other food sources are intermittently limited (Robertson 1982). Where high daily plant production sustains high grazing rates, the standing crop of bonthic algae is commonly very low, and export of plant material, either into the open sea or to detrital-based sites in sheltered sand accumulations such as lagoons, is minimal. By contrast, some high-latitude and disturbed reef systems support dense beds of annual macrophytic algae (Carpenter 1986; Crossland 1988). Corals are food for many types of fish and invertebrates. A variety of fishes nip, crunch or scrape corals (Bellwood and Choat 1990; Bellwood 1994), leaving localized injuries which heal rapidly. Others kill entire colonies. In low abundances, coral predators such as crown-of-thorns starfish (Acanthaster plana), gastropods (Drupella spp. and Coralliophila spp.) and bristleworms (Polychaeta, Amphinomidae), harvest coral soft tissue at rates that are sustainable within local communities and promote diversity by opening substrata for colonization (Glynn 1982). There are also secondary predators on the adults and juveniles of the coral predators (e.g. fish, gastropods, shrimps for A. pianti; fish for Drupella and Coralliophila), although their efficacy in regulating local abundances of these corallivores has been difficult to demonstrate (Endean and Cameron 1990b; Ormond et al. 1990) The marine trophic pyramid beginning with phytoplankton and benthic algae and culminating in the large predatory sharks and teleost fishes is multi-layered (Grigg et al. 1984) and each layer is diverse (Sale 1991). Benthic carnivores and mid-water carnivores (reflecting the sources of their prey) can comprise >60% of species (Sutton 1983), whereas the relative importance of herbivores and planktivores varies in different settings, presumably reflecting differences in the importance of benthic plants and plankton in reef trophodynamics (Williams 1982; Russ 1984a, b). Estimates of sustainable harvest of secondary production, mostly in the form of fishes, mollusks, echinoderms and crustácea, are up to 15 t wet weight ha"' on reefs fished according to customary practices.


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