____________________________________________________________________________ New Scientist:I ntensive care heals damaged coral reefs
Even serious damage to a coral reef need not spell disaster if action is taken in time
Paul Marks
8.7.2006
TERMS like "triage" and "transplant" are usually the stuff of hospital emergency rooms. Now the same phrases are turning up in an entirely different context as conservationists struggle to repair the damage done by human neglect and natural disasters to coral reefs, some of the oldest and most diverse ecosystems on Earth.
Great swathes of the world's reefs are in a desperate state after years of damage, and marine conservationists are fighting to provide the necessary intensive care. One approach they are taking to repair and rebuild them is to send down divers to literally glue the damaged reefs back together, using coral nurtured in large underwater nurseries.
Reefs are under attack from all sides as human-inflicted damage amplifies natural wear and tear. Hurricanes and tsunamis can cause injuries that may take decades for a reef to repair naturally. Meanwhile, destructive fishing practices, pollution, ships running aground and climate change pose an even more serious threat.
A report issued by the UN Environment Programme in April this year warned that 30 per cent of the world's coral reefs are either already dead or seriously damaged. The scale of human impact on coral reefs was further highlighted late last month when scientists in the US and Australia found fossil evidence that reefs have suffered more during the past 30 years than over the preceding 220,000 (New Scientist , 24 June, p 16).
After decades of neglect and misuse, however, restoration technologies are starting to make a difference. Before, a shipwreck on a reef caused irreparable damage. Now at least some of that damage can be repaired.
"In the last 10 years, we have had eight major ship groundings on reefs in Florida, including giant bulk carriers loaded with cement and a nuclear submarine," says Walter Jaap of the Florida Marine Research Institute in St Petersburg . "After each, we immediately undertake a triage effort on the reef to assess the damage to the habitat. We then salvage what we can of the viable living coral. We often rescue up to 500 colonies, varying in size from a fist to a metre across."
These colonies are made up of living coral polyps - funnel-shaped organisms that build reefs by constructing a protective skeleton of calcium carbonate. Divers can graft the rescued polyps back onto the reef base using hydraulic cement or epoxy putty; the acidity of the adhesive can be adjusted to ensure it does not harm the polyps.
Areas irreparably gouged by ships can be filled with concrete hemispheres a metre across and shot through with large holes. These "reef balls" form a scaffold that the surviving colonies can be glued onto. Where reefs are too severely damaged to be repaired this way, whole artificial reefs can be constructed from concrete blocks, reef balls or even old car tyres.
Underwater gardens
This still leaves the problem of acquiring sufficient quantities of viable coral polyps. Harvesting corals from other reefs tends to "abuse and inflict trauma on the donor reefs", says Baruch Rinkevich of Israel's National Institute of Oceanography. So inspired by successful forestry practices, Rinkevich, his colleague Shai Shafir and partners from the European Union's Reefref project are developing ways to set up subsea "nurseries" of young coral.
Polyps rely on a healthy broth of natural nutrients in the surrounding water and are highly sensitive to temperature and salinity changes, which makes it difficult to grow coral in the lab. "Corals grown in captivity don't look right - the size of branches and the branching patterns are all wrong," Rinkevich says. "We need to grow coral in its proper environment if it is to thrive."
To test the idea of underwater coral gardening, Rinkevich and colleagues set up 10-metre-square horizontal nets 6 metres beneath the surface of the Red Sea near Eilat, Israel. The nets were held from below by metal wires anchored to the sea floor and supported from above by buoys. More than 6800 cuttings, otherwise known as "nubbins", were collected from 11 species of local coral and nurtured in trays placed on the nets. After 10 months, more than 90 per cent of them were still alive.
Natural water flow supplied the corals with much more of the plankton that they feed on than would have been available in captivity, Rinkevich says, and as the nets sway with the waves the motion dislodges harmful debris and sediment. The technique is economical to operate too, as only two divers were needed to run the entire operation.
Now Rinkevich and colleagues are stringing up scores of underwater coral nurseries close to ailing reefs in Thailand, Singapore, the Philippines, Israel and Jamaica. Divers take cuttings from local coral and glue them to trays measuring 80 by 60 centimetres, sticking each nubbin to one of about 100 posts dotted across the tray's surface.
The corals are thriving in their natural environment and also feed back into it. Rinkevich likens this to the way trees in a nursery attract birds and insects. "With coral, we hope to do the same by growing them alongside the vertebrates, invertebrates and fish they will live with in the wild." Once mature enough, the corals can then be cemented back onto the base of a natural reef.
Rinkevich's efforts will go some way towards rescuing and rehabilitating many coral reefs harmed by shipwrecks and other mechanical damage. However, a more serious threat may be still to come. Human-induced climate change is altering ocean temperatures and salinity, while CO2 emissions are increasing the acidity of the oceans.
The symbiotic relationship with photosynthetic algae called zooxanthellae that corals rely on makes them extremely sensitive to temperature and salinity changes. The algae, which lend coral its vivid colour, provide energy through photosynthesis in exchange for nitrogen and carbon dioxide from the coral. But just a few degrees outside their preferred temperature range of about 20 to 30 °C, and a few per cent outside a 34 to 37 per cent salinity range, and the algae are forced off the polyps, leaving the coral "bleached" and so short of energy that they may die.
In 2002, when Australia's Great Barrier Reef was hit hard by unseasonable warming, 95 per cent of its coral was adversely affected, and around 3 per cent of it died off completely. Though David Wachenfeld, a director of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority in Townsville, Queensland, describes this as the "worst ever recorded bleaching event", the reef got off lightly: its sheer size has meant much of it has been able to recover after conditions returned to normal, with surviving coral repopulating damaged areas. Prolonged ocean warming may make recovery harder in the future.
Measures to control climate change are crucial for coral's future, as CO2 is acidifying the oceans, warns Ken Collins, an oceanographer at the University of Southampton in the UK: "If we are not careful, we are likely to see acid oceans that simply dissolve the reefs in 50 to 100 years' time."
Accident victim Nursed back to health
The salvage strategies adopted by Florida's marine biologists are illustrated by their response to the grounding of the 6000-tonne nuclear submarine USS Memphis on a 3000-year-old coral reef off Broward county in south-eastern Florida in February 1993. As the crew of the submarine attempted to free the vessel from the reef, its twin propellers gouged deep trenches in the coral, wrecking approximately 1000 square metres of the reef and breaking up some of its critical limestone base.
Following "triage" by a team of oceanographers from Nova Southeastern University in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, many colonies of coral polyp were cemented back onto the base. In 2000, the team also dropped 160 concrete hemispheres, known as "reef balls", into some of the most seriously damaged areas. These were treated with limestone to support rescued coral.
Today, some 13 years after the accident, the reef is beginning to recover. Walter Jaap of the Florida Marine Research Institute in St Petersburg is optimistic that it could improve even further. "In 10 to 20 years, the density of invertebrates, corals, sponges and algae could actually exceed that of the natural reef," he says.
____________________________________________________________________________
The Australian: Sonar use cut for whales
By Alexandria Sage in Los Angeles
9.7.2006
[also appears in The Sunday Times, The Advertiser Adelaide, The Courier Mail, The Melbourne Herald Sun, The Daily Telegraph (all Australia), and Antara (Indonesia)]:
WHALES and other marine mammals will be better protected during military training exercises using sonar now that the US Navy has agreed to increased safety measures in Hawaiian waters, an environmental group said overnight.
The Navy has agreed not to use mid-frequency sonar during training within a 25-mile buffer zone surrounding the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands Marine National Monument, an area rich in marine life, in a settlement with the National Resources Defence Council and other groups.
The settlement, reached on Friday in US District Court in Los Angeles, also calls for the Navy to post lookouts for whales and other marine mammals during the exercises and report sightings, after which the Navy is required to reduce the intensity of the sonar or stop it.
The agreement comes on the heels of a temporary restraining order won Monday by environmental groups preventing the Navy from using a type of high-intensity sonar during the "Rim of the Pacific," or RIMPAC, 2006 anti-submarine warfare training exercise.
"The value of this settlement is that it increases significantly the protection for whales and dolphins and other marine life during this RIMPAC exercise," NRDC spokesman Daniel Hinerfeld said.
"By agreeing to these measures, the Navy has implicitly acknowledged that taking better care of the oceans and marine life is compatible with their need to train with sonar."
The military exercise involving eight countries and more than 40 ships, six submarines, 160 aircraft and thousands of military personnel concludes July 28. The Navy claims that training sailors to detect submarines using mid-frequency active sonar is crucial to military operations in the Pacific.
"The Navy will continue to use all possible mitigation measures to protect marine mammals, yet provide realistic and necessary training," Vice Adm. Barry Costello, commander of the RIMPAC exercises, wrote in an e-mail to Reuters.
"Effective use of active sonar is a vital and perishable skill set that must be continually practiced," he added, calling anti-submarine warfare the top priority for the US Pacific Fleet Commander.
The judge who issued the temporary injunction found that NRDC had shown "considerable convincing scientific evidence" showing that military sonar can harm marine animals.
Environmentalists have documented dozens of cases of mass whale strandings and deaths around the world they say are associated with sonar blasts, which are thought to disorient marine mammals and can cause bleeding around the brain and internal injuries. A U.N. Environment Program report issued in November included underwater sonar and military manoeuvres in a list of threats to marine mammals.
The NRDC's Hinerfeld said sonar was to blame for a mass stranding of 150 whales during the 2004 RIMPAC.
The settlement does not stop a separate lawsuit that challenges the Navy's overall use of sonar.
_____________________________________________________________________________
Independent on Sunday (London): Pirates of the Galapagos: British submarine seized
By Severin Carrell
9.7.2006
[also appears in the New Zealand Herald]
Yacht full of rich Russians hires two Britons to take them on an illicit underwater tour. Then the Ecuadorian navy arrives ...
For the small group of rich Russians, an exclusive voyage through the waters of the Galapagos Islands in a mini-submarine should have been the climax of their luxury yacht tour of the southern seas.
But their trip ended last week with the seizure of the British-owned mini-sub hired for the cruise, the detention of its British owner and eight other crew and, it is claimed, the arrest of the Russians' "superyacht" in Panama.
The trip's organisers and the mini-sub's operators, Silvercrest Submarines, have been accused of illegally entering the Galapagos, the world's most heavily protected environmental reserve, and its crew face up to a month in custody. "The use of submarines in the Galapagos National Park is forbidden," Edwin Naula, the park's head of tourism stated.
The Ecuadorian navy impounded the mini-sub and its support vessel, the Cebaco Bay, in the harbour on the island of San Cristobal, leaving Alan Whitfield, the sub's owner, a British colleague and seven Cebaco Bay crew members confined to the ship.
Lawyers are heading out to the islands, but the status of the Russians' hired super-yacht is less clear. The 24 Russians are believed to have paid$120,000 (pounds 65,000) for a four-hour voyage around the islands, and even paid for the mini-submersible to be specially flown out for the trip south.
Jan Whitfield, Mr Whit-field's wife, said her husband was adamant that his contract stipulated the tour organisers would arrange for all the necessary diving and submarine permits needed. He is now trying to prove this to the park authorities. He alleges that as soon as the Ecuadorian navy appeared last Tuesday to intercept the mini-submersible the Russians' yacht, the Qatar-based Constellation, set sail. It was then seized in Panama.
"I really don't know how this is going to be resolved," said Mrs Whitfield.
"I can't imagine that Alan, if he had known all this, would've been down there." The incident has highlighted an growing problem for the Galapagos: the dangers posed to its unique and highly sensitive flora and fauna from a dramatic growth in "green" tourism. This week, the UN will hear demands by ecologists for the Ecuadorian government to enforce stricter controls on tourism, illegal fishing and economic development in the archipel ago.
Visitor numbers have soared in the last 25 years, reaching more than 100,000 last year. Tour vessels and fishing boats are blamed for bringing in invasive species to the islands, destabilising their delicate ecological balance. Visits are supposed to be very strictly controlled, with ships even fumigated and quarantined before they arrive to prevent alien species or diseases being carried in.
The UN's World Heritage Site conference is meeting in Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania, this week, to add other globally important cultural and ecological sites to the 812-strong list of designated World Heritage Sites.
But it is thought that the UN's environment advisers, the World Conservation Union (IUCN), may demand that the UN puts the Galapagos on the List of World Heritage in Danger - a list of 34 places that currently includes Cologne Cathedral, the ancient Iranian city of Bam, which was struck by an earthquake in 2003, and an ancient religious site in Afghanistan.
"This is a very delicate political situation," said one delegate to the event.
Inen Meliane, from the IUCN office in Quito, Ecuador, added: "There needs to be much stricter marine tourism management. It's such a huge reserve, the capacity to control it really needs to strengthened."
_____________________________________________________________________________
Natur + Kosmos: Schutz für Tiefsee - Einige Fischereikonzerne verzichten freiwillig auf Grundschleppnetze
7.7.2006
Die Tiefsee ist immer noch eine unbekannte Welt. Und sie ist in Gefahr. Kürzlich hatte das Umweltprogramm der Vereinten Nationen (UNEP) noch vor den Folgen von Klimawandel, Verschmutzung und Überfischung für das Meer gewarnt. Jetzt haben sich vier internationale Fischereikonzerne freiwillig dazu verpflichtet, in elf Gebieten des Indischen Ozeans nicht mehr mit Grundschleppnetzen zu fischen, meldet die Umweltorganisation Greenpeace. So sollen rund 309000 Quadratkilometer Meeresboden geschützt werden.
Die Fischerei mit Grundschleppnetzen gilt als besonders schädlich für die Lebensräume. Dabei wird ein beschwertes Netz über den Meeresboden gezogen. Zurück bleiben abrasierte, vielfach tote Flächen.
Die Umweltschützer sehen deswegen die Initiative der Firmen Australian Fisheries Pty, Bel Ocean II, der Sealord-Gruppe und der TransNamibia Fishing Pty. als einen ersten Schritt in die richtige Richtung. "Es ist ein Erfolg für die Meeresarbeit von Greenpeace", sagt Greenpeace-Meeresexpertin Stefanie Werner. Es sei nun offensichtlich, dass selbst die Wirtschaft erkannt habe, welch wichtige Rolle die Bewahrung der marinen Lebensräume für die langfristige Verfügbarkeit der Ressource Fisch spielt.
Doch für Greenpeace ist mit den Schutzgebieten im Indischen Ozean erst ein Anfang gemacht. Andere Firmen müssten dem Beispiel folgen. Zudem sollten die Vereinten Nationen die zerstörerische Form der Grundschleppnetzfischerei von der Hohen See verbannen.
Share with your friends: | 
