Coral Reef Destruction

[2OceanLovers]

Hey everyone! I am pretty new here, but I thought that I could get some of you people to help me out. I am writing a research summary on the destruction of coral reefs. I was hoping to get the point of view from people in the hobby as to what is going on and what is being done to stop it. If anybody has information and wouldn't mind it being used in a summary(you would be given credit for your help), I would appreciate it very much. Thanks again!

[aquaman3680]

They are trying to build "artificial reefs" out of things like boats and old junk that they dont know what to do with. This has been successful in the past. Also they are setting up laws in certain areas where you can't take anything out of, things like corals and fish. Mostly what they are doing is just setting up laws about things you can and cant take.

Matt

[Rueg]

And it has also been very unsuccessful - such as the tire reefs that were built back in 1972 in FL. Now it is going to cost millions to clean up the tires because they have broken lose and are now damaging reefs and washing up on shores.

[tprize]

Stop dragging, that is the number one destroyer of reefs. Lots of people blame global warming for the reefs dieing. But if we keep bottom dragging for crustaceans there won't be any reefs for global warming to destroy.

[reefkoi]

I think we in the reef hobby have made a huge improvement in the last 10 years, Almost all of my corals are now "fragged' from others or maricultured from frags, the impact we are making is much much less that it used to be, I think in a few more years there won't be much need to go into the ocean for corals. Fish yeah but corals no.
Chris

[2OceanLovers]

Bump. I need some more help still.

[Runner]

Stop sediment run-off from the land (caused by erosion from poorly contained construction and the like). Sediment increases the nutrients in the water which causes all kinds of bad effects -- like providing a better food source for larval Crown-of-Thorn Starfish so more grow up to chew on the reefs...

[useskaforevil]

global warming is not a problem yet. it has not caused the destruction of anything. and theres nothign we can do to stop it. you could write about the people who want to build a giant sunshade over the coral reef in australia.

[greenbean36191]

I would check the annual "state of the reefs" summary from AIMS. I think NOAA or one of the other government agencies also puts out one for America's reefs.

I know the AIMS documents list causes, effects, and solutions.

[Tripspike]

Check out this thread:

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1090620

[airinhere]

Seems like a rather difficult topic to study. Global warming should be avoided as a rule because it is so easily perverted to conform to any enviromental issue. Reality is that while the earth is warming, I read in the Economist (magazine) that there is a rarely stated fact that the Sun is getting warmer. That could be the cause itself. Humanity has obviously influenced the situation here on Earth, but just how much is dependent upon who you are and where you live. There are open spaces without any people for miles that are pristine and urban congregations that show the worst of humanities influence. Responsible business practices and personal habits are really what is being sought.

Reef Bleaching and die-off has multiple causes. I hate to see them die, but no single cure can fix the problem. Goverment protection is nice in developed areas where people might be inclined to strip the reefs bare to sell coral for profit, but I think anyone should be able to take small amounts of coral of any type for personal use. Keep them in an aquarium, eat them, put them in your nose, its a free country. There is no good reason why this is any different than sport fishing. But, coral collection should not be left wide open like fishing comercially has been. The methods used should reflect an understanding that we have technology that enables us to see the fish in the water. We have no excuse to use outdated methods like dragging nets across the ocean floor. I think of it like a kid trying to kill a bug with a can of spraypaint. Bug will die, but the kid is going to be in trouble when the parents come home.

[kappaknight]

I don't think the Sun getting hotter (if that is a fact) has anything to do with it. Global warming is blaming the CO2 gases we're creating that's trapping the heat, not if the Sun gets hotter. I mean, we are technically a lot closer to the Sun in North America's "winter" period than we are in the summer... the distance and source doesn't make a difference, it's more of the tilt and how our atmosphere traps the heat.

[davidryder]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9558671#post9558671 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Rueg
And it has also been very unsuccessful - such as the tire reefs that were built back in 1972 in FL. Now it is going to cost millions to clean up the tires because they have broken lose and are now damaging reefs and washing up on shores.

I think that is probably an isolated incident. Sunken ships are other artificial reefs have been very successful.

[AS11423]

This should provide for some good material.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/01/AR2006100101090.html

Bright Idea of Tire Reef Now Simply a Blight
Officials Plan Recovery Off Florida Coast

By Peter Whoriskey
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, October 2, 2006; Page A12

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- Now the idea seems daft. But in the spring of 1972, the dumping of a million or so tires offshore here looked like ecological enlightenment.

From the scrap tires, artificial reefs would grow and fish would throng, or so it was thought. A flotilla of more than 100 private boats with volunteers turned out to help. A Goodyear blimp christened the site by dropping a gold-painted tire.

"A potential grouper haven," a county report opined. Artificial reefs made from tires "appear to be the next best thing to recycling."

What happened instead is a vast underwater dump -- a spectacular disaster spawned from good intentions. Today there are no reefs, no fishy throngs, just a lifeless underwater gloom of haphazardly dropped tires stretching across 35 acres of ocean bottom.

It's not just a matter of botched scenery. Because they can roll around, the tires are pounding against natural reefs nearby.

"It's depressing as hell," said Ken Banks, a reef specialist for Broward County, who recently explored the site. "We dove in and swam for what seemed like an hour and never came to the end of it. It just went on and on."

Robin Sherman, a professor at Nova Southeastern University, led a project a few years ago to retrieve some of the tires most directly damaging Fort Lauderdale's natural reefs.

Two months later, she dived in the area again.

"It was completely recovered with tires -- it was even hard to find where we had worked," she said. "That's when I realized we have to clean up the whole thing."

So, after years in which the site was studied and then neglected, officials here are planning to clean up the environmental experiment gone awry.

Coastal America, a partnership of federal agencies, state and local governments and private groups, is trying to organize a cleanup using military salvage teams that would use the tire retrieval as a training exercise. Once the divers pulled the tires up, they would be disposed of by the state at a cost of about $3 million to $5 million.

The scale of the project -- some say there are as many as 2 million tires below -- and the number of different specialties required had prevented previous bureaucratic efforts from going forward.

Will Nuckols, project coordinator for Coastal America, called the rolling tires a "coastal coral destruction machine."

"For the past several decades, people have looked at this task and then at each other and said, 'Well I can't do that,' " he said.

With each dive team retrieving about 700 tires a week, officials estimate that the effort would take three years. They plan to begin in 2008.

"It's easy to throw something into the water," said Keith Mille of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. "What we're finding is it's extremely expensive to remove something from the water."

The first documented artificial reef in the United States was created off South Carolina in the 1830s. Over time, people have sunk rocks, trees, concrete, ships and barges to create reefs. When successful, they were -- and continue to be -- popular attractions with anglers and divers alike.

Artificial reefs made from scrap tires began in the United States in the late 1950s or early '60s, when the country was facing the monumental task of disposing of millions of automobile tires. At the time, stockpiled tires were creating fire hazards, fostering mosquito breeding and blighting the landscape.

Reefs made from tires seemed like an easy solution.

While coastal communities around the country -- in Texas, California, Florida, North Carolina and elsewhere -- embraced the idea, few projects, if any, were conceived on the grand scale as the one off Fort Lauderdale. Proponents touted it as the largest scrap tire reef in the world.

A 1974 Goodyear pamphlet boasted, "Worn out tires may be the best things that have happened to fishing since Izaak Walton," the author of the classic The Compleat Angler .

"There was a lot of local enthusiasm," said Ray McAllister, one of the founders of a local group that pushed for the tire reef and now professor emeritus of ocean engineering at Florida Atlantic University. "We all thought we were doing a good job for the environment."

A tire reef had seemed to work in New England, he said, and organizers figured it would work here.

The project had received a permit from the Army Corps of Engineers and had active support from Broward County, officials said.

While there were initial hopeful reports, it was clear after a decade that the idea wasn't working. Sea creatures didn't grow on the tires. Today, the tires look the same as they did they day they were dropped.

Tires that had been lashed together for stability broke loose, making it easier for them to roll around. With the tires mobile, it was difficult for sea life to make a home there.

Today, most states have restricted or banned tires in artificial reefs, according to a 2004 joint publication of the Gulf and Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission.

In retrospect, McAllister said, "it was a terrible mistake and I hate to admit it. . . . The conventional wisdom, or whatever you want to call it, was not such a bright idea."

[Tripspike]

Those Greek cruise ships don't help matters!

Trip