Chasing Corals

[Reefable]

Wow just wow..This documentary on Netflix is alarming eye opener. To realize that we are in a state of loosing the entire coral population of the world in the next 30 years is more than depression. I really hope they recover and adapt to the global warming. Today after watching the documentary I feel proud of myself and all the reefers who are trying to keep these extinct species alive and healthy in their individual tanks. I couldn't stop myself sharing this today. Yep this documentary has changed the way I look and think of corals. It has brought me more closer to my tank than ever.


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[el chupacabra]

I too didnt realize what a sad state coral reefs were in till watching this. I first heard of this film at macna this year during Walt Smith's talk. Walt Smith gave a talk about coral farming in the south pacific, he's farming coral (ADE project) to rebuild the reefs and supply our hobby. He showed a video of the efforts to rebuild the reefs but for the life of me I cant find it. Supposedly it's on itunes but I cant even find the name of the video on google.

If you like documentaries exposing shocking stuff most people never knew about, check out Virunga. To me it's one of the best docs made. It exposes how first world corporations & countries intentionally start civil wars overseas to acquire resources. It takes place in the Congo where people give their lives to protect the gorrilla. Or check out the horror documentary Crude right before you go to bed. There's images from that Ill never be able to forget. I think these are both on netflix.

[Aresangel]

It is a bit over dramatized with entire population. It is large quantities in local areas. Some species may go extinct yes, but a bleaching event does not mean the corals do not grow back with time. Every year there is a reported bleaching event especially in the barrier reef with climate change and the southern ocean oscillation currents. The documentary is well done and went through great lengths to document the bleaching event. Recovery should be a follow up documentary to show the state months and years after these major events to give hope (if there is any to give).

That being said I will be showing that documentary to my high school oceanography class Monday to peak their interests in conservation efforts and the importance of coral reefs.


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[el chupacabra]

I always thought this kind of stuff was under dramatized. For one, we are kind of focused on the loss of corals. But what about all the other forms of life we dont really see or care about much? Such as sponges, arthropods, molluscs - any number of the thousands of species that are dying or going extinct underneath the dying reefs. Meanwhile we are replanting a few sps species and acting like this will rebuild the reef to its former glory. When it comes to the environment things really are pretty dire. Many people dont know that in the past 15 years roughly half of the amphibian species in the western hemisphere have gone extinct (who noticed?).

In the film it's not just documenting 'bleaching', but the process of, bleaching, and then [permanent] death, hence pointing out how algae only grows on coral thats completely dead. I though their primary point was that corals aren't coming back from this. They aren't evolving fast enough.

[Reefable]

Great input guys. I agree with El's last post though the fact that algae has grown over those thick sps colonies is an indication of something serious if not permanent death. The fact that alarms is in 3 months the entire coral reef was dead brought to bare bones....and this is just a beginning i am afraid off. There are so many other ecosystems which could endanger so many species unheard off...lets hope for the best...


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[Frank H]

Coral reefs grow in the warmest waters found in the ocean. The majority of water is much cooler than these tropical environments. If the water is warming too much, wouldnt this make other areas potentially reef ready?

What about this 600 mile reef they found last year? https://www.theatlantic.com/science/...-mouth/479259/

While Chasing Coral was interesting I feel it was more geared to scare the viewer into making changes to fight global warming.

[GQsmooth]

^^That's the point. The world should be making a shift already.

All in all, it was an interesting watch, but the guy getting overly emotional over the bleaching was a bit much.

[karimwassef]

Temperature is not as impactful as CO2 acidification.

[Walt Smith]

Hi El, and others,
you can find the video you are talking about on www.adeproject.org on the "what is ADE" page. better get some popcorn or a glass of wine ... it is 24 minutes long. hope you enjoy!
Walt

[JPMagyar]

Hopefully mother nature will have something to add to the conversation in years to come.


Connectivity and systemic resilience of the Great Barrier Reef

[Scrubber_steve]

Originally Posted by Reefable

Wow just wow..This documentary on Netflix is alarming eye opener. To realize that we are in a state of loosing the entire coral population of the world in the next 30 years is more than depression.


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OK; so now I know this doco is ridiculously alarmist I know not to bother watching it.

[Jon0807]

I watched it and tho I'm not supporting or denying that global warming may or may not be the cause, it seems that movies such as this have a very narrow view on things. Maybe I missed it, but I don't recall them even mentioning any other possibilities such as change ocean chemistry, pollution, normal cycle of nature, etc. Along with the movie Chasing Ice, they gear their research into proving to everyone that the cause of everything is global warming, rather than looking into what else could be causing the problems or if it's just the natural cycle of the climate.

[Punchanello]

Originally Posted by Jon0807

I watched it and tho I'm not supporting or denying that global warming may or may not be the cause, it seems that movies such as this have a very narrow view on things. Maybe I missed it, but I don't recall them even mentioning any other possibilities such as change ocean chemistry, pollution, normal cycle of nature, etc. Along with the movie Chasing Ice, they gear their research into proving to everyone that the cause of everything is global warming, rather than looking into what else could be causing the problems or if it's just the natural cycle of the climate.

The vast majority of credible scientific evidence points to anthropogenic climate change as a primary cause of coral bleaching events. Giving equivalence to other factors is like stumbling upon a man with a knife through his throat and postulating that maybe a strike of lightning killed him. Sure it's possible, but given all the other evidence you have, is it a reasonable theory?

[marco j]

This "documentary" is nothing but fear porn.

[ReefMaster48]

Originally Posted by marco j

This "documentary" is nothing but fear porn.

+1

Let us remember that the people doing the research on global warming and "coral death", are the same people that rely on this information to get a paycheck and have a life. Imagine if they reported that global warming was not real, you think they would have a job? NO! lol

I believe that climate change is real. But no where near the level that anyone presents nor is there enough proof that humans have caused it or that it wil ever cause an issue. And especially an issue that nature will not adapt too. These marine documentaries often quote how a 1 degree difference will make all corals and reefs die. Oh really? Then how can bob run his tank at 74, harry run his at 76, and I run mine at 78-79 all with healthy coral growth??? Just one example.

[Jon0807]

Originally Posted by ReefMaster48

+1

Let us remember that the people doing the research on global warming and "coral death", are the same people that rely on this information to get a paycheck and have a life. Imagine if they reported that global warming was not real, you think they would have a job? NO! lol

I believe that climate change is real. But no where near the level that anyone presents nor is there enough proof that humans have caused it or that it wil ever cause an issue. And especially an issue that nature will not adapt too. These marine documentaries often quote how a 1 degree difference will make all corals and reefs die. Oh really? Then how can bob run his tank at 74, harry run his at 76, and I run mine at 78-79 all with healthy coral growth??? Just one example.

There's a lot of money to be made in fear mongering

[Reefable]

I just hope and pray this stops whatever theory might be causing it. It's hurts to see how fast they are being wiped off...


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[ReefMaster48]

Originally Posted by Reefable

I just hope and pray this stops whatever theory might be causing it. It's hurts to see how fast they are being wiped off...


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Obviously there would need to be more research to prove this, but have we ever thought that maybe this is natural and good?

Sure, there may be one area full of x coral thats dieing off. But what if there is another (possibly more) parts of the ocean where there is more x coral growing and maybe even better then this area. Perhaps the die off in this area is to allow room for another coral which needs the space, or just a different kind of environment.

Nature has its own way of dealing with things, and in an incredibly complex way. To say that there is only one cause is incredibly foolish, and shows the quality and trustworthiness of information coming from that source.

If we take a picture of America, then focus on a state, then focus on a retirement home, and this is the only picture that we see of America. If this is all we see, then you would be led to think that America is not repopulating well, and will be dying off quicker then it can rebuild. Well of course we would have to think that! Now if we focus the picture frame on a maternity section in a hospital, you would think the complete opposite.

The Oceans are incredibly vast, and not even all of the current research done could even slightly begin to accurately show a full picture of the ocean's reefs. So why are we concerned that one little area is transitioning from one environment to another?

[karimwassef]

Nature is slow and changes over millennia. Man is fast and can make changes over years. Ok- decades if congress is involved.

Maybe this will be a good thing in 10,000 years when the colder oceans get tropical and are full of coral... but in the meantime, all we can measure is the cost to the already tropical oceans. It would be amazing to reef snorkel in Cape Cod (assuming it exists) in 10,000 years, but Cancun would become a hurricane hell zone?

[fabulousfavia]

I watched it a few months ago and I had thought is there any way to restore the coral after it has bleached and I thought of a cool project that us as hobbyists could experiment with to learn more about bleaching. The experiment would only require a small frag tank and some spare trace elements. I was thinking that the aquarist could raise the temperature of the tank until the few coral inside would bleach and once they had bleached the aquarist could dose different trace elements, amino acids, and phyto and zooplynkton to see if there is any way to restore corals after they have bleached.

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[Softhammer]

I'm am currently doing just this. I have a huge 100% bleached but alive montipora that has been in darkness in my sump for 2 months plus, getting blasted by freshwater top off and covered with sediment. In a week in the main tank it's already coming back. Zero dead pieces. Have always had similar results with frags inadvertently buried in the sand. They almost always recover. I would like to see a post documentary -documentary if you will of recovery. Given the planktonic food source in the ocean I'm willing to put money on the fact that corals can survive by eating their way through bleaching events. The only caveat being that if conditions worsen.

[LeJeune981]

I watched a similar doc. About staghorn specific corals... where they are having large bleaching events causing all the stage horn to die out... but.... they found that when 2 differant species of stage horn interbreed.. the offspring of the 2 are way more resilient to the disease that's is causing the others to bleach out.. and that crossbreed species is now taking over where the others have bleached out..and are thriving

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[djbon]

In my state, our reefs are exposed to high water temperature (over 30C) during low tide, and can be chilling cold during raining seasons and yet to find any major bleaching events as far as I can remember. Crown of thorn starfish invasion, yes it happened before. I am almost certain that reef in the equator is battered with temperature swing that most reefers trying to avoid. My tank temperature can be as low as 26C and jump to a high 31C late afternoon and so far no bleaching.

I think GBR is devastated by sudden changes of current originating from warm ocean, and not due to global warming, even though I do feel that our state is a bit warmer nowadays (we can play football in the 80s with the sun right above our head).

[Megalonyx]

Originally Posted by djbon

In my state, our reefs are exposed to high water temperature (over 30C) during low tide, and can be chilling cold during raining seasons and yet to find any major bleaching events as far as I can remember. Crown of thorn starfish invasion, yes it happened before. I am almost certain that reef in the equator is battered with temperature swing that most reefers trying to avoid. My tank temperature can be as low as 26C and jump to a high 31C late afternoon and so far no bleaching.

I think GBR is devastated by sudden changes of current originating from warm ocean, and not due to global warming, even though I do feel that our state is a bit warmer nowadays (we can play football in the 80s with the sun right above our head).

I apologize if I'm missing something but wouldn't sudden changes in current because of warmer oceans fall in line with climate change. I don't see why you're differentiating them. For the people who are calling "fear mongering", it's cool to be skeptical and all but how can you not see that the people who are in unrelenting denial of climate change have way way more money at stake- it would pay to take their opinions with a grain of salt. It's would be interesting to see reefs spread to more northern areas of the world and if the temperature stays elevated this would likely happen very slowly, but in our time we will not get to see any of this. A large amount of the worlds population depends on reefs for their income and sustenance and they simply cannot wait hundreds of years for reefs to grow back.

[Scrubber_steve]

Originally Posted by Megalonyx

I apologize if I'm missing something but wouldn't sudden changes in current because of warmer oceans fall in line with climate change. I don't see why you're differentiating them.

Firstly, bleaching occurred in the most northern region of the GBR only.
What was the real cause of this bleaching event? Warmer water could have played a part. There was a record El Nino event after all, equal to the 1998 event, which was itself responsible for coral bleaching, directly due to the related rise in ocean surface temperature in that region, which is a measure of El Nino intensity. But, any related rise in ocean surface temperature is secondary to the most significant & critical factors responsible for coral bleaching. What are those?

As discussed by Ampou 2017 https://www.biogeosciences.net/14/817/2017/ Indonesian biologists had reported that a drop in sea level had bleached the upper 15 cm of the reefs before temperatures had reached NOAA’s Coral Reef Watch bleaching thresholds. 2015 altimetry data shows that sea level was at its lowest in the past 12 years, and this drop in sea level had likely been experienced throughout much of the Coral Triangle including the northern Great Barrier Reef (GBR), and then accelerated during the El Niño. They speculated sea level fall also contributed to the bleaching during the 1998 El Niño. Consistent with the effects of sea level fall, other researchers reported bleaching in the GBR was greatest near the surface then declined rapidly with depth.

Indeed the Great Barrier Reef had also experienced falling sea levels similar to those experienced by Indonesian reefs. Visitors to Lizard Island had reported more extreme low tides and more exposed reefs which is consistent with the extremely high mortality in the Lizard Island region during the 2016 El Niño. Of course reefs are often exposed to the air at low tide, but manage to survive if the exposure is short or during the night. However as seen in tide gauge data from Cairns just south of Lizard Island, since 2010 the average low tide had dropped by 10 to 15 cm. After previous decades of increasing sea level had permitted vertical coral growth and colonization of newly submerged coastline, that new growth was now being left high and dry during low tide. As a result shallow coral were increasingly vulnerable to deadly desiccation during more extreme sea level drops when warm waters slosh toward the Americas during an El Niño.

Furthermore, an El Niño in the Coral Triangle not only causes a sudden sea level fall, but it also generates a drier high-pressure system with clear skies, so that this region is exposed to more intense solar irradiance. In addition, El Niño conditions reduce regional winds that drive reef-flushing currents and produce greater wave washing that could minimize desiccation during extreme low tides. And as one would predict, these conditions were exactly what were observed during El Niño 2016 around Lizard Island and throughout the northern GBR.

Apology accepted!