Recent News of Coral Reef Damage in Florida and the wide spread growth and invasion of an Asian species of seaweed in California are more causes for concern. If the life of our oceans are being threatened, is the well-being of our planet not far behind? What can you do?
Associate Research Biologist Jack Engle works for the university's Marine Science Institute, and says the plant already had a foothold along parts of the mainland coast, and surrounded Catalina Island,
before it was discovered near Anacapa this year.
It was first found in California near Long Beach during 2003.
"Since the first record was in Long Beach Harbor, it seems the circumstantial evidence is pretty good for it coming over on
ships," says Engle.
Scientists are concerned that newly introduced species might affect nature's balance and crowd out important native species like giant kelp, which makes the sanctuary a world class scuba diving destination.
"A near relative of Sargassum arrived in California in the late '60s and we monitored its spread, too, and there have been a number of papers published on it. We know that when it grows thickly it can block out the light and take up space that native species can be using," says Engle. "It can also reduce the flow of water in the areas near the bottom. It can increase the amount of sediment that could come in, and it basically could out compete some of the native species."
A scuba diver first noticed it off the west end of Anacapa last spring and
took a picture of it. Engle says they're hoping divers can contribute to
science by helping monitor its spread. "We're going to be sending out posters and information forms that can
be utilized to have everybody help us out and figure out what's going on with
it," says Engle. "We could use your help to actually help document it
by learning what it looks like and taking photographs and sending us GPS
coordinates for sites where you find it. That would be a tremendous help." Boaters and fishing enthusiasts are also urged
to keep the hulls of vessels clean to help prevent its spread, and to make sure
it's not attached to mussels transported to the islands for use as bait.
It might be too late to stop the spread of this particular species since
just one plant can produce up to a billion embryos, but researching its spread
might help scientists prevent future plant invasions and develop plans for
quick eradication.
"The best thing we can do is try to study it, and learn from it, and
develop ways to try and minimize the chances of the next kind of introduction
from occurring," says Engle. "I think the most important thing is to
treat something like this the way you would an oil spill. There should be a
rapid response capability developed to try and deal with it when something is
first discovered."
Given the depth and duration of frigid weather, Meaghan Johnson,
marine science coordinator for The Nature Conservancy, expected to see
losses. But she was stunned by what she saw when diving a patch reef
2.5 miles off Harry Harris Park in Key Largo.
Star and brain corals, large species that can take hundreds of
years to grow, were as white and lifeless as bones, frozen to death.
There were also dead sea turtles, eels and parrotfish littering the bottom.
"Corals didn't even have a chance to bleach. They just went
straight to dead," said Johnson, who joined teams of divers last week
surveying reefs in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary. "It's really ecosystem-wide mortality."
The record chill that gripped South Florida for two weeks has taken a heavy toll on wildlife -- particularly marine life.
On Tuesday, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission
reported that record numbers of endangered manatees had already
succumbed to the cold this year -- 77, according to a preliminary
review. The previous record, 56, was set last year. Massive fish kills
also have been reported across the state. Carcasses of snook and tarpon
are still floating up from a large fish kill across Florida Bay and the
shallow waters of Everglades National Park.
Many of the Florida Keys' signature diving destinations such as
Carysfort, Molasses and Sombrero reefs _ as well as deeper reefs off
Miami-Dade and Broward -- are believed to have escaped heavy losses,
thanks to warming effects of the Gulf Stream. But shallower reefs took
a serious, perhaps unprecedented hit, said Billy Causey, Southeast
regional director of national marine sanctuaries for the National
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Coral-bleaching has struck the Keys in the past, most recently
twice in the 1990s, preceding a die-off that claimed 30 percent of the
reef tract. But those events, along with others that have hit reefs
around the world, have usually been triggered by water hotter than what
corals typically tolerate.
Healthy corals depend on a symbiotic relationship between polyps,
the living tissues that slowly build the hard outer skeletons that give
species distinctive shapes, and algae called zooxanthellae that give
them their vibrant colors. But when ocean temperatures veer from their
comfort zone too much or too long, the coral begin to shed that algae, turning dull or a bleached bone-white.
The effect usually doesn't immediately kill coral but can weaken
it, slowing growth and leaving fragile reefs -- home to millions of
fish, crabs and other animals -- more vulnerable to diseases, pollution
and damage from boaters and divers.
Cold-water bleaching is unusual, last occurring in 1977, the year
it snowed in Miami. It killed hundreds of acres of staghorn and elkhorn
corals across the Keys. Neither species has recovered, both becoming
the first corals to be federally listed as threatened in 2006.
This big chill, said Causey, shapes up worse.
"They were exposed to temperatures much colder, that went on
longer, than what they were exposed to three decades ago," he said.
Typical winter lows in-shore hover in the mid- to high-60s in the Keys.
At its coldest more than a week ago, a Key Largo reef monitor
recorded 52. At Munson Reef, just about a half-mile off the Newfound
Harbor Keys near Big Pine Key, it hit 56.
At Munson Reef, said Cory Walter, a biologist for Mote Marine
Laboratory in Summerland Key, scientists saw losses similar to what was
reported off Key Largo. Dead eels, dead hogfish, dead coral --
including big coral head 5- to 6-feet wide, bleached white with only
fringes of decaying tissue.
"They were as big, as tall, as me. They were pretty much dead,"
said Walter, who coordinates Mote's BleachWatch program, which monitors
reefs.
The dividing line for damage seems to be Hawk Channel, which parallels the Keys on the Atlantic Ocean side.
East of the channel, at reefs such as Looe Key, one of the top
tourist sites, there was only light paling on some coral, she said. In
Hawk Channel itself, there were dead sponges and stressed corals but
not many outright dead ones.
West of the channel toward shore, damage was more serious. Walter
estimated 75 percent coral loss at one patch reef, though with poor
visibility, it was a limited survey. Some nurseries growing small
staghorn and elkhorn corals for restoration programs also may have been
hard hit.
Over the next few weeks, scientists and divers from the Florida
Keys National Marine Sanctuary, National Park Service, Florida Fish
& Wildlife Conservation Commission, Mote Marine Laboratory, the
University of Miami, Nova Southeastern University and other
organizations will try to get a more complete picture of damage with
reef surveys as far north as Martin County and as far south as the Dry
Tortugas.
While they may not be able to save cold-damaged corals, Causey
said, chronicling what dies and, more importantly, what survives, will
help coral researchers in the future.
"We're going to know so much more about this event than any other event in history," he said.
