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An expedition to Millennium Atoll, a remote coral atoll in the Central Pacific, has uncovered an almost completely undisturbed underwater ecosystem that could serve as an important reference for restoration projects throughout the Pacific Ocean.

The survey findings, published recently in the journal PLoS One, describe an abundance of giant clams (Tridacna maxima) within the atoll lagoon, as well as large populations of blacktip reef sharks and Napoleon wrasse (Cheilinus undulatus).
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The expedition findings highlight the importance of protecting the atoll, which belongs to the Republic of Kiribati and is a member of the Southern Line Islands chain. Although relatively abundant at present, the sharks, clams, sea turtles, lobsters and Napoleon wrasse of Millennium Atoll are vulnerable to exploitation by fisheries; therefore, protecting the atoll and regulating any fishing in the area is crucial for the preservation of this unusually pristine ecosystem.
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Additional information from oceandots.com.

Millennium (formerly known as Caroline Island) is located in the southern group of the Line Islands, being the easternmost island in the Line Islands chain. The islands of Vostok and Flint are located 232 km to the west and 230 km to the southwest, respectively; Kiritimati is situated around 1,500 km to the northwest. Millennium is an atoll formation with an elongated, slightly crescentic, shape measuring 9.7 km in length and 2.3 km in width.

On the reef rim there are 39 islets — South Island (104 ha), the 4.2 km-long Long Island (76 ha) and Nake Islet (107 ha) being the largest — with a combined area of 3.9 km². They enclose a 9 km long, shallow lagoon that is 5-7 m in depth and up to 500 m across. Within the lagoon are numerous coral heads and patch reefs — some of which form east-west barriers across the lagoon. The surrounding reef flats — averaging 500 m in width — are continuous around the perimeter of the atoll with no reef-crossing passage connecting the interior waters of the lagoon with the surrounding ocean. Instead water exchange takes place via numerous spillways as the tides rise and fall.

Coral Restoration Foundation

CRF is a non-profit conservation organization dedicated to to develop coral nurseries and reef restoration programs for critically endangered Acroporid corals at the local, national and global level. Their mission is to develop affordable, effective strategies for protecting and restoring coral reefs and to train and empower others to implement those strategries in their coastal communities.

mongabay.com

Twenty years of research has led Dr. Graham Jones of Australia’s Southern Cross University to discover a startling connection between coral reefs and coastal precipitation. According to Jones, a substance produced by thriving coral reefs seed clouds leading to precipitation in a long-standing natural process that is coming under threat due to climate change.

“Coral reefs produce a volatile substance called dimethylsulphide or DMS which oxidizes in the atmosphere to produce cloud condensation nuclei (CCN). These are tiny sulphur aerosol particles around which water vapor condenses to form clouds,” Jones explained to mongabay.com, adding that, “water vapor cannot form clouds without these tiny aerosol particles being present.”

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Yet, in his studies, Jones has discovered that even a slight rise in ocean temperatures could affect this natural process, making climate change a significant threat to clouds (and precipitation) seeded by coral reefs.

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Jones says that the Australian government has a number of policies in place to protect coral reefs, but “what we don’t have is funding of basic reef processes such as this one, which significantly can affect regional climate in the Great Barrier Reef.”

Research into how ecosystems, such as coral reefs and forests, may be involved in regional climate patterns has been gaining steam over the years. Two Russian scientists have published a number of studies on a controversial theory that forests actually ‘pump’ rain from the coast to continent’s interiors.

If such theories withstand the test of time, and science, they could have widespread implications for the conservation of both forests and coral reefs, adding a new and vital ecosystem-service provided by these two threatened environments: the ‘makers’ and ‘movers’ of precipitation.

reefvideo.net

coralsforconservation.com

Coral Gardening from Jonathan Clay on Vimeo.

Many reef aquarium owners get their corals by trading them with nearby reefkeepers. Once corals get to a certain size it’s pretty easy to propagate (or frag) them by cutting off a branch here or a a few polyps there. It’s usually cheaper and easier than buying from a local dealer and the corals tend to do much better in the long run, because they haven’t gone through so much shipping stress. It’s also a good way to “insure” your corals because if anything ever happens to a coral you in your aquarium, you can just go back to your friend and ask him to cut you off a piece of the coral you gave him. The hobby has begun to depend on tank raised corals so much that many places that sell corals are beginning to change their stock to include more corals that are grown inside aquariums.

In this video by Jonathon Clay, locals and resort owners who live around large reefs are propagating corals in a similar fashion as reef hobbyists. A group called Corals for Conservation teaches people to preserve declining reefs and fish populations by coral gardening. The idea is that by preserving and regrowing reefs, fish will come back to the area and help replenish areas that have been over-fished.

The methods they use are very similar to that of the common aquarium keeper. The main difference is that it is on a larger scale and they use the ocean as their aquarium. It is a genius idea, promotes conservation, educates, creates jobs and supports the local community. Hopefully we will see more of these projects popping up throughout the world.

This is a sequence from the film “Fragile Paradise“, part of the BBC’s documentary series “South Pacific.“

BBC

The world’s most important coral region is in danger of being wiped out by the end of this century unless fast action is taken, says a new report.

The international conservation group WWF warns that 40% of reefs in the Coral Triangle have already been lost.

The area is shared between Indonesia and five other south-east Asian nations and is thought to contain 75% of the world’s coral species.

It is likened to the Amazon rainforest in terms of its biodiversity.

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“In the last 40 years in the Coral Triangle, we’ve lost 40% of coral reefs and mangroves – and that’s probably an underestimate. We’ve fundamentally changed the way the planet works in terms of currents and this is only with a 0.7 degree change in terms of temperature.

“What’s going to happen when we exceed two or four or six?”

Climate change consequences

Avoiding a worst-case scenario would need significant reductions in greenhouse gas emissions and better controls on fishing and coastal areas, says the report.

The Coral Triangle covers 1% of the earth’s surface but contains a third of all the world’s coral, and three-quarters of its coral reef species.

If it goes, an entire eco-system goes with it – and that, says Prof Hoegh-Gudberg, has serious consequences for its ability to tackle climate change.

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Indonesia is hosting the World Ocean Conference this week because, it says, oceans have been neglected so far in global discussions on climate change.

It wants the issue to have a bigger profile at UN climate talks later this year.

Yahoo News

Scientists thought it would take a decade for Southeast Asia’s coral reefs to heal after 2004’s deadly tsunami but they said Friday that Indonesia’s reefs have bounced back with surprising speed, restoring livelihoods to countless small communities.

The findings came as communities across the Indian Ocean remembered the disaster that struck Dec. 26, 2004 with prayers, songs and tears. About 230,000 people were killed in a dozen countries when a magnitude 9.0 earthquake triggered the tsunami.

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Scientists from the New York-based Wildlife Conservation Society, working with the Indonesian government and the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, said their examination of 60 sites on 497 miles (800 kilometers) of coastline along Indonesia’s Aceh province showed the reefs were bouncing back.

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Healthy coral reefs are economic engines for Acehnese communities, Campbell added, supplying fish to eat and sell as well as tourism dollars from recreational diving.

The tsunami decimated coastlines across the Indian Ocean, wiping out villages, killing entire families and crippling the economies in parts of Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Thailand.

The United Nations estimated that Aceh alone lost $332.4 million ($1,599/ha) from the loss of its reefs to the destructive waves.

But four years on, the multibillion dollar rebuilding process is almost complete with more than 120,000 homes built in Aceh alone and the reconstruction of tourist hotels and restaurants along Thailand’s Andaman coast.

Thousands gathered Friday to celebrate the progress but to also remember the dead and reflect on a tragedy that turned their lives upside down.

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The healing trend embraced by those devastated by the tsunami has extended to the reefs with communities responding to calls to protect them from illegal fishing, pollution and coastal development.

Campbell said citizens have been particularly responsive in Aceh where fishermen have stopped using illegal techniques like dynamite and villagers have transplanted corals into areas that were hardest hit.

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“Left alone, these things can quickly grow back into what looks like a coral reef in a short time,” he said. “We are seeing similar things around the southern Great Barrier Reef where reefs that experience major catastrophe can bounce back quite quickly.”

John Bruno, a reef expert from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, agreed saying it shows coral reefs are able to recover after severe disturbances.

“There has been so much bad news about coral decline lately, and the threats to corals seem to increase every year. It is important to recognize that these invaluable ecosystems are not lost,” he said in an e-mail interview. “We just have to implement some common sense policies locally and substantially reduce emissions of greenhouse gases at a global scale.”

Center for Biological Diversity

SAINT PETERSBURG, Florida – NOAA’s Fisheries Service is increasing its protection of threatened elkhorn and staghorn corals in Florida, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands through a new rule to prohibit activities that result in death or harm to either species.

The new regulations took effect on November 21 and five days later critical habitat for the two corals was designated. But the biodiversity advocacy group whose successful lawsuit is responsible for these protections is threatening to sue the federal government again, calling the critical habitat designation inadequate and illegal.

“These corals were once the major reef builders in Florida and the Caribbean, but now more than 90 percent of their populations are lost,” said Roy Crabtree, NOAA’s Fisheries Service’s southeast regional administrator. “That not only threatens their survival – it affects the entire ecosystem. This rule will strengthen our efforts to recover these corals by allowing us to address the human-induced threats affecting their status.”

The rule will prohibit the import, export, take, and all commercial activities involving elkhorn and staghorn corals, including collection or any activities that result in the corals’ mortality or injury, anchoring, grounding a vessel, or dragging any other gear on these corals; damaging their habitat; or discharging any pollutant or contaminant that harms them.

In a related move, the federal agency has designated almost 3,000 square miles of reef area off the coasts of Florida, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands as critical habitat for the threatened corals under the Endangered Species Act.

The new critical habitat rule, published in Wednesday’s Federal Register, was required by a court-approved settlement of a 2007 lawsuit brought by the Center for Biological Diversity.

It requires federal agencies to determine whether their activities will destroy or adversely modify areas designated as critical habitat for threatened corals.

But these steps are not enough to protect the two coral species under the Endangered Species Act, according to the Center for Biological Diversity.

The nonprofit advocacy group has sent the Bush administration official notice of its intent file a lawsuit for excluding global warming and ocean acidification threats from the new rule protecting habitat for elkhorn and staghorn corals.

“The critical habitat rule exposes the Bush agenda to ignore global warming, while rising temperatures are driving corals extinct,” said Miyoko Sakashita, an attorney with the Center for Biological Diversity’s San Francisco office.

“The rule shows the double standard of the Bush administration,” said Sakashita. “On one hand, the law required the federal government to identify areas to protect for the threatened corals. On the other hand, the administration skirted the real threats to coral habitat, global warming and ocean acidification, by inserting language into the rule that carves out an exception for those threats. It is not only irrational, but it is illegal under the Endangered Species Act.”

Elkhorn coral and staghorn coral, which were listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act in 2006, were the first species protected under the Endangered Species Act due to threats to their survival primarily caused by global warming.

Once the most abundant and important reef-building corals in Florida and the Caribbean, staghorn and elkhorn corals have declined by more than 90 percent in many areas. Sakashita says their decline is a result of disease and “bleaching,” a stress response to abnormally high water temperatures in which corals expel the symbiotic algae that give them color.

A related threat, ocean acidification, caused by the ocean’s absorption of carbon dioxide, impairs the ability of corals to build their protective skeletons.

Scientists have predicted that most of the world’s coral reefs will disappear by midcentury due to global warming and ocean acidification if greenhouse gas emissions are not reduced.

“Critical habitat protection can be an important factor leading to the recovery of our coral reefs, because changes to the ocean habitat are some of the primary threats to the corals,” Sakashita said. “This rule, however, misses the mark by ignoring the simple fact that carbon dioxide pollution is degrading coral habitat and killing coral reefs.

independent.co.uk

Rising carbon dioxide levels are increasing acidity in the oceans 10 times faster than scientists thought, posing a greater threat to shell-forming creatures such as coral and mussels.

An eight-year project in the Pacific has found that rising marine acid levels will challenge many organisms, because their shell-making chemistry is critically dependent on a less acidic, more alkaline environment. The study monitored seawater pH levels at the north-east Pacific island of Tatoosh off Washington state in the United States.

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Atmospheric carbon dioxide levels have increased by about 100 parts per million since the start of the industrial revolution and are now at their highest point in at least 650,000 years.

About a third of man-made carbon dioxide emissions has dissolved into the oceans. As carbon dioxide dissolves in seawater, it forms carbonic acid, which lowers the ocean’s alkalinity and pH level, making it more acidic.

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The study was unusual in that it looked at acidity in the ocean’s intertidal region, inhabited by shell-forming creatures such as barnacles and mussels. Professor Wootton said there was a shortage of data on ocean acidification, especially in non-tropical regions, which this study addressed.

“Our study reveals the strongest negative impacts of declining pH are on several species of particular importance – large calcifying mussels and goose barnacles. This finding illustrates several reasons why the effects of declining ocean pH are of general concern, as these species create critical habitats for other coastal species, are important players in coastal nutrient processing, and reflect the more general risks to shellfish harvesting.”

WWF

Re-seeding programmes on over 50 reefs are securing the survival of the giant clam for at least another generation, according to WWF-Philippines.

The clams, the world’s largest bivalve mollusks and the star of lurid but mostly imaginary literary and cinematic depictions of trapped divers, can live for over a century. They have been known to exceed 1.4 metres in length and weigh in at over 260 kilograms.

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An attempt to restore natural clam populations is now being spearheaded by Dr. Suzanne Mingoa-Licuanan of the University of the Philippines Marine Science Institute in partnership with WWF-Philippines.

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By way of example, a fresh batch of 40 true giant clams (Tridacna gigas) wrapped in watertight plastic bags made the journey last month from rearing laboratories in the west of the country down the coast to their new homes in Batangas province on Santelmo Reef, a prized snorkeling site being restored with the help of WWF and a nearby ecotourism development.

With an average length of 36 centimetres and weighing almost 10 kilograms, each of the 40 clams was painstakingly but successfully laid to rest – alive of course – in
pre-designated nooks and crannies. Some 102 clams were planted in the same area last November and another 35 are being grown for transplanting in coming months.

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Giant clams are an integral part of the reef, serving as nurseries for a host of fish and invertebrate species including damsels, gobies and tiny commensal crustaceans such as shrimp.

Sedentary organisms like sponges, tunicates, corals and algae find giant clam shells perfect substrates for attachment. Giant clams also act as filter feeders, sifting planktonic debris from the water for food thereby improving overall water quality.

For more information please contact: Gregg Yan, Communications Officer, WWF-Philippines + 63 2 920-7923/26/31

The true giant clam (Tridacna gigas), 40 of which were transplanted last month to a new home in Batangas province, Philippines
© Kurt Domingo

www.ipsnews.net

One third of reef-building corals already face extinction because of climate change, the first-ever global assessment has found.

Reefs are made up of hundreds of coral species, and a two-year study to determine the current status of corals has discovered that 231 of the 704 species assessed will be “red-listed” Thursday. This means these 231 species meet the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List Criteria for species at risk of extinction in the near future.

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If the same assessment of corals had been done 20 years ago, only 13 of the 704 species would have been red-listed, Livingstone told IPS at the 11th International Coral Reef Symposium (ICRS) in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. However, in that short time span, climate change has warmed the oceans and begun to make them more acidic and corals are suffering.

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Coral reefs also help mitigate beach erosion and have high recreation value for tourism. UNEP estimates that a typical coral reef can absorb up to 90 percent of the energy of wind-generated waves, thus protecting coastal areas from damage.

The economic value of reefs globally is estimated at 375 billion dollars, Brian Huse, executive director of the Coral Reef Alliance, a U.S.-based NGO dedicated to protecting the health of coral reefs, told IPS in a previous interview.

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The rate at which corals are approaching extinction is far faster than any previous extinction event in Earth’s history, Carpenter told IPS. “It’s the most alarming finding for biodiversity in the marine realm,” he said, adding that only amphibians are at greater risk, also due to climate change.

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While climate change is the primary global threat because it warms ocean temperatures beyond corals’ heat tolerance, pollution and overfishing are also major stressors that amplify and accelerate the impact. Another problem for corals is ocean acidification. However, since scientists only recently discovered that carbon emissions from burning of fossil fuels are turning the oceans more acidic, it hasn’t been fully assessed in this study, said Livingstone.

“Ultimately it is a combination of all these impacts on corals,” she said.

Red-listing does not mean a species will become extinct, but it does mean that if the conditions that are threatening corals continue or worsen, then they may very well become extinct. The IUCN Red List is the widely-accepted gold standard for determining which species are at risk. It has eight levels of risk ranging from no risk to critically endangered. The 231 coral species are in the “critically endangered”, “endangered” or “vulnerable” categories.

The results emphasise the widespread plight of coral reefs and the urgent need to enact conservation measures, said Julia Marton-Lefèvre, IUCN director general.

“We either reduce our CO2 emissions now or many corals will be lost forever,” Marton-Lefèvre said in a statement.