Mexico isn’t the first place to come up with an underwater museum, but their reasoning for doing so is a rather noble one: they’re trying to protect the reefs that are being damaged by hurricanes and humans. The museum is set to be located in the Caribbean waters, off the Yucatan Peninsula in the state of Quintana Roo, in the area’s national park. The park’s director hopes that by luring tourists away from the reefs to the museums, the coral can regenerate, giving it a better chance to survive against hurricanes.

Sculptures in Grenada

The first four sculptures were scheduled to be submerged in the Caribbean waters yesterday, November 19th. These are the first of hundreds that will soon join them courtesy of artist Jason deCaires Taylor.  The sculptures are designed to be durable and have no detrimental effect on the local ecosystem. They’re made of PH- neutral concrete, and hopefully, will attract algae and marine life and boost the ecosystem. Green algae is expected to start growing within two weeks and juvenile algae within a matter of months.

I’ve heard of underwater museums before but I’ve never really seen a visual of one until now. It looks really cool, actually, and I definitely want to put that on my to-do list. Especially one thats so well thought out and for a good cause. I love art, as many do, and it’s really clever of them to find a creative and interesting way to boost the ecosystem and distract attention away from coral reefs. Major kudos.

Just about everything made today can or should be recycled. Recycling allows previously used materials to be processed and reused for something new and productive, while reducing waste at the same time. My great-grandfather owned a rag shop in Philadelphia during the early 1900’s. This was a primitive form of recycling that involved taking fabrics that would have previously been thrown away and breaking them down into usable rags for auto shops, homes, etc. Although my great-grandfather’s idea was a form of recycling, recycling as we know it today did not evolve until the past couple of decades. It took humans a long time to figure out how to recycle efficiently and we are still figuring out new ways to take waste and make it into something more productive. Maybe we should have taken cues from our coral reefs.

The Journal of Experimental Biology has recently been studying coral reefs in the Netherlands. The waters are very poor in nutrients and can be thought of as the underwater equivalent of a desert. The researchers were interested in how the reefs were able to not only survive, but strive. The answer: Recycling. It turns out that one of the sponges, Halisarca caerulea for you bio majors, was the key recycler. The sponge absorbs water, filled with organic carbon, which is harmful to the reef and turns it into a byproduct which is shed by the sponge. By shedding these old cells, the sponge stays about the same size and also provides food for the Plankton that live in the reef. This research allowed scientists to further understand the importance of sponges in coral reefs and they plan on using them in artificial reefs to help the overall ecosystem.

This just shows that our coral reefs are more than capable of surviving, just about anything. Whether it be rebuilding after a tsunami, or recycling in a desert-like underwater atmosphere, the reef will survive. The real danger occurs when you add the human element to the equation; only our destructive practices can eliminate the coral reefs, which also means that we must be the ones to save them.

So if you have been following the blog you have heard us talk about the main causes of coral reef destruction that is taking place.  One of the things we have failed to really touch on though is how interconnected our lives as humans are with our coral reefs.  We are all part of something much greater and we both have substantial effects on one another.  Recently I have been checking out ReefBase and Reefutures which are incredible websites that are really taking the idea of “Save Our Coral” to heart and have stepped it up to another level.

ReefBase

Maybe they stepped it up a few more levels – to a more scientific approach, much of which I could only wish to understand.  In essence, these people are amazingly smart, educated, passionate and dedicated to really figuring out what is wrong with our coral reefs and more importantly, what can be done to save them.  Their site is filled with databases, photos, and maps, which I found the most interesting.

ReefGIS Screen Shot

These are more than maps, and you have to check it out!  They call it their online Geographic Information System or ReefGIS, which is an interactive map of the coral reefs of the entire world!  The map shows all coral reefs in gray and then you can narrow the your search by:

• location
• coral disease
• coral bleaching
• marine protected
• many more

This interactive map is really amazing and I found myself spending a lot of time checking it out because there is so much to learn from it – and its all visual learning, which I prefer, as opposed to reading.

Reefuture

Along with ReefBase, I also want to urge you to check out Reefutures, which is a group of equally smart and tech savvy individuals who are part of the Modeling and Decision Support group for the Coral Reef Targeted Research program, or CRTR MDS for short !  This group is composed of international scientists who specialize in math, economics, computer science, and social sciences.  What they found when studying the reefs is that:

• Every reef impacts another
• Every human community impacts another
• Every reef impacts human communities
• Every human community impacts a reef

While this may seem trivial, it is important because our fates are linked to each other.  By destroying one reef, another reef is impacted.  Then the communities who’s economies depend on the reefs suffer, furthering the neglect which ends of impacting more reefs and more people.  It is another vicious cycle.  Reefutures says we must:

• Attack all problems simultaneously
• Understand how local problems affect global problems and vice versa
• Understand how social and economic problems affect biological and physical problems and vice versa
• Explore the effects of different management strategies on all problems
• Allow managers to learn and adapt

In order to do this, Reefutures has created a program, available at www.gefcoral.org, which breaks down the reefs and the interaction they have with humans and how they are related.

Ultimately, although it may seem a bit technical, I really urge you to check out ReefBase’s ReefGIS, and the information behind Reefutures CRTR MDS because it is really amazing work!

We know that ocean acidification is the main cause in the destruction of coral reefs. We know that coral bleaching plays a main part, and that the rising temperature of the water is also causing damage to reefs. But the blatancy of this practice just shocks me to the bone: blast fishing, otherwise known as dynamite fishing. This mostly illegal practice involves using explosives to either stun or kill schools of fish in order to collect them easier. You think this sounds ridiculous, wait till you see the footage of this. This video pretty much spells it all out for you so I don’t have to say much. (Not that I have much to say after being shaken by that.) Equipped with shocking footage and a pretty cool sountrack, this video provides superb details about blast fishing. Just look at how massive the explosions are. I don’t care how much money they’re being paid for this (though it isn’t much at all), it’s wrong, careless, irresponsible, and just plain stupid. Seriously, people!

Well, glad I could vent about the insanity of this monstrosity. Please, feel free to share your thoughts as well. Happy hump day!

As the owner of an ocean-friendly apparel and jewelry company I get solicitations from various manufacturers and suppliers trying to sell me something ocean-related on a regular basis.  Most of them try selling me illegal or endangered animal parts such as sea turtle shell, abalone, and coral.  Maybe they don’t realize that “ocean-friendly” means that I am trying to stop the destruction of the oceans, not add to it.

Yesterday I was sent an email offering to sell me red coral from Tunisia.

Here are some actual pictures sent with the email.

What is Red Coral?

Red coral is a precious coral that is primarily harvested in the Mediterranean off of countries such as Tunisia, Italy, Spain and France.  Red and pink corals are used in jewelry and carvings, which can be bought world-wide.  The exploitation of coral for decorative purposes has been going on for thousands of years, but with globalization, coral populations have been shrinking at an unsustainable rate due to an increased demand for it world-wide.

Unfortunately, commercial harvesting is not the only thing that is killing red coral.  Red coral is highly sensitive to sea temperatures and global warming is leading to the death of large populations of red coral in the Mediterranean.  A recent example of this occurred during the summers between 1999 and 2003, when the Mediterranean had unseasonably high sea temperatures – as a result, red coral populations were severely hurt.

Many countries are beginning to put regulations on the trade of coral, but by the time these regulations take place and are enforced, I am afraid it may be too late for some coral species.

The Problem

I have a confession to make. When I started Sand Shack I did not know what red coral was, how it was being used, and why it was bad to use.  Looking back I bought and sold some samples of jewelry that included red coral.  This makes me sick to think of, as now I am adamantly against the use of red coral in jewelry….however, my experience further illustrates why very little is being done to curb the destruction and sale of coral. The problem can be boiled down to: PEOPLE DON’T KNOW.  First of all, people don’t know what coral is when they see it used in a piece of jewelry or other product, it is just a pretty red thing.  Furthermore, people don’t know that it is a slow growing creature that is harvested in unsustainable quantities and practices.

It is important that people are educated about coral, because the more people who know, the less the demand will be.

It’s not all doom and gloom for our coral reefs. And it’s about time. Today, David McFadden with the Associated Press reports in his article “Caribbean, Gulf spared widespread coral damage”  that the temperatures in the Caribbean did not go as high as feared and the coral didn’t suffer as much bleaching as it has in years past. More good news for coral reefs comes form Science Daily where it’s reported that people really care about saving our coral reefs.  It seems people would rather be banned from reefs entirely than risk their extinction. All this came with news that the USDA will be launching a new initiative to conserve coral reefs.

November 5th was a good day for our world’s coral reefs!

Who's a happy lil' coral reef? yes you are.

It seems that in a world where it has become the “in” thing to go green, more and more people are seeing the importance in going blue. After all, most of the earth is made up of water, and the condition of our waters is going to affect us directly.

While I was reading one of the blogs that I frequent, Sea Notes, I found some great info about a few new developments in several countries that pay special attention to preserving coral reefs. Sea Notes is an exceptional blog from the Monterey Bay Aquarium that focuses on marine life and the conservation and preservation of it. If you get the chance, look around the website.

My apologies, I digress. So right here in the U.S., Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack has announced that newly funded programs are in development in Puerto Rico, Florida, Hawaii, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and Pacific Islands under U.S. jurisdiction to protect reefs from the impact of sediment and nutrient runoff (just learned about that in an Environment exam I aced yesterday!). This is huge for the coral reef conservation cause, and I hope it proves to be a great success.

Photo Courtesy of teun&el

In an entirely different part of the world, Cambodia has just established the largest community managed marine area in the country to help restore habitat that is vital to the prosperity of its marine life–including all the pretty seahorses. The Cambodian government itself has prohibited the fishing for or trading of seahorses. For those of you not familiar with Cambodia, it’s that country in South East Asia where Angelina Jolie adopted Maddox. Just pointing out.

Hope and help is here for are coral reefs!

The coral reefs all around the world are being threatened right now and many off the coast of the United States are in really poor condition.  This is important for our oceans but also for our economy, with coral reef’s generating an estimated $375 billion around the world through diving and attractions.   People are starting to become more aware of this problem and we need to put a stop to the three main practices that contribute to the destruction of our coral:

1. Overfishing
2. Climate Change
3. Pollution

Although these are huge problems, there is hope and we enter this week with the approval of the Coral Reef Conservation Program.  This program is begin funded by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association and all funds are being matched by The Nature Conservancy.  The NOAA has pledged $3.6 million  which means $7.2 million with the matched funds from The Nature Conservancy over the next four years of the program.

$7.2 million!! This is great news and the NOAA has highlighted a few major issue that the 36 programs will aim to tackle:

• Developing place-based management strategies and plans;
• developing resilient marine protected area (MPA) networks;
• measuring the effectiveness of reef management efforts;
• developing sustainable finance plans; and
• building capacity among reef managers at the global scale.

This is movement in the right direction and we have to continue to help support organizations like NOAA and The Nature Conservancy!

The images in this video really got to me after I saw the effects of human interference on coral reefs. Just look at the side by side comparisons of the pristine, flourishing reef and the one that’s had human disturbances. It’s an easy to understand video and if your attention span is disturbingly short like mine, it’s not long at all.

I think the synergetic relationship between fishing and the prosperity of the reefs is actually really interesting. It just proves that the more an area is overfished, the more damaged the coral reefs in that area, and that will result in a less abundant habitat of fish in the area. It’s a fascinating vid, check it out and see what you think.

Courtesy of CanadaGood

The recent tsunamis of September 29th were devastating to American Samoa, Samoa, and Tonga where nearly 200 lives were lost and many more were left without their homes.  Although secondary to this horrible loss of life, American Samoa’s coral reefs also received what could be a deadly blow.

Some of the coral off of the islands coast was very healthy and strong, with a good, clean environment.  According to an article from The Durango Herald though, about 75-80% of the coral was already dead or dying coral before the tsunamis even hit.  All of this dead coral was due mainly to human imposed stresses and it is believed that only about 70% of unhealthy coral has a chance of ever returning.

The good news is that the 15-20% of reefs that have healthy coral are expected to grow back completely within the next three or four years.  This really shows the resilience of coral, but only when it is healthy.   Just think, ALL of the coral off of the coast of American Samoa would have had the chance to grow back in only a few years if it had a better environment to start with.  This also shows that nature was created to respond to nature’s worst, but when humans get involved we end up altering nature, often for the worst.

Although American Samoa’s coral has been temporarily destroyed by tsunamis, the coral is being permanently destroyed by us…