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The Endangered Starus of All Acropora Species in the Caribbean Based on Current and Past Condition of Acropora Populations Across the Region (Docket # 040610181-4181-01; I.D. 060204C) July 31 2004 Thomas J. Goreau, Ph.D. President, Global Coral Reef Alliance Submitted to the Assistant Regional Administrator for Protected Resources, NMFS Southeast Regional Office, 9271 Executive Center Drive North, Suite 102, St. Petersburg, Florida, 33702 SUMMARY Acropora palmata, Acropora cervicornis, and Acropora prolifera have almost completely vanished throughout heir entire range. The few surviving populations are very rarely more than one percent of what they were 25 years ago, and in all cases these few survivors are severely damaged and endangered by new diseases, pollution, global warming, and physical damage. They need the fullest protection possible by being formally listed as endangered.
HISTORICAL DISTRIBUTION Thomas F. Goreau, the world's first diving marine biologist, was the first to discover the remarkable zonal distribution of these species, which completely dominated the shallow fore-reefs around the Caribbean (T. F. Goreau, 1956, A study of the Biology and Histochemisty of Corals, Yale University PhD Thesis). Previous studies had relied on dredge samples, not study of the living corals in their natural habitat, and cast no light on their abundance and zonation. Nevertheless the distinct identity of the three Acropora species had been recognized by Jean-Baptiste Lamarck (1744-1829). I have the world's largest collection of underwater photographs of coral reefs from the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s, when my grandfather and father were the only people doing this kind of photography, and they show a completely different world. In the Caribbean all coral species have severely declined, but the most dramatic change of all is the virtual extinction of the huge Acropora jumgles that stood like massive walls along almost every Caribbean shoreline and offshore reef banks. With the exception of my father's work, all published studies reflect observations that began after most of the corals had already gone, and so severely underestimate the amount of the decline. Only the oldest pictures can reveal the true magnitude of the change. PRESENT SITUATION Until only 25 years ago I would swim for miles across reefs that were almost 100% covered with huge forests of immense Acropora corals, broken only by channels at the mouths of bays. Now there is almost no trace of these left, except for rare and tiny remnants. So completely have these reefs broken up and been washed away by storms in most places that divers now cannot conceive that huge reefs, full of fish, once stood where now only dead algae-overgrown rubble, with the rare coral and fish, can be seen. In many of these places the wall of Acroproa along the coast was so dense and reached up to the water level, that it was impossible to snorkel from shore. The first hotels in Bonaire and many other places dynamited channels through the solid live Acropora reefs so that their guests could get out to swim. Now only the rarest traces of these remain in most places, while in others, which have been lucky with hurricanes, there are huge walls of entirely dead Acropora. Most of these died in a wave of extinction caused by White Band disease that swept all around the Caribbean in the late 1970s and early 1980s. I have photographs and personal observations of Acroporas during the last 56 years from all across its range. These include Jamaica, Florida, the Bahamas, the Turks and Caicos Islands, Panama, Mexico, Cayman Islands, Cuba, Puerto Rico, the US Virgin Islands, St. Kitts, Antigua, Barbuda, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Tobago, Barbados, Bonaire, Curacao, and Aruba. All of these places had magnificent Acropora reefs. But now either it is dead and standing (as in Antigua, Barbuda, the Grenadines, parts of Panama and Mexico, or Baby Beach in Aruba), all dead and broken rubble all over the bottom, or the fragments have been completely removed by storms so no trace remains. The last two are what one sees at almost all sites around the Caribbean, including most parts of Bonaire, Curacao, Jamaica, Cuba, etc. In all of these places one can find rare small patches of live Acropora, but in almost no case are these more than a percent or so of what stood there 25 years ago. In some parts of Mexico and Panama White Band disease is only now hitting, and one can find remnant patches where all the Acropora are all alive, next to areas here they are all dead, next to areas where all are dying. Typically we will see in the best small parts of the Cayman Islands, the Turks and Caicos, the Grenadines, and Cuba, new Acroporas settling in areas where they are growing over standing dead Acropora or more often, broken rubble. But one can clearly see that these are young corals, a few years to no more than 20 years old, because their size is pygmy-like compared the huge stands we used to see everywhere. In most cases they grow nicely for a few years and then White Line or White Plague Disease gets them and resets the clock back to zero. UNIQUE CASE OF BROWARD COUNTY STAGHORN REEF There is only one place I know that now has more Acropora cervicornis now than it used to, directly in front of Fort Lauderdale, Florida. This now has the largest remaining patch of staghorn I know of anywhere in the Caribbean region. It is the last and only reef in North America that can be swum to from shore. It appears to have spread to this area in recent decades as the result of global warming, allowing northward expansion of its range. This staghorn patch, the size of two football fields, is threatened with imminent destruction. Unbelievably, Broward County and the US Army Corps of Engineers are finalizing plans, approved by the Governor and Cabinet of Florida, to kill this reef by dumping millions of cubic yards of mud and sand dredge fill in the name of "nourishing" a beach that is not eroding but growing. Acroporas are the most sediment sensitive of all Caribbean corals, and will certainly die if this irresponsible and unnecessary plan is carried out. It is due to start imminently. This last large surviving population is also highly threatened by spreading White Band Disease, which has wiped out other nearby staghorn populations nearby in the last few years. It is also threatened by Florida's failure to control the nutrients from sewage and fertilizers to levels that the reef can stand. Huge masses of slimy bacteria and algae are spreading outwards from the canal mouths, sewage outfalls, and places where sewage injected into deep wells is leaking up through the rock bottom into reefs. These red slimy mats have been spreading every year outward from the nutrient sources, killing corals as they spread in expanding circles, but only in the last few weeks have they begun to affect the last great patch of staghorn in front of Fort Lauderdale for the first time. We urgently need Acropora designated an endangered species in order to get this area protected (at this time it is not designated a coral reef area, and has no protection under the Coral Reef Preservation Executive Order and has no management plan for its protection). Action now is essential! RESTORATION OF ACROPORA The Global Coral Reef Alliance has developed new methods to greatly increase the growth and survival of Acropras in places where they had disappeared. In projects in Jamaica, Mexico, and Panama, we have grown Acroporas at a centimeter a week, around 5 times the normal rate, in places where the Acropora had been entirely killed off. These pilot projects, which may be crucial to the long term survival and the propagation of Caribbean Acropora, have not yet been funded or applied on a scale that would make a difference. Large scale restoration of Acropora will only be possible if serious funding is immediately made available for propagating Acroporas that are growing much faster than normal, and much more resistant (16 to 50 times higher survival) to high temperature, sediment, and nutrient stresses. CONCLUSIONS In summary, Caribbean Acroproa species are highly threatened everywhere in their range, and deserve immediate designation as endangered species. Large scale funding is urgently needed for their propagation using methods that increase their growth rate and survival form stress.
Dr. Thomas J. Goreau President Global Coral Reef Alliance 37 Pleasant Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA Telephone: 617-864-4226, 617-864-0433 E-mail: goreau@bestweb.net Web site: http://www.globalcoral.org |
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