ScienceDaily (Feb. 26, 2011) — An international scientific team has shown that strong links between the corals reefs of the south China sea, West Pacific and Coral Triangle hold the key to preserving fish and marine resources in the Asia-Pacific region.

Research by Dr Johnathan Kool of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies and James Cook University, and his colleagues, has established that the richest marine region on Earth — the Coral Triangle between Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines — depends vitally for its diversity and resilience on coral and fish larvae swept in from the South China Sea and Solomon Islands.

“The currents go in various directions, but the prevailing direction is from east to west, and this carries coral spawn and fish larvae from areas such as round the Spratly Islands in the South China Sea and the Solomons/Papua New Guinea,” he explains.

“Maintaining the network of links between reefs allowing larvae to flow between them and re-stock depleted areas, is key to saving coral ecosystems threatened by human pressure and climate change.

“The Coral Triangle is home to more than one third of all the world’s coral reefs, including over 600 different species of reef-building coral and 3,000 species of reef fish. These coral ecosystems provide food and income for more than 100 million people working in marine based industries throughout the region,” Dr Kool explains.

“Knowing where coral spawn comes from is vital to managing our reefs successfully. Even though coral reef communities may not be connected directly to one another, reefs on the edge of the Coral Triangle have the potential to contribute significant amounts of genetic diversity throughout the region,” says Dr Kool.

He argues that recent evidence showing the region’s biology is closely inter-connected suggests it is in the interests of all Asia-Pacific littoral countries to work together more closely to protect it: “The science shows the region’s natural resources are closely interconnected. Nations need to co-operate to look after them — and that begins with recognising the resources are at risk and that collective action is needed to protect them.

Six nations within the Coral Triangle, (Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, The Solomon Islands and Timor L’Este) are now working together to strengthen coral reef governance and management, under an arrangement known as the Coral Triangle Initiative.

The paper “Connectivity and the development of population genetic structure in Indo-West Pacific coral reef communities” by Johnathan T. Kool, Claire B. Paris, Paul H. Barber and Robert K. Cowen appears in a recent issue of the journal Global Ecology and Biogeography.

Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines is using EcoReefs modules to create a shallow-water snorkeling reef at its Coco Cay shore excursion resort facility. Snorkeling is the resort’s most popular watersports concession, enjoyed by thousands of guests each year. 50 EcoReefs modules were installed in the Coco Cay lagoon area to create a colorful, engaging point-of-interest for snorkelers.  The ecological development of the reef will be measured as part of an ongoing monitoring programme.

January 31st, 2011

A tourism organisation and a conservation organisation are teaming up to improve coral reef protection in the Caribbean:

A cooperation agreement was signed [last week] between the Organization of Latin-American and Caribbean Tourism (OLACT) and the Coral Reef Alliance (CORAL); both organizations will work together to implement conservation programs for the coral reefs and the marine life in Latin-America and the Caribbean.

Through the members of OLACT, both in the tourism and educational sector, CORAL will be able to share and disseminate the knowledge and tools developed throughout their long experience of working in reef zones in Hawaii, Mexico, Belize, Honduras, Fiji, and Indonesia.

Through its educational and financing components, OLACT will promote CORAL’s conservation tools and trainings to the tourism industry and will foster sustainable tourism programs to ensure the protection of the reefs by helping communities develop innovative local initiatives that conserve reefs and return tangible benefits to local communities. Finally the university partners of OLACT will leverage the trainings to help spread the educational messages about coral reef conservation throughout Latin-America and the Caribbean region.

A huge installation of crocheted coral is engaging visitors in a project where, math, science, and handcraft converge.

BY Tara Leigh Tappert

A fiber art project launched in 2005 in the living room of two sisters has spread around the world and taken root at the Smithsonian. The burgeoning “Hyperbolic Crochet Coral Reef” and Smithsonian Community Reef – the project’s latest satellite reef – are on exhibit at the National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C., through April 24. Ultimately, the thousands of crochet organisms that comprise the two reefs may raise awareness to protect the real, endangered reefs on the ocean floor.

Twin sisters Margaret and Christine Wertheim began their mammoth craft undertaking as an initiative of their Los Angeles-based Institute For Figuring (IFF). Margaret, a science writer, and Christine, a California Institute of the Arts professor, became fascinated by the work of Cornell University mathematician Daina Taimina. An ardent crafter since her Latvian childhood, Taimina discovered in 1997 that hyperbolic space could be physically modeled through crocheted forms. (“Hyperbolic space” is a term from non-Euclidean geometry; a hyperbolic plane is a surface in which the space curves away from itself at every point.) Taimina’s mathematically pure, ruffled structures reminded the Australian-born sisters of the curly coral creatures that form the Great Barrier Reef. Christine and Margaret then re-interpreted Taimina’s academically prescribed shapes into a multifarious crocheted reef. For two years, piles of crocheted “coral” accumulated in nearly every room of the sisters’ Craftsman-era home, before they even announced the project on the IFF website. When they did, they not only attracted the interest of the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh – the reef was included in a 2007 exhibit on global warming – but also drew contributors from around the globe. Today, the Wertheims’ website acknowledges the more than 75 crafters who crocheted coral for the IFF Core Reef, as well as the work of the thousands who have contributed to satellite reef projects.

From the beginning, the human-made reef was envisioned as a communal art venture that could raise awareness of the ecological impact of global warming, ocean acidification, invasive species, and overfishing on coral reefs. But the sisters never imagined the myriad ways the project (discussed in the Dec./Jan. 2008 American Craft) would grow. The past six years have seen a flurry of activity around the world: The IFF Core Reef has been exhibited in 11 museums and galleries, and some 20 satellite reefs have sprung up in New York, Florida, Illinois, and Arizona, as well more far-flung places such as England, Ireland, Latvia, Australia, and South Africa. Along the way, there have been a number of reef-inspired school projects, more than a dozen workshops, and four lectures and symposia – including a 2009 talk in Ireland by Margaret at the fashionable TED (Tech­nology, Entertainment, Design) conference. The project has attracted hundreds of thousands of exhibition visitors.

What has drawn such widespread fascination? Most likely it’s the unusual intersection of art, science, mathematics, handcraft, conservation, and community. Made from traditional yarns, as well as such unexpected materials as plastics, soda can tabs, and cable ties, the crocheted pieces represent a wide-ranging catalog of sea creatures – corals, sea slugs, kelp, and sponges among them. The handmade reefs tell the story of ocean life in all its exquisite beauty – and precariousness. Nancy Knowlton, Sant Chair for Marine Science at the National Museum of Natural History, and science advisor for the Smith­sonian exhibition, is acutely aware of the dangers to these delicate ecosystems. “The reefs I studied 35 years ago have largely vanished,” she notes. “And most reefs may well be gone by the end of the century or sooner, if nothing is done to protect them.” If trends continue, she says, “an exhibit like this may someday be the only way for people to experience the beauty of coral reefs.”

Beauty is not all that these living organisms provide, of course. Rick MacPherson of the Coral Reef Alliance points out that while coral reefs cover just two-tenths of one percent of the ocean floor, their complex tropical ecosystems rival the rainforests in biodiversity, supporting almost a quarter of all marine species. Coral reefs also provide food, resources for medicines, and “income to millions of people worldwide, and they protect our coastal communities from damaging storms and tsunamis,” MacPherson says.

Among the greatest threats to the well-being of reefs globally are ocean acidification and ocean warming, coral bleaching, water pollution and sedimentation, and ozone depletion. The Wertheims have illustrated these concerns in their largely colorless Bleached Reef and Bleached Bone Reef. Other destructive practices include coral mining, coastal development, and careless tourism, alluded to by the sisters’ Toxic Reef, which is almost wholly constructed from trash and plastics.

The idea for the Smithsonian Community Reef took root when the National Museum of Natural History agreed to exhibit the IFF Core Reef collection. Barbara Stauffer, chief of temporary exhibitions at the NMNH, started by asking Jane Milosch, former curator of the Renwick Gallery, to co-curate the project with Knowlton. Stauffer also enlisted Milosch to help her build a team of organizers for the project and secure funding, leading to sponsorships from the Coral Reef Alliance, the Quiksilver Foundation, and the Australian embassy. Museum programming coordinator Jennifer Lindsay, a former environmental legal assistant, a craft scholar, and a longtime knitter with deep connections within the greater D.C. fiber arts communities, headed the six-month community reef project. She rallied some 800 participants – ages 3 to 101, from some 25 states and three countries – to produce nearly 4,000 pieces of crocheted coral. The show’s designers then assembled the pieces – in a kaleidoscope of shapes and colors, as individual as the makers – into a 15- by 9- by 7-foot crocheted reef mound. The result is an exhibition that Margaret Wertheim describes as “the apotheosis of the project – a dream come true.”

With no end in sight for this ever-evolving endeavor, the “Hyperbolic Crochet Coral Reef” exhibitions and satellite reefs will continue to raise awareness about the surprisingly related interests of crafters, mathematicians, and environmentalists.

Tara Leigh Tappert is an independent scholar and archivist based in Washington, D.C. Her latest project is a study of how the U.S. military has used arts and crafts for rehabilitation and recreation since World War I.

This is a corrected version of an earlier story.

According to the NOAA Coral Reef Watch monitoring system, coral bleaching is likely in the Caribbean in 2010. With temperatures above-average all year, NOAA’s models show a strong potential for bleaching in the southern and southeastern Caribbean through October that could be as severe as in 2005 when over 80 percent of corals bleached and over 40 percent died at many sites across the Caribbean. Scientists are already reporting coral bleaching at several Caribbean sites and severe bleaching has been reported from other parts of the world.

The NOAA Coral Reef Watch (CRW) satellite coral bleaching monitoring shows sea surface temperatures continue to remain above-average throughout the wider Caribbean region. Large areas of the southeastern Caribbean Sea are experiencing thermal stress capable of causing coral bleaching. The western Gulf of Mexico and the southern portion of the Bahamas have also experienced significant bleaching thermal stress. The CRW Coral Bleaching Thermal Stress Outlook indicates that the high stress should continue to develop in the southern and southeast Caribbean until mid-October. Prolonged coral bleaching, can lead to coral death and the subsequent loss of coral reef habitats for a range of marine life.

“The early warning predictions of NOAA’s CRW program are vital to assist coral reef managers in making early preparations for coral bleaching events,” says Billy Causey, southeast regional director for NOAA’s Office of National Marine Sanctuaries. “While managers can’t do anything immediately to prevent coral bleaching, these early warnings give them time to monitor and track the stressful event, thus learning more about both direct and secondary impacts of bleaching on coral reefs around the world.”

The decline and loss of coral reefs has significant social, cultural, economic and ecological impacts on people and communities in the Caribbean, the United States, Australia and throughout the world. As the “rainforests of the sea,” coral reefs provide services estimated to be worth as much as $375 billion globally each year.

“High temperatures cause corals to force out the symbiotic algae that provide them with food. This makes the corals appear white or ‘bleached’ and can increase outbreaks of infectious disease,” said Mark Eakin, Ph.D., coordinator of NOAA’s Coral Reef Watch. “Temperatures are high in the Caribbean, and we expect this to continue. This season has the potential to be one of the worst bleaching seasons for some reefs.”

“A NOAA survey cruise just returned from the Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary where we saw serious bleaching,” said Emma Hickerson, sanctuary research coordinator for the site, located off the coasts of Texas and Louisiana. “Several species were bleached and we are concerned we could lose much of the fire corals this year.”

Even though a variety of stresses — namely thermal stresses — continue to rise in the Caribbean basin, temperatures are expected to begin cooling in the Gulf of Mexico and Florida. In addition, recent hurricanes and tropical storms that passed near the U.S. Virgin Islands have cooled the waters there. NOAA researchers have shown that tropical weather systems can cool the high temperatures that cause bleaching, and NOAA forecasts that this Atlantic hurricane season will probably be more active than usual.

In 2005, the year of the worst bleaching on record in the Caribbean, no tropical storms passed close enough to cool the Virgin Islands, resulting in 90 percent of the area corals being bleached and 60 percent dying. Overall the 2005 bleaching event was the result of the largest, most intense thermal stress recorded in the Caribbean during the 25-year NOAA satellite record.

NOAA’s mission is to understand and predict changes in the Earth’s environment, from the depths of the ocean to the surface of the sun, and to conserve and manage our coastal and marine resources.