A new article in The Guardian quotes a report by 36 scientists from 18 countries, the “Tropical Americas Reef Resilience Workshop”, released by the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama. It makes for a sobering read:

“Caribbean coral reefs – which make up one of the world’s most colourful, vivid and productive ecosystems – are on the verge of collapse, with less than 10% of the reef area showing live coral cover.”

Carl Gustaf Lundin, director of the global marine and polar programme at the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) said: “The major causes of coral decline are well known and include overfishing, pollution, disease and bleaching caused by rising temperatures resulting from the burning of fossil fuels. Looking forward, there is an urgent need to immediately and drastically reduce all human impacts [in the area] if coral reefs and the vitally important fisheries that depend on them are to survive in the decades to come.”

It emphasises the ecological and economic significance of reef collapse, and adds to the ever increasing call for action to prevent the loss of coral reefs globally.

“Last year, scientists estimated that 75% of the Caribbean’s coral reefs were in danger, along with 95% of those in south-east Asia. That research, from the World Resources Institute, predicted that by 2050 virtually all of the world’s coral reefs would be in danger.”

Read the entire article here and download the report here.

Following on from the declaration of a “state of emergency”, Roger Bradbury had this to say in the New York Times Opinion Pages:

“IT’S past time to tell the truth about the state of the world’s coral reefs, the nurseries of tropical coastal fish stocks. They have become zombie ecosystems, neither dead nor truly alive in any functional sense, and on a trajectory to collapse within a human generation. There will be remnants here and there, but the global coral reef ecosystem — with its storehouse of biodiversity and fisheries supporting millions of the world’s poor — will cease to be.”

He accuses environmentalists, scientists and governments of “false hope”: he has a negative view of the state of the worlds reefs and their prospects of recovery:

“Overfishing, ocean acidification and pollution have two features in common. First, they are accelerating. They are growing broadly in line with global economic growth, so they can double in size every couple of decades. Second, they have extreme inertia — there is no real prospect of changing their trajectories in less than 20 to 50 years. In short, these forces are unstoppable and irreversible.”

Mr Bradbury argues we should be preparing for the worst, and the negative impact the loss of reefs will have upon “ hundreds of millions of people in poor, tropical countries like Indonesia and the Philippines who depend on coral reefs for food.”, not to mention tropical tourism and the ultimate knock on effects of the loss of biodiversity.

Read the entire article here.

Professor Callum Roberts, whose book “An Unnatural History of the Sea” was such an influence on the film makers during production of Wild Ocean 3D (and subsequently became script advisor on that movie), has done it again: his new book “Ocean of Life” has just been published, and if you were to only read one book about the state of our seas, this has to be it. Callum skilfully brings together every aspect of man’s impact on the ocean, and he actually offers a way forward. Callum has a vision of the future that gives hope for the sea both as a group of interconnected ecosystems and as a resource for humanity.

Of particular interest to us is his chapter on Ocean Acidification: “Corrosive Seas”. He describes a moment at a meeting to discuss climate change in 1998 when Joanie Keyplas, an American reef expert, realise that by the end of the 21st century, seawater would be too corrosive to sustain coral reefs: “she excused herself and ran to the bathroom to be sick”. A Roland Emmerich disaster movie moment if ever there was one…

Callum also points out that acidification is a global problem and not exclusively a threat to tropical reefs: oyster farms off the coast of Oregon have shown how they can easily be disrupted by ph change, and the swarms of pteropods in the Arctic, fast food for whales, cod, salmon are particularly vulnerable to acidity.

Callum Roberts is a great advocate for preserving the environments that help refurbish the ocean, such as Marine Protected Areas, proven time and again to help replenish fish populations. Specifically regarding acidification:  ”It has been estimated” he writes, “that every year healthy  salt marshes, mangroves and seagrass beds collectively remove carbon dioxide equivalent to half the emissions of the world transport network… so if you can do just one thing, protect the salt marshes and mangrove swamps!”

You can buy “Ocean of Life” in bookshops, from Penguin, on Amazon or in the iBookstore… go get it…

An article in International Business Times (not our usual source of science news) has the extremely positive headline: Coral Reefs Saviour Found: Sea Cucumbers can reduce Climate change impact…!

Whilst that headline seems like an enthusiastically overly positive spin (we doubt that we can relax and assume sea cucumbers will save the planet), it’s good to hear some positive news on the subject…

Is it “Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea” for everyman… or Google Reef?

“The Catlin Seaview Survey aims to carry out the first comprehensive study to document the composition and health of coral reefs on the Great Barrier Reef and Coral Sea across an unprecedented depth range (0-100m).

The shallow reef survey will involve photographing the reef in full 360 degree panoramic vision on an unprecedented scale using specially developed cameras. These images will be analysed automatically using image recognition software creating an incredibly rich broad scale baseline for scientific analysis from locations along the entire length of the 2300km reef. The visual baseline will be made freely available through Google, for scientists all around the world to study.”

You can check out a demo at www.seaview.org.