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State
Of The Reef, 2000
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This
year's State Of The Reef Address
was delivered by Craig Quirolo, founder and Director of
Marine Projects, during the Annual Reef Relief membership
meeting held in Key West on Thursday, July 27, as part of
Reef Awareness Week 2000. It features over 80 images from
his Coral Photo Monitoring Survey, which has been ongoing
since 1993.
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Profile
on Craig Quirolo:
REEF RELIEF was
founded in 1986 by charter boat skipper, Craig Quirolo,
the current Director of Marine Projects. REEF RELIEF is
a non-profit corporation, directed by a Board
of Directors, a Citizen Advisory Board and a
Scientific Advisory Board.
Marine
Projects: Photo Monitoring Coral Survey.
For the past eight
years, REEF RELIEF's founder, Craig Quirolo, has documented
changes in the coral communities of the Key West area with
a non-intrusive photographic survey. Instead of grid systems
that are fixed to the ocean floor, Craig uses only
dive charts and laminated photographs of corals to locate
the many sites included in the survey. A series of
pictures taken over months and years monitor growth and
overall health. Craig regularly photographs and videos the
same coral heads at seven reefs near Key West and shares
his results with the world's leading coral reef scientists.
This work began several years ago through the cash prize
accompanying the Robert
Rodale Environmental Achievement Award , made
possible by Rodale's
Scuba Diving Magazine. This year's funding was
provided by the Turner
Foundation, the
Edith and Curtis Munson Foundation, and others.
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In
1993 I began the Photo Monitoring Program
documenting several reefs in the Key West area. The methods
used for the Program were developed with a low impact procedure
that does not require transect tapes, pins fastened
to the sea floor or the need for physical contact with the
corals. The Video tape,
Coral
2000 volume II - Coral Photo
Monitoring and the Coral Nursery
Project
(CLICK
HERE to order), explains the methods utilized in the
Reef Relief Photo Monitoring Program and is available at
the Reef Relief store in Key West. In the past eight years
over ten thousand slide images have been recorded on the
coral reefs in the Key West area, Thousands of images
have been recorded from our International Projects in Cuba,
Honduras, Bahamas, Mexico and in Jamaica.
The basis
of the Photo Monitoring Program is to focus on specific
coral colonies (subjects) that are photographed repeatedly
over time. Familiarity of the coral reef is required in
order to return to the same site and to the same coral
subjects . This program was inspired by the fact that I
had witnessed a decline in the health of the corals
which was contrary to many people in the dive industry who
did not want hear 'bad news'.
There is
nothing more that I would like to do than to document a
healthy vibrant reef and be able to record growth rates
and increased coral coverage. What I have experienced over
the past six years is an effort to kill the messenger
and to ignore the message.
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Photos
and video images speak for themselves.
The Reef Relief Photo Monitoring Program has a tremendous
track record and has proven that dedicated divers who are
non scientists can make substantial contributions to coral
reef research. Through our low impact monitoring program the
coral disease Yellow Band and White Pox were first discovered.
The White Plague Type II coral disease was documented for
the first time in the lower Keys and the presence of the sea
fan disease
Aspergillosis
was observed in the Key West area and brought to the attention
of researchers studying this disease.
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In a collaborative
effort with Reef Relief dozens of coral reef scientists have been
escorted to the reef gaining valuable insight from our observations.
Dozens of our images have been printed in newspapers, magazines,
as well as in scientific papers and journals. I would like to
take the opportunity to thank all of the Reef Relief members and
supporters for contributing to the success of The Photo Monitoring
Program.
Clean,
clear, and nutrient free. When
Reef Relief was founded in l986 we were told by scientists and coral
reef managers that corals, beyond a shadow of a doubt, needed
clean, clear and nutrient free water in which to live. Corals
are stationary animals and can only be as healthy as the water
that passes over them (quote from Dr. Brian Lapointe).
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Healthy coral continues to grow in the clear water
of the Bahamas.
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To a person
unfamiliar with coral reefs clean and clear water, as a
prerequisite for coral health, is not hard to comprehend.
Clean virtually speaks for itself and we all like to swim
, snorkel and dive in clear water. So why should the fish,
corals and plants be any different?
The nutrient
free part was unusual, especially when the experts said
corals thrive in the 'deserts' of the oceans (meaning nutrient
free water). Producers of petro-chemical products, (the
financial backbone the Federal Government ) have us believing
that through chemical and fertilizer use, life is much better
on the planet. It appears that I'd been a little bit brain
washed over the years, because my first reaction was everything
needs fertilizer, including corals.
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Clean, clear, nutrient free water. Abacos, Bahamas.
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The
concept of 'nutrient free' began to make sense when a brilliant
scientist friend of mine (Dr. Brian Lapointe) explained to me that
the ocean is just like a a golf course if you want it to be to be
lush and green, fertilize it!
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Sand Key, Florida. 9/06/94
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Decreased
visibility in the water that passes over a coral reef puts
the entire ecosystem under stress and increases the chances
for disease and bleaching to set in.
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Sand Key, Florida. 7/11/00
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Corals require
clear water so that sunlight will penetrate down upon them.
There are important
algae called Zooxanthellae living within the coral
that the coral cannot live without. Like all plants this
algae requires sunlight to carry out the process of photosynthesis.
The Zooxanthellae recycle the corals waste products
and also produce the necessary oxygen for the coral to live. In
turn coral plays host to the algae by allowing them to live
within the polyp and produces the carbon dioxide required to keep
the algae alive. The relationship between plant and animal is
quite unique because one cannot live without the other. When
the water passing over a coral reef is not clear problems begin
to emerge.
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The closest relatives of the coral are the sea
jellies.
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Montastrea cavernosa, Jamaica 1987.
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Montastrea annularis/ Mountain Star Coral.
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The closest relatives
of the coral are the sea jellies and just like jellies, living
coral tissue is soft, clear and gelatinous. The transparent nature
of the corals tissue allows the color of the algae to reflect
through giving the corals their color. There is another form
of algae that coral reefs cannot live without and that is a species
algae known as calcareous algae. This particular type of algae
is not always visible, its rather hard and actually keeps
the reef glued together. It grows between the fissures and crannies
in the reef bonding what would be loose fragments of coral,
greatly improving the stability of the coral reef.
Continued
in next section. (Click graphic button below.)
Photos Provided by Craig Quirolo
Reef Relief ©2001,
"Be
A Sea Fan" click
here
REEF RELIEF is a membership
organization. Your $30 annual membership fee is tax-deductible and
includes a poster, quarterly newsletter and action alerts on various
issues.
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