Southern Line Island Coral Reef Makes Unexpected Recovery

Alura: Please stop spamming topics with your irrelevant drivel. You can use the community feed if you like - but stop trying to change the subject of the topic at hand. If you cannot follow the rules, you should leave or get removed permanently becuase you are a stain on the validity, purpose and benefits of this platform - and waste the time and effort others have to expend to deal with your nonsense. 

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is involved in coral restoration interventions to accelerate natural evolution and give coral reefs time to recover while ocean conditions continue to change which means slowing the rate of temperature change is necessary for coral reef recovery.

Coral restoration (growing, gardening, planting, creating new genetic types of coral):

(1) Planting nursery-grown corals back onto reefs.

(2) Making habitat suitable for natural coral growth.

(3) Building coral resilience to climate change.

(4) Growing and planting healthy coral with partners in coral nurseries and then reattached to reefs. 

There are 20 coral nurseries in the Caribbean. providing 40,000+ healthy corals for reef restoration throughout the region.

Active reef restoration is new in the Pacific Islands Region (Hawaii, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, and American Samoa) and are focused on working with local resource managers to develop restoration plans to increase capacity. 

NOAA is also usung techniques to grow and plant resilient, genetically diverse populations of key coral species that can adapt to environmental conditions while climate change is slowed.

https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/national/habitat-conservation/restoring-coral-reefs

It's great news that some reefs are able to revive when given time and space. 

However, there are many other coral reefs in the world still in danger, and we must give them the time and space they'll need to do the same.

The changing climate and our constant need to over-visit these areas still pose an existential threat to these vital life forms. We must do all we can to protect them.

It is wonderful to see life find a way to survive a changing climate at these, the earliest stages of the Climate Crisis with is currently accelerating in intensity. It is a hopeful sign that this coral ecosystem has found has found a way, but a singular example should not be seen as a general trend. If other expansive underwater ecosystems were similarly developing a way to survive the warming oceans I would feel a lot better about this development. 

There are teams of underwater divers trying to plant the more resilient coral into dying coral beds and it is not clear, at this point in time, how successful they have been or will be. Nor is it clear that either this particular ecosystem or others will survive the warming and more acidic oceans which are coming as the oceans continue to warm.

Drawing a conclusion that this particular ecosystem or others are no longer at risk is wrong. It is like arguing that global warming is not occurring becuase in some particular location, the local weather is getting coooler. The climate issues are about the global totality of climatic changes and not the changes at any singular locale.

I'm glad this coral reef is making a come back and only hope that others will as well (but I'm not going to hold my breath on that).

That ONE reef (actually four that I know about) appear to be able to recover provides hope, but that still leaves ALL OF THE OTHER CORAL REEFS in danger or being destroyed at this time!  We still need to do all we can to keep the world a place where life can thrive, or fase our own extinction.

We are polluting the entire planet. The only good part of this is that the state of Florida will disappear under the waves

CAUSES ASKS: "How do you feel about the future of coral reefs?"  ME: Not at all happy. While this little story is encouraging, the over-all picture for the survival of coral reefs world-wide is far from encouraging.  Between ocean temperature rise, acidification, and structural damage from multiple sources it is scientifically estimated that approximately 50% of global coral reefs have already died, with nearly the entire balance under threat of extinction by mid-century.  Without a dramatic end to climate changing pollution -- which, once again, the world seems to have ducked -- it's difficult to see how the scientific projections will be overturned.

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/28/climate/great-barrier-reef-climate-change-danger.html#:~:text=mission%20joins%20growing%20calls%20to%20label%20Great%20Barrier%20Reef%20'in%20danger',-Autumnspanne1&text=The%20report's%20authors%20said%20current,challenge%E2%80%9D%20presented%20by%20climate%20change.

https://news.un.org/en/story/2021/03/1087592

FROM THE FIELD: Saving corals in crisis

Coral reefs are in grave peril, and the consequences of their extinction could be catastrophic. The...

https://news.un.org/en/story/2021/03/1087592

I think that this is a good thing. The reef ecosystem is important for the fish that live there. 

I notice because of the remoteness of this reefs the death of almost half the reef was not caused by man or even global warming but a natural weather event called El Niño. 

I also noticed that in the story that after the 15 weeks that bleached the corals that shortly afterwards that Mother Nature was able to bring back a newer stronger reef ecosystem and it now looks like a recovery has taken place. 

I was able to snorkel of or an island in the Bahamas and of the coast of Oahu in Hawaii on two beautiful reefs. Even though there are fishing boat traffic and many visitors to the reefs the corals seemed to be very healthy and an abundance of wildlife living in the reef ecosystem. Both these islands are very aware that the waters and the reefs are ever so important and guard those resources by their governments. One example was anchors isn't allowed near the reefs. The boat goes about 100 meters from the reef and there are a couple pipes in the sand with a bar across the open end of the pipe. A diver pulls a rope down a ties the boat off as the anchor protecting the reefs and the snorkeling group swim to the reef. 

So all in all this was a good story and a good thing for everyone involved. 

Well this is promising.  It appears that we don't know much about coral reefs at all.  The scientists that claim global warming is harming the earth because of fossil fuels truly do not know how coral reefs replicate.

 
As far as I know, coral reefs only occur in warmer waters/climates.  So in my mind, we need more warmer weather in the north to produce these very special conditions that breed coral reefs.