Florida's Coral Reefs: Trouble Ahead
4/20/2006 6:45:03 PM by Henry Cabbage and Valli Finney
Coral reefs – the cradles of the food chain for marine life in Florida – are a passion for Rodney Barreto, chairman of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC), who speaks from a wealth of experience as an avid scuba diver, angler and boater.
He has spent many hours exploring the tangled shapes and textures amid nature’s most beautiful colors and hues in coral reefs. When Barreto says “coral reefs,” his voice sounds like Moses’ voice must have sounded when he said “Promised Land.” He talks about the little universes that seem to contradict themselves with the dangers and refuges coral reefs offer their inhabitants.
“In a way, coral reefs are like fortresses and nurseries for tiny marine creatures,” Barreto said. “At the same time, they are lairs for predators. They are all that and more, but they are so fragile that people can destroy them with a mere touch, or even by altering the water quality from many miles away.”
Coral reefs are in trouble, and it’s not just because of human activities. Relentless waves of hurricanes in recent years have compounded the damage. It’s damage Florida can’t afford.
Reefs in Palm Beach, Broward, Miami-Dade and Monroe counties alone provide an annual $8.5 billion boost for the area’s economy.
“That’s really shocking,” said coral reef expert Dr. Carl Beaver of the FWC’s Fish and Wildlife Research Institute. “That’s more than the gross national capital of many European countries.”
He said reefs supply almost 10 percent of the world’s food supply, mostly in developing or undeveloped countries.
The direct and indirect recreational value of reefs is enough to boggle the mind.
Almost 10 million visits to Florida’s coral reefs in a typical year by boaters, anglers and divers reflect the captivating powers of the colors and shapes and textures of coral reefs, but that’s just a fraction of the essence of what coral reefs are. It doesn’t include the people who never see a reef but enjoy catching the game fish that are there because of the chain of life that begins with coral reefs.
“If it weren’t for coral reefs, the ocean floor would be a giant, barren, marine moonscape,” Barreto said. “There would be little scenery for divers to enjoy, little for anglers to catch and the pleasures of recreational boating would wear thin.”
The natural systems that come into play to make a coral reef happen involve all kinds of intricate factors that have to fall in line within narrow boundaries of time, light, temperature and chemistry.
“I’ve always felt it was fascinating that coral reefs are built by an organism with algae living in it,” Beaver said. “The algae use coral waste, and coral needs the algae to grow. Any imbalance in the formula could cause coral to die or not grow.”
The temperature must not be too hot or too cool, and algae must have light, or it can’t grow. Too much light, on the other hand, can bleach and kill the coral. Bleaching usually occurs when there is little suspended sediment to shield some of the sun’s light and water temperature reaches 86 degrees or higher.
Conditions in the wake of Hurricane Georges in 1998 caused massive bleaching on Florida’s reefs. Reefs stabilized eventually, but FWC scientists say the reefs don’t seem to be healing despite subsequent years without additional bleaching episodes.
Researchers are appealing to boaters to contact the FWC or Florida Department of Environmental Protection if they spot new bleaching problems on reefs. To report problems on the Keys’ reefs, they should contact the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary.
Barreto said it’s important for responsible boaters to spread a sense of stewardship for reefs among others. He’s made a personal priority of leading the charge to combat the loss of coral reefs during his term on the FWC.
“The stakes are high,” he said. “The consequences of failure would be staggering.”
Divers have to play a major stewardship role in caring for Florida’s reefs, and the dive industry has a lot riding on the reef system.
“Vendors always caution divers not to stand on the coral and they offer courses on divers’ environmental responsibilities,” Beaver said. “They realize how important reefs are to their business.”
If divers were the only factor, reef protection would be relatively simple, but the issue is much more complex than that.
“Everything you do, regardless of where you are, affects the oceans in some way,” Beaver said.
Pesticides, fertilizers and oil-dripping automobiles – especially near the coastline – contaminate storm water that makes its way to reefs and causes more damage.
“When you explore a coral reef, you encounter the basic components of life on this planet from the tiny creatures at the bottom to the predators at the top of the food chain,” Barreto said. “That’s worth saving. This is something we have to do.”
For more information on FWC, go to www.myfwc.com