Sea Technology

DEC 2014

The industry's recognized authority for design, engineering and application of equipment and services in the global ocean community

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www.sea-technology.com December 2014 / st 35 After all, they are the richest, most productive ecosystems in the sea, the largest construction project on Earth. Fast forward to 2014 and a much changed world popu- lated with more than 7 billion people. We still marvel at reefs, and millions scuba dive with regularity. Books and movies abound with exquisite pictures of turtles, sharks, bi- kini-clad divers, and spectacular macro shots of the smallest fsh or the most colorful shrimp nestled within psychedeli- cally glowing coral tentacles. But the sad fact of the matter is that we must range ever farther from human habitations to fnd these marvels. Dancing Lady Reef I visited the Discovery Bay Marine Lab in Jamaica in Oc- tober 2013 to record changes in the ecology of Jamaican reefs since my time there as a graduate student. Specifcally, I n 1975, as a young scientist, I worked with Captain Jacques-Yves Cousteau to make a flm about Caribbean coral reef ecology, "Mysteries of the Hidden Reefs." It was the last of 36 flms in Cousteau's "Undersea World" series that inspired a generation to love the sea. We dove tirelessly around the clock shooting flm of the reef and its creatures, especially the lush overabundance of corals, which form and build the reef. One day, after a sumptuous lunch on board Calypso in Belize, Cousteau and I began a discussion about the health of coral reefs that continued throughout our long friendship until his passing in 1997. He was concerned that humans were beginning to cause their decline, and he told me reefs in the Red Sea near Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, were dying. I can remember thinking that he was out of his mind—and that reefs were so stable and robust that little could hurt them. The Decline of Caribbean Coral Reefs Photographic Tracking From 1972 to 2013 Reveals Ecological Crisis By Dr. Phillip Dustan Carysfort Reef, Key Largo, Florida Keys. Dustan's studies of human impacts on reefs began in the Florida Keys in 1974 to 1975, when Carysfort was the most spectacular reef throughout the island chain. These data are now the benchmarks to assess coral reef change in the Keys. The Acropora palmata (elkhorn coral) zone consisted of large colonies possessing a high degree of 3D complexity that provided habitat for various reef fshes and invertebrates. Since then, living coral cover has declined more than 90 percent, and the reef has lost its ecological integrity and is rapidly being reduced to rubble and sand. (Photo Credit: Phillip Dustan)

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