What's killing the reefs and diminishing our fish?

[EightFingers]

Maybe we shouldn't be encouraging population growth via government (federal and state) subsidies.


I also disagree regarding political donations. I think it should illegal to donate to a specific candidate or party. Instead all monies would go to a central account and then would be divided evenly among ALL who are running. No candidate would be allowed to use his personal assets unless they were also added to the central account.

I keep hearing about coral die off as being a result of warmer oceans, sunscreen, cesspools, and farming runoff..

[Ino]

I have sea kayaked this area extensively for over 30 years and IMO there is a direct cause for the corals dying. With all of the development North of Kona the grading has allowed large amounts of sediment to smother the coral colonies. It's been very observable and those little berms to catch the sediments have been easily overrun when heavy storms come;
https://peerj.com/articles/300/

Did you know that the Big Island has the most live corals of all the islands?
http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2008...coral.html

Good science here;
http://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/2011/3049/

Currently in the Hawaiian Islands there is no bleaching stress;
http://coralreefwatch.noaa.gov/satellite.../index.php

[PaulW]

Science to the rescue, again.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/10/scienc....html?_r=0

"Their approach involves dissolving the gas with water and pumping the resulting mixture — soda water, essentially — down into certain kinds of rocks, where the CO2 reacts with the rock to form a mineral called calcite. By turning the gas into stone, scientists can lock it away permanently."

It's just a first step but science will come up with solutions. No need to panic but do what's right.

[Tink]

So, what do we do with the calcite tufas, make artificial reefs?
BTW--- lookup Tufa, they are pretty cool. Saw them in the early 70's, camped by them. Be eery underwater, but oh the habitat possibilities for marine life!

Community begins with Aloha

[Guest]

quote:

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Originally posted by gypsy69

I Recently took a trip to the kona side to do a little fishing and snorkeling. The ocean was calm and the wind was down which usually makes for good fishing. Unfortunately we saw very little fish in the murky ocean water and we caught only two rock fish between the four of us. We saw no hermit crabs, sea slugs, or yellow tang, all of which use to be very common in these places we visited.
So I have to ask here on PWeb, seriously what is happening to our coral reefs in Hawaii?
Where have all the reef fish gone, why?
What causes the fish kills like the ones we see in kapoho?

Pretty sure there is no one reason for these noticeable reef changes so hoping for a wide range of opinions or answers.

I found a couple articles that were interesting.
http://www.cnbc.com/2015/07/18/hawaiis-c...ching.html

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2016/...ral-reefs/

http://www.hawaiibusiness.com/whats-hawa...ent-worth/

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On Maui there is a great deal of damage to coral from...... wild pigs that root around, loosen the soil that then washes out to sea and smothers the coral. It was the subject of a TV documentary a while back, but I can't remember if it was NatGeo or Disc or who.

Quite possible that the same thing is happening in this case, especially if the water is murky. Check it out.

[kalakoa]

wild pigs that root around, loosen the soil that then washes out to sea

Feral pigs cause lots of environmental damage, but they've been painted with "cultural heritage" and/or "wild game", so State simply does nothing to address the problem.

Among other things: they've been digging up waterlines, are known to rip out fences, eat crops, and wherever they dig, the pukas fill with water so mosquitos can breed. Again, this is all perfectly okay, just another cost of paradise...

[hotinhawaii]

Ino, no bleaching stress in Hawaii? I have seen articles for the past two years saying the opposite. My own little observations indicate otherwise too. http://hawaiitribune-herald.com/news/loc...recedented

I am in agreement that in the big picture, overpopulation is the problem and tackling it is the only solution long term.

[robguz]

Several years ago a report came out stating the fish counts in our reefs are down 80% from a few decades ago. A rational society would take measures to stop further damage to the reef and removal of fish from it. We've also learned in the past couple years that some ingredients in sunblock kill coral. The results should not be surprising.

[kalakoa]

Several years ago a report came out stating the fish counts in our reefs are down 80% from a few decades ago.

Today marks the 30th anniversary of congressional hearings about global warming.

A rational society would take measures to stop further damage

If anyone knows where this is, please advise, I want to move there.

[Radiopeg]

If you get a chance to hear a speaker from Eyes of the Reef, https://eorhawaii.org/ do it. Lindsay Kramer spoke to our East Hawaii Water Garden Club. It was very informative. I agree that it's a people problem. I have seen the cost starting in the 70s with the ZPG stuff. It is not quite the disaster that was predicted, but, it seems too many people has changed the face of all the places I liked to visit.

Peace and long life