2014-2015 -- 56% of Big Island Coral Died

[TomK]

"What if the population for the entire big island and more went swimming over the reef with sunblock on every day of the year. They could stand on the coral and piss in the water even discard their water bottles and trash. Could this type of behavior cause some reef damage?"

I used to say there are no stupid questions, but...

[rainyjim]

@glinda

Oxybenzone has been shown in vitro to negatively impact corals. There is no conclusive evidence that it has any measurable impact on reefs in Hawaii.

[KiminPL]

I wondered why the coral wasn't as colorful as I remembered the last few times I went snorkeling on the Big Island. I had heard about the warm water event elsewhere where damage was more severe, but hadn't made the connection with Hawaii. (duh) The article is a brief summary and left out a lot of information. For instance the correlation: "more people, less fish" while true, is greatly oversimplified.

To gypsy's point about people trashing coral reefs, Oahu's Hanauma Bay has been sadly degraded for years before the ocean heat event. Too many ignorant tourists concentrated in a single small area. It really irks me to see people, not just kids, but also adults ignorantly stepping on coral. As far as sunscreen, it's banned at Kapoho, and fine with me. Such an easy change to make, why not play it safe for the sake of the coral.

[Eric1600]

There's been numerous efforts to ban sales (almost made it into SB 1150) of several sunscreen chemicals that damage reefs. However the legislature pushes back and just wants "warnings or penalties". When those bills come up I've posted them here to rally support. However the legislature has been terribly ineffective. The only thing they did was to re-write the bill to say "more studies needed" (HB 450) and then do nothing so far. Even the local experts at UH disagree with that notion. Nothing happened: http://hawaiitribune-herald.com/news/loc...ve-forward

Lowen said she was hopeful a sales ban could be incorporated into an amended form of the crossover bill.

“I hope there’s a pass this year, or relatively soon, in the next few years,” she said.

Info on the bills: https://www.bereefsafe.com/hawaii-bill-r...fs-sb1150/

However at first I thought the ties to fishing was a distraction from the issue of global warming, but I did more digging into it and found it's one of the key things humans can do to help the oceans survive the current changes.

Coral reefs are the nurseries for fish. I can't count how many times I see people catching very young fish on these reefs and taking a bucket of them home to eat. It does all add up when the surface area of the reefs are shrinking. In fact a recent meta-study which combines data from 632 recent experiments published across the world measured likely ecological change resulting from ocean acidification and warming due to increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide. This paper http://www.pnas.org/content/114/24/6167....edd8667493 discussed here http://theleadsouthaustralia.com.au/unca...nge-study/ suggests reducing fishing might be the only way to help the marine species survive the immediate stresses they are experiencing to their populations from acidification and CO2 warming.

In particular, numbers of zooplankton (tiny animal life) and smaller fishes are predicted to drop away in response to rising ocean acidification, with follow-on effects for larger carnivorous fish.

“There will be a species collapse from the top of the food chain down,” said Professor Nagelkerken.

...

With global carbon dioxide emissions unlikely to grind to a halt in the near future, Professor Nagelkerken suggests there are actions that can be taken to slow down the impact of climate change on ocean biodiversity.

“Anything we can do to reduce the burden of stressors applied to our oceans will have a positive impact,” said Professor Nagelkerken.

“We may achieve this by reducing overfishing, thereby maintaining healthy populations and a diverse gene pool in our fishes, and providing them with the chance to possibly adapt.”

[Kapoho Joe]

quote:

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Originally posted by KiminPL

As far as sunscreen, it's banned at Kapoho, and fine with me.

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A ban with no enforcement is pretty useless if you ask me...

[glinda]

quote:

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Originally posted by KiminPL

why not play it safe

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Such a novel concept, you'd think even a child could understand, but no. Consumerism demands that we consume! If for no other reason than for some corporate suit making a buck. Isn't capitalism grand?

[Eric1600]

Originally posted by glinda
Such a novel concept, you'd think even a child could understand, but no. Consumerism demands that we consume! If for no other reason than for some corporate suit making a buck. Isn't capitalism grand?


Are you also driven to eat fish and seafood by consumerism? The problem is lack of education and making responsible decisions even when they will change your way of life.

[kalakoa]

A ban with no enforcement is pretty useless if you ask me...

Just like all those "unpermitted" homes and "illegal" cesspools...

[PaulW]

Why stop at a one child policy King Glindakine? Use the King Herod solution instead for immediate results.

As prosperity goes up, birth rate goes down. It’s really only a matter of time till the global population starts shrinking, thanks, once again, to science.

[glinda]

quote:

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Originally posted by PaulW

thanks, once again, to science.

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Is your head still stuck up your ass Paul? Sorry no one's been able to help you with that.

All projections of population growth have the world reaching over 9 billion by 2040, and there is some that believe it will then begin to taper off, and stabilize, not because of your god Paul, but because our fertility rate is dropping. Regardless, of whether growth continues as it has, which is the bigger bet, or does taper off, even the expected addition of another 2 billion people in the next 25 years is a tremendous strain. Believe what you want, but maybe you could crawl back into whatever hole you came from so as to save us all from having to suffer from your presence.