Several Reports:

1] Belize
2] Palau
3] Baja Calif
4] Fiji
5] Indonesia - 1998 update

Date: Mon, 11 Jan 1999 14:10:52 -0600 (CST)
From: "Richard B. Aronson" <raronson@jaguar1.usouthal.edu>
Subject: Dispatch from Belize

Funded by a Small Grant for Exploratory Research (SGER) from NSF-Biological 
Oceanography, Bill Precht and I just returned from Belize, and we have 
some news about the effects of bleaching and Hurricane Mitch.  This is a 
follow-up to our message about bleaching from October 1998.

Last October, We reoccupied our long-term monitoring stations just days 
before Hurricane Mitch struck Central America.  At that time, virtually 
all of corals in the rhomboid shoal area of the central shelf lagoon in 
Belize were bleached.  The figure was literally 100% for Agaricia 
tenuifolia, which was by far the predominant coral-and had been for many 
years.  Surface temperatures were in the neighborhood of 28.5-30 C.

Last week (January 7-8) nearly 100% of the A. tenuifolia was dead.  Much 
of it was standing in growth position, covered with fine algal turf.  
This pretty much eliminates the physical forces associated with Hurricane 
Mitch, and it leads us to believe that several months of high 
temperatures and the resulting prolonged bleaching were responsible for 
this mass mortality.  Some areas are now being overgrown by 
cyanobacterial mats.  The few remaining living colonies of A. tenuifolia 
are still bleached white, and we would not be surprised if they died over 
the next few months as well.  Acropora cervicornis was the dominant coral 
on the rhomboid shoals until to its drastic reduction by white-band disease 
after 1986; now has been virtually eliminated by bleaching and white-band.  
Surface temperatures in the lagoon last week were down to 25.5-26.5 C.

On the outer barrier reef, we dove at Curlew Bank, which is just south of 
Carrie Bow Cay.  Spurs in the 3-6 m depth range were covered with 
partially bleached Agaricia tenuifolia last October, as we described in our 
message after that trip.  On January 9, the spurs showed obvious physical 
damage from Hurricane Mitch (wave heights were in the 5-6 m range in this 
portion of the barrier reef).  Spurs were wholly or partially devoid of 
living A. tenuifolia and Porites porites (the other common constituent of 
these spurs), because the blades and branches (respectively) had been 
sheared off.  Damage was patchy within and among spurs.  In shallower 
water, living and dead branches of Acropora palmata had been broken off 
and moved around, causing further damage.

Massive corals on the surrounding hardgrounds at Curlew Bank fared better, 
with a few Montastraea faveolata and Siderastrea siderea heads toppled 
but most head corals intact.  Most of the surviving foliose, branching, 
and massive corals appear to be recovering from bleaching and regaining 
their color.  Recovery of M. annularis and M. faveolata is patchy within 
colonies, as has been observed elsewhere for previous bleaching events.

We strongly agree with the sentiment against hypothesis-free monitoring for 
its own sake.  Nevertheless, the fact is that if you hang around a coral 
reef long enough something is bound to happen, especially under the volatile 
environmental conditions that prevail at present.


______________________________________________________________________________
Richard B. Aronson
Senior Marine Scientist
Dauphin Island Sea Lab
101 Bienville Boulevard
Dauphin Island, AL 36528

email: raronson@jaguar1.usouthal.edu


From: "Lucy Bunkley Williams" <lucy.biologia@darwin.upr.clu.edu>
Date: Mon, 11 Jan 1999 12:11:15 +0000
Subject: Re: 1999 Bleaching???

Just heard from a lab in Palau that around 1/4 to 1/3 of all 
corals there had died from bleaching.  Local government has 
apparently been trying to keep this quiet.  One researcher 
there is trying to document it.

Ernest H. Williams, Jr.
Department of Marine Sciences
University of Puerto Rico
P.O. Box 908
Lajas, PR 00667-0908



Date: Mon, 11 Jan 1999 10:21:19 -0600 (CST)
From: Hector Reyes Bonilla <hreyes@calafia.uabcs.mx>
To: astrong@nesdis.noaa.gov
Cc: "Peter W. Glynn" <pglynn@rsmas.miami.edu>
Subject: Re: Increase in geographic ranges

Thanks for your answer. Our idea is that as the gulf [Gulf of 
California] is warming, corals are going north, but in the most 
extreme sites (both in the northern gulf and in the Pacific side 
of the peninsula), there are "pseudopopulations" or expatriated 
populations which do not reproduce and depend on propagules 
from the south (this idea will be tested with histological studies). 
It is interesting that at the same time, is possible that bleachings 
will increase in the south (our data indicates that the 1998-98 
El Nino produced the largest SST increase when compared 
with the last four "big ones", and also generated the most 
important recorded bleaching of the century in the region). This 
way, the best area for corals in the gulf, which now is the Cape 
region and a little north (23 to 25N) may move north to, say, 25 
to 27N, as a compromise with high SST of the south and low in 
the north. It is interesting that this pattern is identical to that found 
in the Pleistocene in the same places! (at that time, the best reefs 
were located at 25N, and corals were far less abundant in the 
Cape region). So, we may be looking at a repetition of an old 
pattern (cronica de una muerte anunciada, like I like to call this). 
What do you think about this? Thanks for your answer and saludos!

Hector Reyes 
Mexico


Date: Mon, 11 Jan 1999 08:33:07 -1000 (HST)
From: Bruce Carlson <carlson@soest.hawaii.edu>
Subject: Re: 1999 Bleaching???

I received the following message from a fish collector in 
Fiji over the weekend:

"Sorry for the slow response. It is so hot here everything is 
happening in slow motion. Water temps are already 86, so I 
would imagine we will see some cyclone action this year!"

He did not mention coral bleaching but clearly they are noticing 
very warm water down there.

Bruce Carlson
Waikiki Aquarium



Date: Mon, 04 Jan 1999 16:17:50 +1100
From: Doug Fenner <d.fenner@aims.gov.au>
Subject: Indonesian reef condition

I'd like to confirm that some Indonesian reefs are still in 
relatively good condition.  An expedition by Conservation 
International to the Togean and Banggai Islands of Sulawesi, 
Indonesia in Oct-Nov 1998, found reefs in relatively good 
shape.  Live corals and small fish were abundant, and there 
were relatively few signs of destructive fishing practices.  
Water temperatures were relatively high in the Togians, and 
some bleaching was seen (as of late Oct), but neither was 
present in the Banggais.  Bunaken Is., near Manado, Sulawesi, 
was heavily bleached by mid-Nov.  A press release can be seen 
at http://www.conservation.org/web/news/pressrel/98-1207.htm

Douglas Fenner, Ph.D.
Coral Taxonomist
Australian Institute of Marine Science
PMB No 3
Townsville MC
Queensland 4810
Australia

e-mail: d.fenner@aims.gov.au
web: http://www.aims.gov.au