Coral Reef Restoration Program Could Go Global

NASA CORAL now studies Global Reefs from above to increase survey and data dramatically

More than 2,500 Top Coral Experts from 97 different Countries met in Hawaii for the 13th International Coral Reef Symposium. If the World listens to what they are saying -and it seems like they are, there could be a Global Coral Program soon. Signs from different parts of the World show that action is already on its way.  

“No one cares about coral. No one is listening. Wrong. TV stations, the Associated Press, online and print journalists, International Media, and more. Scientists, you are a voice for coral, you are a bridge to move policy,” on June 21 the International Coral Reef Symposium blasted from Hawaii on its Facebook page while coverage on the international meeting continued to gain momentum.

On June 16 just days before the meeting the Government of Australia pledged 1 billion USD to restore the Great Barrier. Around the World in the Caribbean, Pacific and Indonesia Ocean small local restoration programs are springing from Cayman to Madagascar, from Fiji to Palau. Locals work with International Organisations to restore coral reefs.

Meanwhile Coral conservation just went airborn under the new NASA CORAL program which will monitor Global Corals from the sky. The 15 Million USD CORAL NASA mission will increase understanding and conservation and reveal the status and health of our corals. 

And action for Global Coral Reefs does not stop there. Governments from around the World in the past two years have more than doubled the Marine Protected Areas of our planet -hoping to reach at least 30% of Global Sea Surface Protection. New MPAs include that of Chile, New Zealand, Palau, US, UK and many others. But from Hawaii top International Coral experts agree that more is needed, and they know exactly what more. 

Hawaii News Now reported on June 20 from the Forum attended by over 2.5 thousand science experts. Speaking in one clear voice experts at Hawaii said that "Destruction of Coral Reefs needs to Stop Now". 

“What we have to do is to really translate the urgency,” Ruth Gates President of the International Society for Reef Studies and Director of the Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology said at the meeting.

Scientist recognized local impacts such as runoff pollution, water contamination, waste management, pesticides, overfishing and illegal fishing as big problems but assure that if Global Climate Change is not tackled from an International perspective all action is irrelevant. Considering United Nations Development Goals and new drafting of International Ocean Legislation it would be of no surprise if legal action at an International Level in this specific sector. This would bound all Nations simultaneously in the conservation and restoration of Global Coral Reefs. 

Scientists at Hawaii warned that coral bleaching is widespread and causing record mortality rates in global reefs. Acificiation and the installed El Niño and its aftermath is increasing vulnerability and leading to more depleted ecosystems which once provided economic, social and environmental shelter to the global populations. 

NOAA -the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration revealed that El Niño´s effect -installed since 2014 and its aftermath will continue to affect Corals until the end of 2016. 

“After the most powerful El Niño on record heated the World's oceans to never-before-seen levels, huge swaths of once vibrant coral reefs that were teeming with life are now stark white ghost towns disintegrating into the sea,” NOAA representatives at Hawaii said. 

Scientists from the International Coral Reef Symposium have taken this year special strength and assure that they will be “diving” to face global warming and “decades of devastating reef destruction”. They have made this year's top agenda to “Bridge Science with Policy”.  Scientists urge governments to take responsibility and release finance to tackle the loss of the most important ecosystems on this planet. 

Their mission and goal this year is to create a Unified Conservation Plan for Coral Reefs. The plan will include detailed policies and actions and already has the science needewd to back up the bullet points. Hawaii News Now revealed that the plan would cover topics ranging from coral reefs and climate change, cutting edge technology in coral science, community-based management, coastal pollution and the role of Marine Protected Areas MPAs.

Spèakers at the Forum applauded actions like those which Palau's President Tommy Remengesau Jr took when in 2015 through new Laws protected 80% of Palau´s Territorial Waters. They called this action a clear example of how Science Bridges with Policy. The declaration of Palau´s new MPAs was part of a 2014-21015-2016 wave of New MPAs which springed from different parts of the World. Still an MPA on its own is like an island in the middle of the ocean. Much of what happens on impacted reefs is caused by events which take place on land and even by events which take place far away in developed countries. Global Temperatures are the main priority. 

"Local conservation buys us time, but it isn't enough," Jennifer Koss Director of NOAA's Coral Reef Conservation Program added. "Globally, we need to better understand what actions we all can take to combat the effects of Climate Change."

“We've got to do better at retaining water on land and do better action on land because that's really where coral protection start”, Richmond President of the Forum at Honolulu said.

NASA explains that Coral Reefs are “Not Just a Pretty Face”. “Corals have outlived dinosaurs, existing on Earth since the mid-Triassic period, 200-250 million years ago,” NASA CORAL explains adding that coral reefs species live both in the surface as well as in their Deep Coral Reef form. Additionally they add that only a small percentage -under 10% of global coral reefs have exhaustively been surveyed.  

When massive Cyclones travel across the Indian and Pacific Ocean, when Hurricanes rip through the Caribbean basin and Tropical Storms charge against the coasts of Asia putting billions of lives in death risk Coral Reefs stand as the final barrier between mitigation or complete devastation. What follows after a natural disaster are deadly vector diseases, lack of services and lack of water and conditions in which mortality takes over local population swift and fast. Economies collapse completely in these events while the World in its fastest pace tries to aid the afflicted -a scenery we have lived more than we needed in the past years. Coral Reefs are the last frontier in the the prevention and protection of natural disasters. 

Even more on everyday basis Coral Reefs provide a way of life to billions of people. From local sustainable fisheries to blooming tourism to scientific developments. As we continue to study reefs we begin not only to understand their value to the ecosystem but their value to human health. Once again the health of the ocean runs side by side the health of our kind.

Coral reef bio-chemical cycles are responsible for the balance of life-cycles of this planet as we know them. Life is possible because coral reefs are here. 

“Reefs are integral to the overall ecosystem and are an essential component of everyday human existence,”  the International Coral Reef Symposium ends it. 

Coordinator of NOAA Coral Reef Watch program Mark Eakin signaled and warned that areas like Hawaii and Florida have reasons to be concerned about coral bleaching as they have already been under the impact for two years in a row. What a third year of bleaching could do to these iconic Coral Reef areas is unknown. Eakin also spoke of Palau and Micronesia Pacific Islands as those areas under the “biggest threats” under El Niño and its aftermath. 

"What happens if we don't take care of our reefs?" the Forum asked and found their own space to respond.  

“If the scientific community and the World's governments can't come together to address coral's decline, one of Earth's most critical habitats could soon be gone, leaving humans to deal with the unforeseen consequences,” they answered. 

"Global Climate Change is the greatest threat to the future of coral reefs...the International community has recognized this, and while not perfect, has agreed to long term targets that are consistent with scientific targets. Reefs however will not be able to re-flourish until conditions stabilize," Ove Hoegh-Guldberg speaking at Hawaii stated.

"How much is too much? Anything beyond 1.5 C is too much for coral reefs," Hoegh-Guldberg concluded. 

So...What can we do? Infact there is a lot we can do. 

The Australian Government assured that the new 1 billion USD dollars they will put to the conservation of the Great Barrier will fund innovative Reef Conservation actions. The Reef Fund identified impacts on land and will invest to mitigate them. From clean energy and water, agriculture pesticide and runoff pollution programs to ocean conservation the Fund will dedicate to the Great Barrier Reef. 

“Climate change is the greatest long-term threat to the Great Barrier Reef and to all coral reefs around the World,” the Government of Australia stated. 

In the Cayman Islands scientists have already bridged science with policy and are making progress in a more small scale program. The Cayman Island program is but just one of the hundreds of the Small-Scale Reef Restoration programs working in the World. 

On June 14 Cayman News Service reported that Cayman´s coral nurseries are starting to flourish. 

“A project to grow new coral in local waters in an effort to replenish the increasingly depleted local reefs is doing well, according to experts working on the nurseries. Reefs around the Cayman Islands have been impacted by overfishing, coastal development and climate change issues, such as bleaching. Marine scientists say it will prove difficult to bring the islands’ reefs back to the health they enjoyed even twenty years ago but there is hope that the nurseries, in combination with other conservation projects, can help slow down the loss and maintain close to what we have,” the media reported. 

Cayman´s Department of Environment working with local diver operators Ocean Frontier, Sunset House, Divetech, Eco Divers and others received green light to set up nurseries and teamed up with experts to set up coral gardens some time ago. 

“So far everything looks great. There has been zero mortality from the collected coral,” Lois Hatcher Manager of the Nursery for Ocean Frontiers told the media. “We are doing weekly maintenance on the site and setting up a report for the Department of Environment. The fragments are being monitored for disease, photographed and measured. They already show visible growth after just a few weeks.”

Coral trees in the Caymans were set up with the support and help of the Sea of Change Foundation -NGO which donated funds and experts as well as materials necessary for coral garden construction. 

“Every year the Foundation (Sea of Change) picks a project that we believe will make a difference in saving our seas, and this year we picked Cayman’s coral nursery program,” Board member of Sea of Change Jerry Beaty stated. 

“We’ve seen this method succeed in other places and because Cayman is such a prime dive destination, we want to do what we can to keep it that way,” Sea of Change added. 

The Foundation also works in Palau in a different project. The Sea of Change WildAid Palau 2015 Northern Reef Project teamed up with locals, local government and Nature Conservancy to take on a vigilance approach which will allow to enforce laws of conservation. They installed high power video camera systems which allows them to track and report passing ships and vessels to Rangers. 

“The Northern Reef Project is home to some of Palau’s most productive fishing grounds and encompasses a total of 3,930 Km2 of territorial waters but these waters include important habitats of coral reef systems,” the Government of Palau says adding that the waters in question are protected under MPA laws. Similar small scale projects are expected to launch in the near future. 

NASA -working on what they do best, assures that their work will be a “Game Changer” for Corals. The CORAL JPL Jet Propulsion Laboratory technology will allow us to survey Coral Reefs in more detail than ever before, providing valuable information that will help scientists mitigate against Climate Change.

Leader of the CORAL Program Eric Hochberg and his colleagues at NASA celebrated the launch of CORAL on June 6. NASA specially outfitted a NASA aeroplane to map the spectra of sunlight reflecting off reefs spread across the Pacific Ocean far below. Things got very technical but basically using complex equipment and even more complex analysis as well as ocean diving verification NASA will be able to check the health of the Global Coral Reefs.

“The three-year,15-million USD Coral Reef Airborne Laboratory CORAL project will be the biggest and most detailed study yet of entire reefs, rather than just the small patches that scuba divers can reach,” NASA assured.  

After its surveys in Hawaii, Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, the Mariana Islands and Palau CORAL will have mapped about 3–4% of the World’s reef area, hundreds of times more than previous scuba surveys.

“Scientists will get state-of-the-art insights into how biological, physical and chemical processes shape and affect the ecosystems. These data will help them answer fundamental questions about how Global Coral Reefs are changing globally due to the effects of Climate Change and human activities,” NASA CORAL now airborne kicks it. 

From Honolulu, Hawaii speakers part of the over 2,500 Coral Reef Scientists from more than 70 Nations which gathered for the 13th International Coral Reef Symposium continued to flood the media with inspiring new reports and data. The World listened...

Their mission...a Unified Conservation Plan for Coral Reefs.