NEWS (1 Viewer)

[Llama]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100818/ap_on_sc/as_indonesia_dying_coral_4

 

[Tempset]

They should've let collector's run in there and take it all out before it got too warm!

 

[rxonco]

The cause appears to be the warming seas, which to some degree can be blamed on global warming.

The high water temperatures — which the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Coral Hotspots website indicates have affected the entire Andaman Sea and beyond — also occurred soon after the sun was at its zenith and at time of little cloud cover or wind.
Clive Wilkinson, a coordinator at the Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network in Australia, called it a "lethal combination" for coral, especially when it continues for more than a month, as was also the case in 1998.

The hotspot has affected reefs across Indonesia as well as in Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam and Sri Lanka, and it is now pushing its way northward.

Couldn't have just been nature's course caused by the sun and no wind. Gotta throw in that Global Warming nonsense to keep with the script.

 

[Llama]

The cause appears to be the warming seas, which to some degree can be blamed on global warming.

The high water temperatures — which the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Coral Hotspots website indicates have affected the entire Andaman Sea and beyond — also occurred soon after the sun was at its zenith and at time of little cloud cover or wind.
Clive Wilkinson, a coordinator at the Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network in Australia, called it a "lethal combination" for coral, especially when it continues for more than a month, as was also the case in 1998.

The hotspot has affected reefs across Indonesia as well as in Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam and Sri Lanka, and it is now pushing its way northward.

Couldn't have just been nature's course caused by the sun and no wind. Gotta throw in that Global Warming nonsense to keep with the script.

Agreed! I have taught myself to ignore all the BS in the news and just read around for the information that I care about.

I feel that the reefs will simply be changing locations once our cycle settles down. The real question is how long will the process take.

 

[rxonco]

Might be a good thing in that it will encourage many more to start getting locally grown corals from fellow reefers.

 

[crvz]

I just skimmed the article, but what I find interesting is they point out that 80% of bleached corals die. They don't bother stating in any form how much coral has bleached. If you don't catch that nuance, the casual reader would probably conclude that 80% of corals are dieing in Indonesia, which is not at all the reality.

 

[Llama]

"The Wildlife Conservation Society deployed marine biologists to Aceh province, on the tip of Sumatra island, in May when surface waters in the Andaman Sea peaked at 93 degrees Fahrenheit (34 degrees Celsius) — a 7 degree Fahrenheit (4 degree Celsius) rise over long-term averages."

"The teams discovered massive bleaching, which occurs when algae living inside coral tissues are expelled. Subsequent surveys carried out together with Australia's James Cook University and Indonesia's Syiah Kuala University showed 80 percent of those corals have since died."

I don't think they are making a general statement here. I think they are talking about actual findings from a survey done in May.