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This page includes highlights from NOAA Coral Reef News, the monthly e-newsletter of the NOAA Coral Reef Conservation Program. Click here for newsletter subscription information.
August 2008 - (*pdf, 1.30 mb). *If you require this newsletter in another format, please contact us. 20th Meeting of the U.S. Coral Reef Task Force. CRCP Brings Congressional Staff to Reef Resources. Tortugas Cruise Continues Assessment of MPAs as Coral Reef Management Strategy. OCNMS Partners with Canadian Coast Guard for Deep Coral Cruise. Workshop Begins Development of Research Strategy for Deep Light-dependent Coral Ecosystems. 20th Meeting of the U.S. Coral Reef Task Force. The 20th meeting of the U.S. Coral Reef Task Force (USCRTF) will take place from August 24 - 29 in Kona, Hawai`i. The Task Force's final meeting during International Year of the Reef 2008 will highlight conservation strategies, successes, and challenges in Hawai`i, as well as provide a forum to address threats to reefs, innovative solutions, and partnerships. Senior leaders from the Administration and in the Pacific region will share their vision for environmental leadership and stewardship including: Council on Environmental Quality Chairman, James Connaughton, EPA Secretary Johnson, Republic of Palau President Remengesau, and other traditional leaders from the Pacific. This year also marks the 10-year anniversary of the USCRTF; to mark this occasion, the USCRTF is considering a Renewed Call to Action and will discuss this topic during the meeting. On Sunday and Monday, preceding the business meeting, there will be several workshops providing opportunities for more in-depth discussion on key issues such as Recreational Stewardship, Land-Based Sources of Pollution, Bridging Communities and Government, and Climate Change Responses. Thursday is set aside for field trips and other opportunities to learn first-hand about on-the-ground marine and coastal conservation issues and strategies being employed in Hawai`i. The USCRTF is co-chaired by the Departments of Commerce and of the Interior, and includes leaders of 12 federal agencies, seven U.S. states and territories, and three freely associated states. The mission is to lead, coordinate, and strengthen U.S. government actions to better preserve and protect coral reef ecosystems. CRCP Brings Congressional Staff to Reef Resources. In celebration of International Year of the Reef 2008, the Coral Reef Conservation Program (CRCP) and NOAA’s Office of Legislative Affairs will be leading a group of nine Congressional staff to south Florida the week of August 18-22. The trip will offer a unique opportunity for Congressional staff to experience the suite of efforts conducted in the area to understand, conserve and sustain these complex and sensitive marine ecosystems. Over the course of the tour, participants will meet with NOAA representatives and staff from partner agencies, academic institutions, and other organizations to learn about resource management challenges and successes in the region. Issues covered will include understanding and controlling land based pollution impacts, managing for resiliency in the face of climate change, implementing effective protected areas, and mitigating coastal development. Staff members include representation of the Senate Commerce Committee majority and minority, House Resources Committee majority, House Science Committee majority and minority, Senate Appropriations Committee and personal staff of Senators Shelby and Cochran. The trip will begin in Fort Lauderdale and continue south through the Florida Keys to the Dry Tortugas to highlight the capabilities of NOAA and its partners. The trip will raise visibility for NOAA and its partners’ coral reef conservation efforts in Florida and reinforce the urgency for reauthorization of the Coral Reef Conservation Act of 2000. Hosts throughout the trip include staff from the State of Florida, National Coral Reef Institute, National Park Service, Southeast Fisheries Science Center, NMFS Southeast Regional Office, University of Miami, Mote Marine Lab, Broward County, The Nature Conservancy, and many Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary staff. Tortugas Cruise Continues Assessment of MPAs as Coral Reef Management Strategy. Scientists from NOAA's National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science conducted their eighth research cruise at the Tortugas Ecological Reserve (TER) to determine the ecological and economic consequences of establishing marine protected areas. This ecosystem management strategy was implemented in 2001 to protect and enhance coral reef and soft-bottom communities of the Dry Tortugas, FL. Baseline sampling for a before/after comparison of the TER ecology has been completed in both the TER North and South. This project will provide scientists, managers and the general public with a variety of data to evaluate the post-implementation effects of the TER. It will also evaluate a number of evolving technologies that can be applied to the evaluation of the long term effects of marine protected areas in general. Results to date show an increase in commercially important fish. An increased large predator population is expected to impact prey populations as well as the benthic habitat structure of the Tortugas. To further test these expectations, and to quantify the efficacy of this ecosystem management tool, scientists aboard the NOAA Ship Nancy Foster conducted diver and remote sonar surveys of benthic habitat and fishes from July 25-August 5. A member of CRCP Headquarters' communications team participated in this cruise as author of the online mission logs. OCNMS Partners with Canadian Coast Guard for Deep Coral Cruise. Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary (OCNMS) staff completed a deep sea cruise aboard the Canadian Coast Guard vessel, John P. Tully, equipped with the Canadian Scientific Submersible Facility remotely operated vehicle and a high-definition video camera. The cruise consisted of two legs, one in Dixon Entrance at the border between Alaska and British Columbia, to document corals, sponges and other benthic fauna. The second leg brought the vessel back to U.S. waters to conduct benthic recovery monitoring along the trenched telecommunications route in the northern portion of OCNMS, to map corals in areas around the trough of the Juan de Fuca Canyon and to conduct one dive in the Juan de Fuca Canyon. The participants documented large sponge fields in Dixon Entrance as well as an area where current patterns possibly caused an accumulation of rounded dead sponges. The survey along a portion of the cable route went smoothly; the trench was evident without the use of a cable tracker, and several addition potential coral sites were surveyed in the sanctuary. Corals were documented at several of these sites, including Primnoa, Paragoria, Swiftia, Plumarella and Stylaster species. Fields of glass sponges were also documented at one site. The canyon dive documented at least three species of black corals as well as other corals, and interesting species such as stalked sponges. OCNMS staff participated on the cruise, providing expertise in invertebrate and fish identifications as well as techniques in recording video data. This was OCNMS's first cruise to utilize cutting-edge high-definition video. Workshop Begins Development of Research Strategy for Deep Light-dependent Coral Ecosystems. National and international scientists and resource managers recently gathered to help develop the first comprehensive strategy to identify and prioritize research and management needs of mesophotic (deeper light-dependent) coral ecosystems. These relatively pristine coral ecosystems are typically found in tropical and sub-tropical regions between 30-100+ meters in association with algal and sponge communities. Mesophotic coral ecosystems (MCEs) can serve as refugia for shallow water species, and may warrant special resource management attention. This protection will help maintain local and/or regional biodiversity under increasing threats from both natural and anthropogenic sources such as bleaching, disease, harmful fishing practices, overfishing, and climate change. NOAA's National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science and National Undersea Research Program, in partnership with the U.S. Geological Survey, sponsored this first-ever MCE workshop. The research strategy will guide NOAA, other governmental agencies, and academia as they explore these relatively unknown coral ecosystems. |
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