Toxic runoff poses risk to Reef

By Leigh Dayton
February 17, 2007 12:00am

SATELLITE images of flooding in the Top End have revealed that runoff from the land is a greater threat to the Great Barrier Reef than experts believed.

Until now, most scientists thought the sediment and pollutants that washed into coastal waters after torrential rain slowly dispersed along the coastline, affecting only coral living on the inner reef.

However, a group headed by remote sensing expert Arnold Dekker of CSIRO Land and Water claimed the images clearly showed that potentially polluting plumes of water quickly travel to the outer regions of the reef, putting coral at risk.

"I was surprised and impressed," Dr Dekker said, recalling his first look at the pictures.

"I knew we had something that needed to be known broadly."

"What these images are showing is that significant rainfall is causing substantial flows into the rivers, estuaries and into the lagoon (between the coast and the Great Barrier Reef).

"The material is going - within days - right out to the outer reef and beyond."

The telltale images were taken between the 9th and 13th of February by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer.
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Coral cultivating catches on

By DOUG HARLOW
Staff Writer

Monday, February 12, 2007

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Staff photo by Jim Evans
The Sinularia coral will regenerate after a cutting is taken.

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Staff photo by Jim Evans
A freshly cut soft coral needs to be held in place until it can grow onto the rock and hold itself.
Today's Top Headlines
from the Kennebec Journal
Coral cultivating catches on
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Mims hits home
Purington completes comeback

All of today's: News | Sports

from the Kennebec Journal




Today's Top Headlines
from the Morning Sentinel
Elusive donkey still on lam
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Crash cause still unknown
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Purington completes comeback

All of today's: News | Sports

from the Morning Sentinel



FAIRFIELD -- A maroon clownfish peers from the waving tentacles of a sea anemone, then quickly retreats, disappearing into a shimmer of live coral.
The sight is intoxicating -- a glimpse into the life of a tropical coral reef.

And it is all happening on a snowy back road in rural Maine and, along the way, is helping to save the wild coral reefs of the world.

"That's Nemo's cousin," Penny Harkins, owner of Aqua Corals, Reef Aquariums, said of the 3-inch fish with the gold stripe. "She keeps backing off because you're new. She's a little bit timid of you."

The scene is played out among the splendor of 60 saltwater aquariums at Harkins' business on Nyes Corner Drive, off U.S. Route 201.

Hard corals and soft corals share space in these glass worlds with exotic clams that fan out like iridescent purple flowers, sea horses and invertebrates that include shrimp, starfish and sea mats. Harkins says she has 200 varieties of coral, 70 of which are for sale.

Corals live in the shallow waters of warm tropical seas. They are listed in three classes.

n Soft coral, which do not build a stony skeletal base.

n Large polyp stonies, which build stony skeletons that become reefs, but have soft, fleshy-tissue tops.

n Small polyp stonies, which are over 90 percent calcium and are the real reef builders.

"Those are corals that are not only on display but they're parents to the babies I make -- I actually go in there and cut those," Harkins said.

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The world's vanishing wonders thanks to global warming

Robin McKie

LONDON
05-Feb-07

FROM the Caribbean coral reef to the snows of Mount Kilimanjaro, many of the world's best-loved natural icons are threatened by global warming.

The snows of Kilimanjaro, Tanzania

The white top of Africa's highest mountain has become an icon, instantly recognisable, but Kilimanjaro's snows are disappearing at an alarming rate. The great peak, which once glowed 'unbelievably white in the sun' according to Hemingway, will turn an uninspiring dirty brown, a victim of global warming caused by ever-increasing amounts of carbon dioxide being pumped into the atmosphere. As 10,000 people visit the mountain each year, how the loss of the snow will affect this tourist trade is uncertain.

The Caribbean coral reef

Global warming is not the only side effect of higher levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Increasing amounts of the gas gets dissolved in the sea, making it ever more acidic. In addition, climate change is triggering more frequent extreme storms, particularly in the hurricane-ravaged Caribbean. All of this is bad news for the Meso-American reef which stretches down the coast of southern Mexico past Belize and into Honduras. It is now suffering a triple environmental whammy. Warmer water disrupts coral growth; acidic water affects coral's abilities to secrete new skeletons; hurricanes break it up. Environment activists warn that the reef home to thousands of marine species faces obliteration in the near future.

Polar bears, Canada

Every October and November, the remote town of Churchill in Canada is transformed into the polar bear capital of the world. Up to 1,200 bears gather on the icy tundra waiting for the sea in the Hudson Bay to freeze, to hunt for seals. However, the future of these creatures is in jeopardy. The Arctic is feeling the impact of global warming more than any other place on Earth and the bears' hunting grounds and migration routes are melting, forcing them to swim for dozens of miles in search of solid ground. Experts predict there will be few or no polar bears left in the wild by 2030.

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