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CRY OF THE WATER AND
GLOBAL CORAL REEF ALLIANCE STATEMENT
August 30 2009
DEP’s press release highlighting exceptional Staghorn coral (Acropora cervicornis) reefs in Broward County implies that these reefs are new and are improving, when in fact they are long known and are currently declining. People seeing these reefs for the first time are not aware that they have deteriorated significantly since they were first described, the threats to them enumerated, and management plans proposed in the Cry of the Water / Global Coral Reef Alliance Report (T. Goreau and D. Clark, 2001, Reef Protection in Broward County, Florida): http://globalcoral.org/reef_protection_in_broward_count.htm. It is urgent that DEP immediately institute a comprehensive management plan for their protection.
The DEP press release and related newspaper articles paint a rosy picture of the current condition of this unique reef. On August 28 2009, immediately after publication of the DEP press release and newspaper articles, Cry of the Water divers again documented the current condition of the major field of Staghorn. Our videos show that coral health has gotten worse in the last month. Our video was shot on the same nearshore reef less than a mile south of where the press was taken (See Video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQDjX5Rkzbw and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ce2vjcC7mHk). While Staghorn has spread and is growing in some patches, mass mortality is now underway in the major sections of the same reef. Coral die off is largely due to new diseases, bleaching caused by high temperatures, and Lyngbya (cyanobacteria) blooms caused by poor water quality due to sewage effluents to coastal waters. Cry of the Water and the Global Coral Reef Alliance have provided DEP with photos and reports of diseases killing Staghorn and other corals on this reef for nearly a decade. The South East Florida Coral Reef Initiative Technical Advisory Committee (SEFCRI TAC) repeatedly told us that they were not monitoring coral diseases and we should find money to do disease assessment ourselves. With the assistance of one of the TAC members we were able obtain a Special Activity License to conduct an independent study. As we had no funding, Dr. Esther Peters, a leading expert on coral diseases, and our divers collected coral mucus, water, and sediment samples from healthy and diseased Staghorn and Elkhorn coral. These samples were processed and forwarded to NOAA. They show extensive coral diseases (see attached power point). The August 2009 videos show a sharp increase in coral mortality, bleaching, and in recently dead coral caused by diseases. It is now the end of summer and the water is very warm. Year after year we have reported sharp increases in coral bleaching, diseases and overgrowth by Lyngbya blooms at this time of year. Our latest videos document that Lyngbya blooms are now found on the inside of the reef, smothering seagrass, and could expand into the Staghorn field, as we have reported in past years. We are astonished by the claim “A few years ago, there was nothing out here, now its covered with coral”. Anyone who has been diving in Broward County for the last 30 years knows that nearshore reefs are mere remnants of what they were. Staghorn and Elkhorn corals were formerly much more abundant than today. Cry of the Water has compiled diver statements and photographs of Staghorn and Elkhorn coral colonies in Broward County going back to the 1950’s. The oldest divers from Dade, southern Broward, and Palm Beach County all told us that shallow inshore reefs where they used to lobster and spearfish were all killed by sediments after dredge fill was dumped on the beaches, everywhere except this last remaining segment. Extensive fields of Elkhorn are seen in photographs taken close to Anglers Pier in Lauderdale-by-the-Sea in 1957. The articles quote Prof Richard Dodge of Nova University (a major consultant for dredging projects) saying he “does not know why nearshore reefs in the Ft. Lauderdale area are doing better than other reefs”. The reason is well known: Ft. Lauderdale has never had a massive beach dredge-fill project, unlike most of the rest of SE Florida. No systematic coral reef surveys were conducted until AFTER nearshore reefs were killed by beach dredge-fill projects. Consultants and contractors failed to report coral reefs in dredging permit applications because it is in their client’s interests to downplay coral resources that could be harmed. The first Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the Ft. Lauderdale dredge and fill project (Broward County Segment II) released in 1999 claimed that there was little or no coral in front of Ft. Lauderdale. Cry of the Water’s surveys documented the highest density and diversity of corals and the largest field of Staghorn in Broward County in the same area reported by the dredging consultants to have little or no coral reef of value. DEP then approved plans to dredge and fill the beach in this last surviving nearshore coral reef. Ironically this was the ONLY place left in SE Florida where the original nearshore reef had survived because it was the only portion where the reef had not already been killed by beach dredge fill dumping! After documenting this unique coral reef Cry of the Water was forced to file an Administrative Hearing to stop a million of cubic yards of poor quality sand from being pumped onto the Ft. Lauderdale beach right next to the last surviving inshore reef. The County was allowed to proceed with Segment III (South of Port Everglades to the County line). In Segment III we watched colonies of Staghorn and nearshore reef buried and smothered by dredge fill sand washed off the beach and onto the reef. The impacts of the beach dredge and fill project in Segment III have been far greater than predicted. The extent of coral burial and destruction along 8 miles of reef in Segment III can never be properly mitigated. The Staghorn colonies that were killed were just starting to come back after a previous beach project in the same area. Reef managers are focused on recruitment and transplantation and not enough efforts are being focused on bleaching, diseases, water quality and sedimentation. If we do not address the fundamental environmental conditions that cause these corals to be killed, transplantation will be futile. Millions of dollars are proposed to be spent on transplantation, if corals are moved a significant distance it could spread diseases and do more harm than good. Broward County reefs need the same protection and management as the Florida Keys. |
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