Earth Blog

The ARC Centre for Excellence of Coral Reef Studies in Australia published a study in the latest issue of the journal Ecology that would like to remind us there are a bunch of little fish that make coral reefs happy and healthy. Despite our focus on higher profile marine animals that often tug on our heartstrings (sea turtles) or frighten us (sharks), the fish that provide basic maintenance deserve some credit.

"Herbivorous fishes protect coral reefs by limiting the growth of algae, or seaweed," says Loïc Thibaut, the lead researcher of this study. "Seaweeds grow rapidly and compete with corals for space. If left unchecked, they can smother the corals and take over the reefs. This shift, once it happens, is extremely difficult to reverse."

Space may be the final frontier and while NASA works on mapping the moon’s gravitational field by scanning it crust to core, and monitoring solar flares that most certainly will not reach Earth, Google has cameras hard at work in the ocean.

The Wall Street Journal is reporting the debut of the Catlin Seaview Survey a prototype of a program that will eventually collect images of our oceans; or Google’s next logical step in their quest to image-capture every inch of our Earth. 

A threatened coral reef off the coast of Florida’s Broward County received a staghorn coral transplant last week. Researchers at Nova Southeastern University’s (NSU) Oceanographic Center noted that this was the first time this specific reef has received coral.  Along the Florida coast and globally reefs have previously benefited from nursery grown coral. 

“This is the northernmost location on the planet for transplanted staghorn corals,” said Abby Renegar, a researcher and doctoral student, “Staghorn corals previously have been transplanted in the Florida Keys, Southeast Florida, and other tropical locations around the world.”

A 71-kilometer marine reserve in Mexico is the new model for depleted ecosystems that could be restored with proper protection.  Fished to near depletion twelve years ago, Cabo Pulmo National Park (CPNP) in the Baja Peninsula is now teeming with marine life.  The biomass (fish population) has increased an astounding 463 percent.  What changed in CPNP?  People set it aside as a national park and protected the area from fishing and destruction of spawning areas for large predators and monitored the ocean to keep it clean.