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Wow! Like everyone that find
themselves on the famed Indies
Trader, I felt very excited and
lucky to be part of the Quiksilver
Crossing. Many surf breaks that
the Crossing visits break over
reefs that are isolated, and have
rarely or never been surveyed by
marine scientists, so the
Quiksilver Crossing provides a
fantastic opportunity to increase
our knowledge of coral reefs, and
the awareness of surfers!
So while the Aussie
grommets checked out the waves, I
checked out the health of the
wave-makers – the coral reefs. The
reefs we visited in this area were all
fringing reefs – shallow reefs
surrounding islands. Fringing reefs, as
opposed to oceanic barrier reefs or
atolls, tend to be more affected by
human influences, since they are so
close to land. As a result of this
proximity to human influences, fringing
reefs are prone to overfishing,
pollution, runoff of sediments and
fertilisers due to land clearing, and
physical destruction such as damage from
boat anchors. |
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FISHING
The reefs I surveyed on this Crossing
trip as part of the Reef Check global
monitoring program fringed islands with
small human populations or none at all.
As a result, I didn’t see much anchor
damage or rubbish on the reefs. However,
I saw very few large food fish, such as
Groupers, Snappers and Sweetlips, which
indicated that overfishing was a problem
on most of these reefs. One day the
cook, Mick, took myself and a couple of
the groms over to a small fishing boat
to buy some dinner, and they sold us a
large Red Emperor and some smaller
Snapper. So obviously supplies of these
food fish aren’t completely depleted,
but the fishermen told us that they
caught the fish on hand lines from quite
deep in the ocean, not from the shallow
areas where they would be easy to find
on a reef that’s not overfished. As we
were returning to our boat, we spotted
fishermen in the water, and went over to
say hi. These men had small plastic
bottles, filled with cyanide. This
poison is commonly used by fishermen in
developing nations to stun and kill
fish, but this is quite a destructive
fishing practise, because it kills more
than just the fish that are wanted for
the dinner table. Reef Check’s role is
not only to gain data on the presence or
absence of important reef animals, but
also to help increase local people’s
awareness of how coral reefs function
and how to use them in a sustainable
manner. Reef Check will provide data
from this and other trips to the local
people, and try to teach them that their
reefs will be more valuable and
productive if they use hand lines rather
than cyanide to catch their fish.
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REEF CONDITION
Unfortunately, the reefs I surveyed
weren’t only suffering from
overfishing. Almost all of the reefs had
very little live coral, and were instead
covered in a thin layer of sand and
algae (see photos). At first I thought
this was a result of the crown-of-thorns
starfish outbreaks which came through
the area a few years ago. These starfish
are carnivores that eat the tissue of
live coral, leaving only the skeleton
behind. However, as we visited more and
more reefs that looked quite dead, I
began to wonder if it really was
crown-of-thorns that had caused such
widespread devastation. Gregor Hodgson,
the Director of Reef Check, helped me to
solve the mystery. It turns out that the
ash from huge forest fires in this area
in 1997 caused reduced light and
seawater temperature, which corals
don’t like. The ash in the atmosphere
then triggered massive rains, which
caused large amounts of nutrients from
the land to be washed onto the reefs.
This created conditions perfect for
algal growth, and a massive 2-month long
algal bloom and red tide resulted,
smothering corals and killing most of
the reefs in this area. |
HOPE FOR THE FUTURE
Whilst the forest fires were a
severe blow to the coral reefs,
there is hope. I saw some small
coral colonies that have newly
recruited to the reefs, and
fragments of some of the older
colonies were still alive there.
If the local people and we do all
we can to prevent further human
impacts on the reefs, such as
overfishing, anchor damage, and
cyaniding, the reefs may recover.
But it’s not just up to the
local people. Global warming,
which appears to cause coral
bleaching, severely threatens the
health of the world’s coral
reefs, and it’s up to all of us
to try to reduce this problem.
This trip on the Quiksilver
Crossing was valuable not only for
data collection, but also because
it gave me the chance to discuss
some of the issues affecting coral
reefs with the crew and the young
grommets on board. These guys and
girls spend time with hundreds of
different surfers from all over
the world, so they’re perfectly
positioned to act as role models
and to spread the message of coral
reef awareness and conservation
throughout the surfing community.
Thanks Quiksilver for helping to
promote that message!
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