|
Please note:
Coral LLC. uses only eco-safe above sea coral.
Above sea
coral was a thriving reef thousands of years ago and was geologically
pushed
up above sea level, free from the ocean pollution of the industrial
revolution.
The mineral content (except for lower heavy metals in above sea
coral) and
overall effectiveness of above sea and below sea coral is very
similar.
“Bottom
trawling, or dragging nets along the ocean floor to catch fish,
is so devastating to the marine environment that the practice
should be banned from fragile areas, according to a U.S. National
Academy of Sciences report released yesterday. The report, which
was requested by the National Marine Fisheries Service, recommended
protecting areas along the Pacific Coast, the North Atlantic,
the Gulf Coast, and the Alaskan coast, reducing trawling elsewhere,
and requiring modifications to equipment to minimize damage. The
recommendations were welcomed by environmentalists, some of whom
compare bottom trawling to clear-cutting. A bipartisan group of
Congress members plans to introduce legislation today to restrict
bottom trawling.”
Date:
Tuesday, March 19, 2002
Subject: National Academy of Sciences report on Trawling
Source: Los Angeles Times, Kenneth R. Weiss
“Clearing large
areas of coral rubble would certainly impact reef ecosystems,
not only because coral larvae settle on rubble (which is well-documented),
but also because there are countless organisms that inhabit spaces
within corals and rubble. Removing coral rubble from areas where
the underlying sediment is unsuitable for larval settlement would
certainly inhibit new corals from attaching and growing. I can't
conceive that this practice would not negatively affect the long-term
integrity of most coral reef ecosystems. There are other complexities,
such as the removal of coral rubble that would change micro-flow
patterns near the underlying substrate, in turn affecting the
settling ability of coral larvae.”
John Clark
Field, PhD Candidate
School of Aquatic and Fisheries Sciences
University of Washington
|
|
This
activity can harm the corals and the organisms that live in and
on them in two ways. First, the dredging and vacuuming activity
loosens and stirs up large amounts of sediment in the water. This
sediment smothers and kills corals and other organisms in the
ecosystem. An additional adverse effect of stirring up the sediment
with dredging and vacuuming activities is that the turbidity of
the water prevents light from reaching the corals, and the corals
need light in order to survive and grow. Secondly, reefs are formed
(and grow) by a process of bioaccretion (cementing together) of
carbonate particles that have been removed from the living coral
by bioerosion. If all the sediment that has accumulated around
a reef (especially that which has already begun to solidify and
hence does not risk smothering the reef) is scraped away, the
reef loses its capability to grow and keep up with sea -level
rise. Failure to grow and keep pace with sea-level rise would
mean the demise of the reef because the corals need light and
thus must be near the surface in order to live.
Dr. Marjorie
L. Reaka-Kudla, PhD, Professor, Department of Biology
The University of Maryland
|
