How long 'til all the reefs are gone?

[MelanieF]

I watched in horror last night as a nature showed went through recent events explaining a caulerpa algae (taxifolia?) outbreak that has pretty much invaded the Mediterranean Sea and wiped out all reef life in its path. It is already starting to threaten the reefs around Australia as well. The only way scientists have found of controlling the "weed" is covering it in tarps and dumping chlorine inside the tarp. This tactic is useless in the Mediterranean due to the fields of it already under the sea.

What pisses me off the most about this is the strain is indestructible via nature due to its high toxin level and ability to clone itself at rapid speeds and guess where it came from? A friggin aquarium that possibly "unknowingly" bred this horrible strain for pretty fauna capabilities and then let traces of it slip through drainage into the sea.

Once again the humans have scored one for the team eh? I guess our hobby is more important than ever now since it may be possible in the future that the only place to see a "natural" reef is in our homes. The sea may end up being one continuous green field.

Please gimmee some feedback people if you have conflicting info but I watched the whole show as I couldn't stop.

 

[Will C1]

i saw this also and to my horror i looked in my tank and there it was staring me in the face. thats right i have it in my refuguim. i had no idea it was posionus. i think i will take the bugger out and let it lay in the sun for a while lol. it dosent seem to grow that well though. but in the ocean im sure it does quite well. some of my fish were eating it and thats why i moved it to the refuge so it wouldent get destroyed. hmmm...thats wierd its posionus but my lemmon pell angel at it with no side effects. i wonder if this species could be used to control it? mabe i have a similar species and not the bad one. anybody know if there is a look-a-like?

 

[Anonymous]

Didn't see the show, but will Tivo it!

Last time this was discussed here there was much thinking that the introduction was not from an aquarium, rather from the bilge of ships. Anyone have any thoughts or actual research? Did they show any evidence in the show or did they just state it?

 

[shalegac]

This NOVA program was very imformative. It made me take a look at my tank and wonder... :roll: Remember the strain mutated a bit so what may be in aquariums may be a different form. I belive it depends on where and when you bought it. A little research may be in order.

 

[shalegac]

This NOVA program was very imformative. It made me take a look at my tank and wonder... :roll: Remember the strain mutated a bit so what may be in aquariums may be a different form. I belive it depends on where and when you bought it. A little research may be in order.

 

[MaryHM]

The strain introduced into the Mediterranean has apparently been traced back to a public aquarium release. The stuff that's popped up here in Southern California is more than likely from ships, although hobbyists have been blamed (with no proof).

 

[rh]

There's a relatively recent book available that traces the origins of this environmental disaster - can't recall the title offhand but a generic search could probably turn it up. I believe the origin can be traced to the Aquarium of Monaco dumping an alien (to the Mediterranean) species of caulerpa from one of their tanks into the sea. A sad yet familiar example of endemic organisms' inability to cope with introduced alien species has of course followed.

 

[Philippe Dor]

Pure Crap, look at my reply to this in post below"Nova, deep sea invasion"

For all hobbyists who have never been on a real reef, Caulerpa taxifolia has been growing naturally on the Great Bariier Reef for probably as lomg as the reef has existed and will never be any threat to any reef ever.

The media is only interested in sensationalism and will report events in the way that suits them, they never tell the full story as they are not accountable to anybody for whatever nonsense they report and they are only interested in their own 'business" ratings.

 

[MelanieF]

I take it you didn't see the show... There are different strains of caulerpa and before you toss it off as crap as their government did you may want to think and research before you speak. Scientists are extremely concerned and if you had seen the show you would have visual proof of the destruction. It is literally a field of green where there used to be corals and fish.

I am also quick to assume the media blows things out of proportion but this show provided me with visual evidence.

 

[MelanieF]

Righty,

They didn't provide any evidence of where this strain originated from but one theory went something like this...

Someone collected a particularly large, healthy strain of Caulerpa from colder ocean depths and brought it back to a public aquarium which then put it into a warmer tank with lots of nice supplements. (possibly why it can survive in warm and cold temps). At some point it made it into the sea below and then that is where the ships came in. It appears due to the pattern of outbreaks that ships anchors transported the Caulerpa from port to port.

It is mentioned in a post here somewhere that ships were accused of starting it but they could only possibly have spread it. Humans at some point were responsible for the strain and instead of shaking our heads in denial we need to take responsibility and learn something from all of this.

 

[Anonymous]

They didn't provide any evidence of where this strain originated from but one theory went something like this...

...It is mentioned in a post here somewhere that ships were accused of starting it but they could only possibly have spread it. Humans at some point were responsible for the strain and instead of shaking our heads in denial we need to take responsibility and learn something from all of this.

Just to be clear, I am not shaking my head in denial, and if ships were to blame then so were humans. It makes me nervous that aquariums, public or private, get blamed on a theory of collection - when competing theories are just as plausable, and this theory has no evidence.
Science shows can be just as full as bs and sensationalistic as any other shows. I just want to make sure the blame is put in the right place.

Anyway, I will see the show on Firday, and will have better opinions then.

 

[MarkO1]

I'll probably get flamed for saying this but I think Mother Nature has a pretty good way of working things out.
I also think (like Phil) that even PBS is not immune to sensationalism and ratings.
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[0db]

I'll probably get flamed for saying this but I think Mother Nature has a pretty good way of working things out.
I also think (like Phil) that even PBS is not immune to sensationalism and ratings.

 

[MelanieF]

I don't disagree w/ you about TV channels always trying for ratings no matter what they must resort to. Visual video does say a lot to me though. They did not say they had all the answers about how it started or how to handle it but simply gave us the facts and theories for us to think about.

I also agree that Mother Nature seems to have a way of working things out but it hurts me deeply to see her tested. She obviously can't work everything out as there were animals on this planet in the past that aren't here now. We humans always seem to survive but at what cost? Our technology now does more damage to this planet than ever before but there are still starving children. We can go into space and do research but we can't seem to solve the problems at home first. I hope that humankinds' plan isn't simply to take what we can get from Earth and move on to torture another planet in the future...

I get the feeling sometimes that I am a minority when it comes to wanting to avoid disasters in nature. To so many people their everyday life is more consuming than the big picture. And even when I get into conversations with my own closest friends, they tell me that if the planet goes to "hell" it won't be in our lifetimes. That irks me because it says to me that even my friends care more about the survival of themselves than their own descendants. I don't know... one person can't make a difference but I can at least try to open some minds.

 

[MarkO1]

Melebelle, I understand your opinion, but I think that evolution, extinction and "survival of the fittest" is all a part of nature. Some animals are not around anymore because of man, but some are not around due to other circumstances. (My bet is that man is responsible for the demise of less than 1/100 of 1 percent of all extinct creatures.)
But I also agree with you and think we should take a more responsible role.
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