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and this is one of the friends she was
called like pop-up events we're sorry
crap corners but reading space is kind
of limited these days after make news
it's almost impossible
now very important subject the state of
the reefs posit arcane and very grateful
to to our local experts Miller
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[Music]
I do the most knowledgeable about what's
going on here under the water and over
the last many months in 1616 what's
above the surface you know an
interesting the state of the direction
of other resources post or put it on
your calendars and help see you here
1860 same time I've lived the same place
I will try to get more chair
thank you very much appreciated anything
sir rearranging your schedules to be
able to be here for this we'll take
questions at the end if there's
something just really pressing you got
to say let's know the bully to the
questions lesson can be on the
programmer so to kind of keep the flow
going to keep it moving but thanks to
the France X of the National Park for
having us here and providing a space for
us well sure who are almost going to
come so I thought okay better at this a
little refresher over what we went
through this is a little video from a
friend in Burma yeah we were here I will
for a while and that it was really an
intense experience so I don't think
anybody really wants to go into that
things on the Land O'Lakes the el borde
is going to go into this in much more
detail
timber respond a whole lot faster than
it does in the water so the question is
what really happened to the water after
hurricane before I go to bed let's talk
about reefs and really what reefs are
and what they mean to us I mean so what
if the reeds get torn apart what what's
the big deal
so besides being a source of natural
beauty breeds provide structure they
build structure they build habitats that
habitat that structure then becomes the
source of being more incredible
versity of other organisms associated
with those reefs so they are a cascade
of an effect that just builds us really
complex ecosystem it is a place that has
some the most incredible the highest
biodiversity on the planet and from the
divided versity we get all sorts of
materials chemicals medicines we get
food and the problem is when that starts
to break down and go away we don't know
we've lost because it's gone so that can
be a big problem we get shoreline
protection from an obstruction we
thought the erosion and model was bad
but imagine what happens that reef
further offshore by were called wind
spirit reef that wasn't there that wave
energy on the shoreline were many more
intense we get economic built benefits
from reefs in the billions of dollars
that's not humilities that's billions
and that's from a publication by reefs
at risk which is really excellent
document to take a look at and quite
frankly it's the job of the National
Park to take care of these systems the
the legislation rated the national parks
in 1916 states that the mandate from the
National Park Service is to conserve the
scenery and the natural historic objects
and the wildlife therein and to provide
for the enjoyment of the
such a manner by such a means as will
lead them on and share the enjoyment of
future generations that's a tremendously
lofty goal and it's something that that
I think is is really worth striving for
so what happens on the water during
hurricane this is the same piece of
coral from September 2016
- November of 2017 I can't imagine how
many hundreds of pounds as poor ways
it's looking about 45 feet it may
survive this we don't even know how fast
pillar coral grows so don't really know
how old this coral is but the damage
that you see underwater is largely a
function of where you're looking and
that seemed Facebook post some people
say what I it was just completely
destroyed was a bad it's already
starting to come back and it the truth
it's it's kind of both of those so let's
talk about what you see when you look at
specific places a lot of the coral
around the island grows in very low
profile especially that gives the keys
up against the shoreline they're
relatively low profile they're reefs
that are growing on rocks they're
encrusting reefs they grow in about 20
feet or less think of these as the
places that you go when you go
snorkeling these are places like off
Truckee all cinema key off whistling key
they're near shore Oakland and salt
lining and Kittel Bay so those are the
places where you find these relatively
low profile reads
pretty okay they like hi well then like
they exist well in high wave energy
environments and that's certainly what
we had with to category 5 hurricanes
another type of grief is a higher
profile reef reefs that grow up and off
the ground
recent growing on top of themselves
these are more emergent type of reefs
they grow up in the water column they're
deeper than people see when they go so
it's good diving so that kind of parses
these two different these are vulnerable
in storm events and wave energy to being
toppled over and that's what we commonly
see they're the things adjacent to the
keys on the North Shore limesurvey
and some of the study sites will talk
about it going on that's where you find
these higher profile reefs now just
because a reef as part of a reef is
knocked over doesn't mean it's the end
of thing so this picture in the middle
that's the the small start
forma coliform and this picture shows
one that was not completely excited it
now has become habitat for other corals
to grow on top of it so just because
it's upside down and doesn't mean the
end of the world that certainly change
the world for a little while
and it was a net loss but there's a game
that slowly comes back if that chloral
just doesn't continue to roll around it
has to stabilize itself in that that new
position so some type of reefs do become
future have ten so let's take a look at
at these different places that have
these different style reefs and that
made it helpless dialogue due to what
happened in one those relatively low
profile weeks those in Kressley reefs
generally found along the North Shore of
those popular snorkeling locations right
and this is all very qualitative I mean
I went in and I looked around at all
these places didn't take any
measurements but my general observations
that stuff is that there's moderate
damage certainly there are toppled in
this place holds no doubt about that
CC fans laying on their side no doubt
about that you see the large trees and
debris bumped up against the corals no
doubt about that but you also see many
corals still attached to the bottom and
still in growth position and that's a
very positive thing okay it could have
been a whole lot worse when I mr.
sparkly Hawks Nest and saw this kind of
rubble around there I was really
discouraged but then I went out towards
the edge and saw there was still and
even after this well that happened at
the end of February which caused a
tremendous amount of energy on those
shallow water eats it still is in that
growth position so I know it's hard to
go out there and see your favorite
things laying on their side
maybe they'll stabilize and new stuff
will grow on it we've got to look at the
things that did survive because with the
amount of energy that was expended upon
those shallow water environments it
could've been a lot worse
let's take a look at the higher profile
reefs the reefs growing upon themselves
the deeper reefs and I'm going to focus
specifically on our study sites we have
four of them I'll talk about tonight all
over reef medevac geology and tech type
region south shore
these places the shallow water portion
of those those that were between 20 and
30 feet big
and these pictures are from those
streets this small stock coral is
actually one of the corals listed on the
endangered species act as threatened not
only is it not go but it's one that
we're giving extra special protection so
this is difficult to see another example
of this here is a tektite this is a very
shallow water transect so this is the
same line on the bottom this is one of
our study points I know it's the same
place because that's exactly the same
coral we have that pin in the water but
what's interesting here is is Wicked's
that stuff on the left on the picture on
the right it's just completely gone so
this took the brunt of the energy on
that
we've actually we also saw that after
the storm the water quality wasn't what
we're used to corals like very low
amount coral reefs like low amount of
nutrients and somehow we had a lot of
nutrients in the water now whether that
was from shore side runoff what was deep
water upwelling whether it was from this
organic material that is washed off the
land that is now decaying in the water I
don't really know the answer to that but
the combination of all those nutrients
made the plants grow like crazy and what
we saw was abundant fleshing algae
that's over growing some of the hard
corals in the soft corals sometimes just
age and wave action and take care of
that but that's kind of troubling to see
but this is the effect of these storms
none of this is uncommon this is stuff
that we typically see after these wave
events to be storming so when we're
looking at the reefs these for study
sites that we've been going to for
decades and I've got to put this in the
context of coral cover what's coral
cuddling easiest way to describe pool
cover
with this picture I mean I think you can
tell there's heads there but Hubbard
with different amount of air so what we
do we look down onto the reefs and use
scientific methods to actually identify
and quantify to measure and count how
much the bottom is covered with what
kind of stuff so that's what we talk
about when we talk about percent cover
so I'm going to talk about the percent
coral cover and at Haulover this is a
figure from 2003 through 2018 we just
were there in January we see the big
die-off that occurred after the disease
and the bleaching in 2005 2007 but we
didn't really see a change between 2017
and 2018 from the hurricane Sanatorium
and abettor no real change between 2017
and 2018 same story a tektite he even
know we had that destruction in the
South shallow water there's enough deep
water within his study site and there
was the destruction there so the coral
cover stayed the same
but unfortunately a galaxy we did see a
31 percent decline in coral cover which
is what you're seeing right in the heart
there the Aussie tells kind of an
interesting story we have this decline
between
don't look at that we had that decline
between 2005 and 2007 but noticing how's
he recovered right it actually almost
got up to where it was pre to 2005
unfortunately this storm set it back
about a decade and that's that's kind of
hard to tip here's kind of interesting
case study right so when I talk about is
high-profile waves local where weeks and
a depth contour about 20 25 feet and
monster Bay is a place that kind of
tells the whole story I'm going to focus
in on this three buoy area in limesurvey
right in here kind of up near the
shoreline it's a relatively shallow and
then it slopes off deep that's where you
can see that dark color come in here
that's the depth gradient so the shallow
even it was relatively high profile it
got hit and pummeled pretty bad I mean
in places in that area it looks like
somebody actually took their arm and
kind of scraped it off the bottom but
when you go a little deeper and I
apologize my picture didn't turn out
when you got deeper in that three buoy
area down to that 30 and 40 foot depth
it looks pretty okay I mean again yeah
it's a little topple but it's mostly
okay they're shallow water took the
brunt of most of
most network now you go just a
quarter-mile away to water lemon key now
you've got kind of a shallow relatively
low profile area you can have some
higher profile stuff it did get a few
corals toppled this guy is interesting
this coral actually rolled around and
ended up right side up which is kind of
cool but you can see now they're rolling
around and I chewed a lot of the live
coral cover away hopefully that will
begin to recede itself but mostly water
lemon key turned out all right
I mean it looks for the most part like
it did prior to which is really pretty
amazing in that it's just a quarter-mile
away we still don't know why that
happens I mean why does some places just
get pummeled and others are okay so
that's adding a full story so just the
contrast between you know the more
interesting
so what happened this when what happens
underwater during hurricane the tough
story the hard story is that we lose
structure that structure is the key to
so many things it's this is really a
tough analogy is like an apartment
building it's like a house it's like
where we live and when you know so when
we lose the structure on the reef those
other reef organisms go someplace else
near thing that we haven't got this nail
down yet but we think we're seeing is
that that when the reef is contiguous
when there's good reef structure it
provides more of a barrier and a
stronger barrier to the wave energy in
the wave action but when there's cracks
and breaks in this structure it begins
to crumble and fall apart so it's really
important that the reef stay well
developed and well formed what about the
other stuff what about sea fans and
sponges sea fans one of our
investigators has sent some work on the
south side he estimates
20 percent decline and the opticals
that's the see fans see whips the see
plumes
so he's estimating about a 20% decline
preliminary information you're not quite
ready for prime time yet our data from
our study sites show an almost 60
percent decline in sponges that's pretty
troubling
I mean sponges really you can see a lot
of them up on the shoreline when you're
walking along the beaches now we don't
know if they just got kind of torn off
and will reform that's yet to be seen
what about the fish I got to ask you to
stay tuned for future effect future
coming attractions with the fish here's
what we know about fish in storm's path
throw another data slide up again this
is from some collaborators this shows up
that 1989 was Hurricane Hugo on 1995
hurricane Marilyn
these are the five most abundant
families of fish and after each of those
storms they took a dip okay so again
it's about the structure when your home
is destroyed you go someplace else so
when the habitat is messed up
it either long-term or short-term
effects the fish population and
depending upon how
so we're still we've got some more
sampling to do on our fish surveys and
we'll have some information on that but
we just don't know about that Santa for
this forms these storms yet so let's
talk about some good news okay I think
all of its kind of good news I think it
could have been a whole lot worse but
the good news that we can see
specifically this filter for that tells
an interesting story this color coral
was taken to this picture office in
McKee it was affected by some disease
and it had some of the Collins just torn
off so that's where you see those stumps
now to just go a little bit further down
a little bit deeper than this pillar
coral colony you find this pillar coral
colony I mean these two are the same
colony but this guy here is absolutely
fine didn't even have anything breaking
up broken off of it so ten feet deeper
it did okay right in the same area that
close together
you get such different effects now it's
like a little bit shallower about 15
feet away and maybe 10 feet shallower I
run into this guy which is fine
whirring outside the rock encrusted on
the road and you can see most all the
columns have broken off this
okay so shallow water took the brunt of
everything but when we look close at
these pillars this is kind of cool
because what you actually see when you
look at those is it's growing okay
that little three-quarters of an inch of
growth it is post-storm coral growth
that is covering over that broken column
okay and I'm bettin that this is new
coral growth as well but that's the
scale of growth that we're talking about
I mean we're talking less than an inch
these six months okay so I'll go back to
those Facebook pages we're not seeing
recovery really fast but what this tells
us is that the conditions are still
right for coral growth to occur and
that's really good this happens in
Elkhorn coral okay out of hawks nest
this is photo taken in October you can
see the blunt ends and then this picture
was taken just the other day and you can
see here that all this is new growth
it's actually they're covering up those
broken ends and now that would stand
down
never engines this is the good news okay
we can't give up because if we give up
then we won't
okay but if we continue to do things to
help protect groups they've got a chance
and that's why it's really great to see
everybody here okay let me throw just a
little bit more science in you because
yes we are in hot water we have data
loggers are out in the water that cord
water temperature every two hours and
we've been doing this since 1988 and
this is a trap our water temperatures
which means it gets finally gets cold
inside but what we also see in this
picture expiry threshold and that's that
line where when the temperatures get
above that line you know the corals are
really stressed out and they can respond
that stress by bleaching by losing their
cells and belly the things give them
color things give their energy and
that's a really stressful thing we know
that in the most recent decade that
water temperature has gone above that
bleaching threshold more than it did in
the first part of the decade of this 22
to 24 year series so this is troubling I
mean these are the number of days above
that bleaching threshold didn't occur
very often now occurs all the time
except for last year 2017 right didn't
occur very much at all we just have a
few days over the bleaching threshold
and that's because our two storms came
by mixed up the water cooled it off so
worried
you're talking about the workplace we're
treating boiling hot water and
hurricanes
I mean it's I can't believe I'm going to
say but I'm say it
we need a near-miss every year to cool
the water down so that we don't have
bleach eaten all the cascading effects
at the once that have a near miss or
certainly where we had last year so this
is a this is a difficult situation to be
in
okay those of you to see my
presentations now I have to put this one
in here we look at picture we look at
reefs differently than most people so I
try and quite what happens on reef to
other national parks and this is what I
reach looked like prior to 2005 they
looked really great and and then 2005
2007 came along and we had a lot of
trouble
so since 2005 2007 pretty much they say
maybe a little bit broke except at that
would be aa serious in cialis he reads
okay so you may not see it that way this
is housing and it was really cool right
look nice prior to 2005 and then well
they got hammered a little bit and it
lost about 40% of its cover it started
to come back and was almost back to what
it was before and then this happened so
that's the way a lot of people see reefs
I hope these pictures part of this have
showed you the way I see reefs and the
way you can see in your house so here's
the take home messages every living
piece of coral is worth more than that
before okay
they survived the storm okay don't step
on them know that where you're going in
the water that you're stepping on sand
okay
I mean they're survivors we're survivors
we don't need another earthquake
drop anchors on you know if you're
talking to somebody in the water
hey this most amazing thing I've ever
seen float on your back float on your
back and talk to somebody so that your
feet aren't anywhere near the reef then
you turn over no appreciate from comes
from okay
healthy fish populations on the reef
make your health authorities these
national parks are more important than
ever before okay in national parks we
try to reduce the human-induced effects
on the environment we can't get rid of
hurricanes but what we can do is try and
minimize the amount of stuff that we
bring onto reefs so that once the
hurricane has passed the reefs can have
the best chance they have to recover and
then those reefs become a source of
reefs and future generations and then I
guess that's why I said these reefs
these corals these fish are the source
of the reefs the coils in the fish for
the future generations this isn't it's
never going to be what it was prior to
September ok I'm sorry to say you're not
going to see it like it wasn't August
but your kids and their kids have a
chance if we take care of and that's our
job
so that's my big wrap-up I'm gonna turn
it over
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