Rescuing Coral From Warming Waters

Researchers Are Betting On Hardier Algaes To Save Florida's Corals

(CBS)  They are a carnival of color and life. They have been used in medication to treat everything from heart disease to cancer. And they serve as a natural barrier to ocean erosion.

Coral reefs cover less than one percent of Earth's surface, but as CBS News correspondent Daniel Sieberg reports, they're home to millions of marine plants and animals.

Rising ocean temperatures have claimed 20 percent of them around the world since the 1950s and another 50 percent could be wiped out by 2030.

Sieberg took a closer look at the corals of Biscayne Bay with one researcher who is embarking on an innovative but controversial experiment to protect the reefs. Andrew Baker hopes to, in a sense, "inoculate" the coral to build their resistance to the threat of rapidly warming waters.

"Basically, we're gonna go down and very carefully, almost surgically, remove these colonies," Baker said as they began their dive. "We're gonna pick about a dozen of these colonies."

About 10 miles off the coast of Miami, Sieberg watched as Baker and his team harvested a dozen Mustard Hill corals, the first step in his experiment. This reef system is today a fraction of what it was just 20 years ago.

"So, the corals that would normally be building this underwater structure, building this habitat, they've all been lost," said Baker.

Lost to what's called "bleaching." Corals thrive because of their give-and-take partnership with microscopic algae, each providing food and protection for the other.

"The problem is," Baker explained, "that partnership between the coral and its algae is very, very fragile, very sensitive. And all it takes is a degree or two above the normal temperatures and corals will lose these algae."

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Reporter's Notebook: Sieberg shoots a behind-the-scenes look at this report.
Only On The Web: More with researcher Andrew Baker.

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Once the vibrant coral has turned to a ghastly shade of white, only a lifeless landscape remains.

Back in the lab, Baker proudly showed off one of the world's great collections of coral, about 12,000 samples collected from reefs all over the world.

Coral DNA is stored by the researchers in a super-cooled vault. What Baker's team discovered here is what gives him hope - that there are varieties of that life-giving algae. A few, from places like Africa, have a higher tolerance to heat.

Some researchers say Baker's plan to inject corals with the hardier algae is a crapshoot at best, but he says that's no reason not to try.

"We need to do everything we possibly can to save the remaining ones we've got and that includes doing everything we can," said Baker. "If my research might be able to help, then I'm willing to give it a go."

[downsteamjim]

If the oceans are warming, the zones where corals grow should be moving away from the equator. Where are the coral reefs off Cape Fear or even Cape Cod?

[rf35]

Guess you left the lecture early ... before the professor explained how it takes more energy to split the water molecule that the resulting hydrogen will yield. Nice try though.
Posted by jimfinster at 12:40 AM : May 07, 2008

The neat thing about algae: there are some species that produce hydrogen as waste. They are being looked at as a possible hydrogen source for HFC vehicles.

[nonayabiness]

Let nature run its course. This is like people complaining that in the event of a sudden, serious nationwide epidemic, there needs to be a priority of care initiative to save the ones most likely to survive. Some say this initiative is like playing God. Well, if so, then this is playing God with nature. Just let nature be. Spend the money somewhere useful.

[nonayabiness]

I wish somebody would make those corrals pick up there trash. I think we should fine shellfish when they carelessly discard their shells. And fish too, what right do they think they have to die and wash up on the beach? How rude.


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Posted by cbscrash07 at 06:11 PM : May 06, 2008


- Hilarious!

[islandbwoy-2009]

I WOULD SAY SUNSREEN OIL IS KILLING THE CORALS,WITH OTHER FACTORS.THINK ABOUT IT ,MANY CORAL REEF ARE NEAR BEACHES.

[jimfinster]

O.K. Seafang. I don''''t know if you were just kidding, but I''''ll explain anyway. 70 percent of earth is covered in water. H2O. Two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom. They are separated using electrolosis (sp?). That gives you pure hydrogen gas and oxygen gas. When you burn hydrogen is remixes with oxygen in the atmosphere and you get water vapor out your exhaust. At least that is how it was explained to me.

Posted by dragonwagon5

Guess you left the lecture early ... before the professor explained how it takes more energy to split the water molecule that the resulting hydrogen will yield. Nice try though.

[seafang]

Well dragonwagon5, just what planet are you on; because here on planet earth, we don''t have any hydrogen at all; mother nature burned it all up years ago, and we are up to our armpits in the waste effluent left over when you burn hydrogen.

But we do have a Hydrogen mine nearby, except nearby is 93 million miles away, and I''ve heard that the working conditions in that mine do not meet OSHA safety standards, so it really doesn''t do us much good.

Maybe we''ll all come over to your planet, wherever that is if you have hydrogen left over; we don''t.

[seafang]

Hello; anybody out there; earth to Florida; now hear this!

NASA reports, that global warming is over; and has been since 1998, and possibly since 1995, since the 1998 heat peak anomaly was El Nino caused. But the La Nina we have been having since 2007 anyway, is now abating, but in its place, the Pacific Decadal oscillation has kicked into its cooling phase, and from the Gulf of Alaska all the way to nearly the Galapagos Islands, the vast eastern Pacific is now colder than normal and getting colder, and since the active solar pattern has shut off and we now have a quiet sun, it looks like it is going to be getting colder for the next 30 years or so, and then the warming part of the usual 66 year solar cycle will kick in. So worry not about those corrals; if it wasn''t for Jacque Cousteau and his kids messing around with the reefs to make movies for TV, the coral would be in fine shape. Just leave it alone.

[Syndicate]

I wish somebody would make those corrals pick up there trash. I think we should fine shellfish when they carelessly discard their shells. And fish too, what right do they think they have to die and wash up on the beach? How rude.

[talkingham]

Global warming is totally caused by man. In fact, one man. Lil Bush! He and his liars and killers have expelled enough hot putrid gas from their bottoms as in all previous history combined. And yes, they did it with tax payer dollars, none of that free market money diatribe the neocons love to spit out all the time. The only free market these jackals ever heard of are the no-bid contracts to Halliburton.

So called libagenda never met an environmentally damaged piece of property he didn''t love.