Alarming report of Carribean coral dying

[Doc]

It was very dramatic. Some of the older hands here had seen this before but it was a shocker to me.
I’d like to be flip and say that well wreck diving is really cool or some such thing. The truth is that it horrified me. I can only hope that it is part of some long cycle natural process.

Yes, it has been noted, and it is cyclic.

I have seen it come and go, but I am certain only that I have never seen any reef get better and more florid overall. It is a steady decline. I absolutely attribute this to siltation from run-off... man turning the soil and it washing seaward.

I also hear posters bemoan the end of the reefs when hurricanes smash through. But I know and have seen the long term truth. It is a natural process.

Long after the earth shakes us off her back, and she will- the reefs will return to their natural state. We are merely a blip on the screen.

The Earth is not in stasis. She is on an evolutionary path, cooling down, trying to attain and reach that stasis, trying to become absolutely round, wearing down mountains and making this planet a gooey mass of a muddy sphere.

Go and dive it, enjoy it for what it is.

 

[zf2nt]

When I checked my log this year vs. last I was astounded to see that I was recording temperatures about 3 degrees higher than the previous year… say 79 last year and 82 or 83 this year.

I posted several months ago on this same subject and was greeted mostly with yawns. From mid-December through mid-March I was out diving every day on Little Cayman and carefully recorded the bottom temperature on each dive. What made this date useful is that I have done the same thing for several years now, so can make year-to-year comparisons.

During the winter of 2004-2005, the temperature was 81F until December 28, at which time I started reading a consistent 79F. By February 1, I started seeing a consistent 77F at depth. It stayed that way until February 20, when I started reading 79F again. The water temperature was back up to 81F on March 14.

This past winter, in contrast, I didn't see 79F until January 21. Never once did I see temperatures below 79F. By the time I left, on March 14, I was seeing 81F about half the time and 79F the other half, so I know it was only a few more days until a consistent 81F would have been observed.

(The above readings are with a Suunto Cobra, which seems to think in C and then convert to F. That explains why it never reports 78F or 80F.)

My conclusion: the deep water temperatures off Little Cayman were consistently between 1 and 2 degrees F warmer this past winter than they were during the previous year. I've already put my house on Little Cayman up for sale, because I am convinced the coming hurricane season is going to be even worse than the last two. I've already taken 4 minor hits by hurricanes, and I don't think my luck can hold out much longer.

Bruce