Saving reefs with frags? (link to article)

[spiffluk]

http://www.nature.org/magazine/autumn2010/features/art32082.html

 

[mcdonaldjosh7]

I love the way that we are growing corals as a hobby and to sell, while they are saving the reefs with fragging.

 

[spiffluk]

I love the way that we are growing corals as a hobby and to sell, while they are saving the reefs with fragging.

I have some reservations about this approach, e.g. (1) they have to harvest the frags from the wild, (2) it takes alot of energy and resources to tank-raise the frags until they're big enough to transplant, (3) the transplanted frags are subject to most of the same damaging forces that we've unleashed on their wild relatives. I think this is at best a stopgap measure while we're figuring out long-term solutions such as how to get off fossil fuels, etc.

 

[ryansreef]

I think it is a good idea, at least it may stop some from becoming extinct in the wild.

 

[dieden]

i believe they are doing somewhat the same thing in Hawaii with some of the species they have seen struggling. kinda sounds like throwing a cup of water on a burning building if you ask me. Admirable, but little effect.

 

[spiffluk]

I think it is a good idea, at least it may stop some from becoming extinct in the wild.

That raises the question of whether a coral species that's extinct in the wild and only lives in captivity is really 'functionally extinct' because it's native habitat no longer exists. As I say, restoring reefs by propagating frags is probably OK as a stopgap measure, but nowhere near sufficient to address the larger problem.

 

[spiffluk]

i believe they are doing somewhat the same thing in Hawaii with some of the species they have seen struggling. kinda sounds like throwing a cup of water on a burning building if you ask me. Admirable, but little effect.

I myself think of it as 'peeing in the wind' but the idea's the same