Professor Randy Thaman (from left), Tony Weir and coral reef ecologist Edward Lovell at the USP seminar yesterday. Photo: Wansolwara

Pacific.Scoop
By Rachna Lal and Kalpana Prasad in Suva

The “tremendous” decline of Pacific coral reefs in the past two decades is continuing unabated, says a researcher.

Joan Koven of Astrolabe Incorporated, a non-profit organisation that promotes coral reef conservation, has called for immediate action.

She said governments and individuals and should do everything possible to curb greenhouse gas emissions, the principle cause of warming sea surface temperatures and ocean acidification that will destroy coral reefs.

“Coral reefs are an important resource and need to be preserved as more than 100 countries rely on them for sustenance, fisheries and tourism,” Koven told Wansolwara.

Fiji Prime Minister Commodore Voreqe Bainimarama is attending the 64th United Nations session opening in New York today, which has climate change as one of the main items on the agenda.

As part of global activities, the USP journalism division released the latest issue of the student journalism training newspaper, Wansolwara, yesterday. The paper carried a special four-page insight report on climate change, and this front-page story on coral degradation in the Pacific.

It was printed and distributed nationwide as an insert by the Fiji Sun, a local daily.

Koven, who gave a lecture on climate change and coral reefs at the USP, said she doubted any country was fully aware of what it would lose if it had no coral reefs.

Climate refugees
“The majority of the world’s people live within 50 km of a coastline. As the sea level rises due to the melting of Greenland and western Antarctic ice sheets, the world will face environmental refugee populations on a scale never seen before.”

Leading scientists believe that coral reef ecosystems, which act as nurseries for many marine species, could be destroyed beyond repair due to human activities.

Such concerns have increased since the release of a report this month saying that Australia’s Great Barrier Reef could disappear in 20 years.

The Australian government-commissioned report said the damage could be irreversible and is expected to cost the Australian economy AUD$37.7 billion over the next century.

Koven says it is impossible to predict when the last of the coral reefs will die. But she says that she has seen a tremendous decline in the Pacific over the past 20 years.

A 2000 report by World Wildlife Fund South Pacific says 12 percent of the corals in Fiji’s Beqa Lagoon had died as a result of bleaching.

The WWF project coordinator in the Cook Islands, Jacqui Evans, said she had observed complete bleaching of about 30 percent of corals in Rarotonga Lagoon.

Furthermore, after the sea temperature in Papua New Guinea’s famous dive spot, Kimbe Bay, reached 32 degrees C, at least 10 percent of the corals in the area were bleached.

Bleaching hits reefs
The report said that over the past decade, bleaching had hit reefs in Polynesia (Tahiti), Micronesia (Palau) and parts of Melanesia (PNG and Solomon Islands).

James Comly, a USP-based British researcher, said corals took millions of years to grow, and they were the food and habitat of millions of sea species. Due to climate change and human activities, the coral reefs were dying, said Comly.

This could pose a great risk to the low-lying islands since corals protect the shores of such islands from surges of giant waves.

A coral reef ecologist at the USP’s Institute of Marine Resources, Edward Lovell, said around one-third of corals around the globe were under threat of extinction.

“This is not a light matter,” he said.

Lovell added that reports about the extinction of the Australian Barrier Reef must be taken seriously as the research was carried out by one of the best people in the field.

“We must now work towards protecting our own corals.”

Lovell added that while authorities were aware of the impact of climate change on reef systems, there was confusion, and no direct path had been set to address this issue.

Professor Randolph Thaman, head of the School of Islands and Oceans at USP, said that while Pacific people and governments were aware of the impacts of climate change, they did not understand the complexities.

“Governments must address climate change and other variables which contribute to coral loss,” said Dr Thaman.

Not enough funding
He said currently there was not enough funding given for the protection and rehabilitation of reefs.

Money to help communities to protect resources and adapt to changes was not forthcoming either, he said.

Dr Aalbersberg, director of USP’s institute of Applied Sciences (IAS), has experts working on coral reef research. He said coral reefs already under threat from human activities were suffering from increased seawater temperature, resulting in coral bleaching and acidification.

Apart from being a haven for a multitude of sea creatures on which Pacific people rely for sustenance, coral reefs form a barrier against higher and stronger storm surges.

Because such surges are expected to worsen due to climate change, it has become all the more important to protect reefs.

Koven said that localised village or town efforts should be encouraged with education and ways of lessening greenhouse gas emissions to address coral reef damage.

“All schools in Pacific island and rim countries should include marine science in their curricula,” she said.

“It should also be offered to all tertiary students to encourage better understanding of the coral reef ecosystem by future Pacific leaders.”

USP anticipates funding from AusAid and the European Union for research, investigation and mitigation of climate change impact on coral reefs.

* In a seminar at USP yesterday, journalism students were told that the poorest and the most marginalised people would be the ones most adversely affected by the effects of climate change.

The students were told to educate themselves about climate change issues and to work with scientists to understand the complexities of these issues.

The event was part of a “1500-event global climate wake up” organised by Avaaz, an independent, not-for-profit global campaigning organisation.

Rachna Lal and Kalpana Prasad in Suva are student journalists at the University of the South Pacific. Lal is editor of Wansolwara and Prasad is also on the newspaper team.