The Reef Aquarist & The Web of Life

Coral reef in decline: Caloosa Rocks, off Lower Matecumbe Key, with macroalgae taking over and evidence of bleaching and disease attacks. Image by Martin Moe.

The paper, written by 18 marine scientists, How U.S. ocean policy and market power can reform the coral reef wildlife trade, published in the journal Marine Policy and reported on at length in Coral Magazine, gives one pause for thought.

Should marine aquarium hobbyists be concerned about the harvesting of marine organisms for ornamental purposes, or concerned about the declining state of coral reefs? Or should we ignore their dire warnings and just take the position that scientists and environmentalists are creating a tempest in a teapot in order to pursue their own agenda?

Well, at this point, many, but certainly not all of the animals and plants collected for the marine aquarium hobby are endangered, threatened, or even over collected, and not all suffer heavy losses before, or after, they arrive in the tanks of hobbyists, but (and its a big but) many, probably nearly all, of the organisms prized by hobbyists suffer not only from collection for ornamental purposes but also from commercial fishing and the decline and loss of the environments necessary for their survival.

Coral reefs all over the world are threatened by environmental decline and, lets face it, our hobby and its industry is an iceberg floating in a warming sea of pollution.

A Skyscraper of Pressures on Coral Reefs

Many tropical fisheries, collectors, and dealers are honest, responsible, and greatly concerned about the sustainability of their fishery. They realize that their business depends on the health and survival of the stocks of organisms that are the basis of their livelihood. But they are also dependent on a declining environment, and so yes, the above mentioned paper is right on in its call for change in management of coral reef resources from business as usual to ecosystem-based management that stands a chance of preserving at least some of the ecological web. But the problem is far greater than our little hobby.

Lets look at the total harvesting of living marine organisms and the products and structures of marine organisms, including all the various forms of industrial uses, commercial fishing, recreational fishing, impacts of visitation, and even effects of all forms of pollution and introduced marine diseases as a huge skyscraper building.

Every floor is occupied by the results of one of our human activities. Marine ornamental harvest occupies one of these floors and it is not an inconsequential closet, it occupies a significant portion of the tropical coral reef section of the building. Our building is supported by a vast foundation, the interconnected ecological webs of life in the oceans and seas of the world.

One might think that this foundation is so vast and so resilient that nothing we do can affect the structure of the building. This was the prevailing view in the 19th century. We now know that given the explosion of human populations and the advances of modern technology that this view is far from the truth.

Of Cod, Tuna, and Coral Reefs

Every human activity removes a small or great portion of the foundation of our building. The more rapidly and the more extensively we feed on that foundation, every little bit and bite that is removed, the more precarious the structure of the building becomes. Even though we try to patch and replace and regrow the portions of the buildings foundation that are under attack, many of our efforts fail.

The great Atlantic cod fishery, the bluefin tuna, the coral reefs and reef fish, even the decline of sea urchin populations, are testament to the intensity and wide-ranging effects of our exploitation. Of course we have to utilize these resources, but if we erode their foundation past the point where it can not sustain itself, then our building, essentially the web of life that sustains our world, will collapse.

Impossible you say? Quite possibly not: a report in the latest Science Magazine, one of the most prestigious of scientific publications, by Ove Hoegh-Guldberg, director of the Global Change Institute at the University of Queensland and John Bruno, associate professor of marine science at the University of North Carolina, present the opinion, based on scientific data, that the oceans face a fundamental and irreversible ecological transformation, the like of which has not been seen in millions of years and can result in hostile conditions that in the past have increased extinction rates and driven ecosystem collapse.  

Time for Action

Unfortunately, there are those, and they are with us in great number, that either do not believe that the foundation of our marine ecology building is in great danger, or do not have the education or intelligence to understand and appreciate the declines that they observe, or simply do not care about anything but their own immediate financial interests. It would appear that the rapacity of humankind far outweighs the urgent need for imposition of the collective restraint of self interest that is needed to preserve the ecology and life supporting chemistry of our oceans.

If never before, the time for remedial action is now!

So what can we do? Well, there are basically three options:

1. Do nothing and watch the oceans and seas of our world die from the pollution and harvesting excesses inherent in our unrestricted quest for growth and financial reward. Some might argue that the sooner we destroy our civilization in this orgy of self indulgence the better, since the Earth will eventually repair itself, and, if humankind survives, perhaps a civilization more attuned to the web of life that sustains an Earth compatible with human life will emerge.

2. Establish a world-wide draconian rule of law to enforce abandonment of the mantra of growth and development that has driven our civilization to this point, and create an era of stability and sustainability that will allow us to live within our means as an intelligent, tool-wielding species on the Earth that has given us birth and sustenance.

3. Try to balance our existence with the ecological capacity of the Earth that will suffer our presence and prevent the collapse of current civilization. This will require a great amount of education, regulation, and enforcement, perhaps more than is possible, to change our direction in the time we have left before the building that represents our marine and world ecology collapses.

The first is untenable, the second is impossible.

The third is the only option that fits the technological, social, and humanitarian path that is open to us at this time. Whether it succeeds or fails depends on the amount of effort we put into it to create the understanding of the severity of our situation and gain the acceptance of our fellow human beings in changing the course of exploitation and destruction of our marine resources.

At stake is the survival not only of our hobby, but a little further down the road, of our civilization, and perhaps our species, though not today, perhaps not tomorrow, but certainly in the not too distant future. The evidence of marine ecological decline is, and has been, clear and obvious. Our collective response must also be clear and obvious. Every little bit of clarity, exposition, analysis, and education helps.

Martin Moe
Lower Matecumbe Key, Florida

Captions & Credits:

Image 1 - Photograph of Caloosa Rocks reef by Martin A. Moe, Jr.

Image 2 - Martin Moe in his home laboratory in the Florida Keys. Photograph by Matthew L. Wittenrich.

Image 3 - Bleaching brain coral on Caloosa Rocks reef, 2003. Photograph by Martin A. Moe, Jr.

Martin A. Moe, Jr. is the author of The Marine Aquarium Handbook: Beginner to Breeder (New Revised & Expanded Third Edition, TFH/ Microcosm, 2009).