by OLD1953 » Thu Sep 22, 2011 12:58 am
Aedens: I'm aware of the issues surrounding reef corals, but the complexity of that issue prevents me from completely understanding what is going on with them. Reef corals, particularily on the Great Barrier Reef, are wound into such a complex system of cleaner fish and picker fish and worms and algae and so forth that anything that affects any part of that system will eventually impact the corals. I am not certain that any rate of natural dying of reefs in that area has ever been established. For that matter, there has been a starfish population explosion and that's damaged the reefs, but did man cause a starfish population explosion? And how? It's claimed that shell collectors caused the population explosion, but molluscs lay enormous numbers of eggs, where are the little tritons? And why isn't disease limiting the starfish, surely they have diseases?
And not all reef corals are fragile specimens, either. In a number of places, including Hawaii, corals can and will colonize human beings. A coral spore infection can be a serious matter, and that's why people hate coral cuts, because the treatment is much worse than the cut itself, essentially a scrubbing with strong disinfectant and a wire brush, according to people I know who've gone through it. As for an established infection, that can require surgery.
Other corals can be very hardy, one of the people that had been treated for coral exposure told me his friend had a growing brain coral in a washtub. It rained most days, so it stayed damp, and the coral just kept getting bigger. He never did seem to water it or anything, just left it alone and it grew.