New book aims to inspire action for the threatened Great Barrier Reef

Reef guide to benefit research
The Sydney Morning Herald 26 Nov 08;

A new book looks at the extraordinary world of the endangered Great Barrier Reef, writes Jennie Curtin.

'I mean we're not going to have reefs for much longer but we can at least have them a bit longer." Pat Hutchings, a 40-year veteran of coral reef research, is not optimistic for the long-term future of the Great Barrier Reef but she is determined to do everything within her power to help its survival.

So, together with some of the best and brightest scientific minds in this country, Hutchings has helped compile a comprehensive guide to the reef, its fascinating plants and animals, its diverse ecosystems and the mysterious processes that go into creating and maintaining coral reefs.

Hutchings has been poking around reefs since her student days, before scuba diving existed outside the armed forces. "When I went to learn in the mid to late '60s, we had to make our own wetsuits - you couldn't buy them," she says. "There were a few naval divers but it wasn't available to students. Prior to that people swam around with a box with glass on the bottom to look through."

She completed her PhD in the bitter conditions of the North Sea so her first experience of wading into the warm waters of the Great Barrier Reef in 1970 convinced her she had found her nirvana. Hutchings, now senior researcher at the Australian Museum and an expert in marine worms, has been exploring the reef ever since.

The Great Barrier Reef: Biology, Environment And Management, which will be launched in Queensland tomorrow, was designed to fill a massive gap between, on the one hand, beautiful coffee table-type books about the reef with magnificent photos but minimal text and, at the other extreme, highly technical scientific textbooks.

It was also born of a need to educate the next generation of science students who will be responsible for protecting the reef against the ravages of climate change, Hutchings says.

Hutchings and her co-authors, Mike Kingsford and Ove Hoegh-Guldberg from James Cook and Queensland universities respectively, have been taking groups of university students to the reef since the late 1990s as part of a tropical marine network course. The students spend two weeks on Heron Island to learn about reef ecology, biological processes and its flora and fauna.

"It was really to introduce them to the reef," Hutchings says. "But we realised there was absolutely nothing that we could give these students. So we decided, Ove and Mike and I, that we really should write up these lecture notes into a book."

At the same time, the Australian Coral Reef Society decided it wanted an income stream to be able to provide research grants for students studying the reef. A book seemed the perfect solution.

The book is aimed at students and also at anyone seeking more detail about the way the reef works. Hutchings sees potential interest from teachers who bring classes to the reef or from divers "who don't just dive for the sake of it but are actually interested in what they're looking at".

The three academics approached 32 of their colleagues to contribute chapters for the book. "The author list is really a cast of who's who in coral reef science in Australia," Hutchings says. "And everybody agreed that all the profits would go back into the society. Nobody said, 'Look I want to get my royalties."'

The authors also contributed all of the marvellous photographs free, minimising costs and increasing the funds to be returned to the society. The result is a complete picture of the reef, with a difference. As Hutchings explains about a chapter on snails, for example: "We didn't just want the classification of the snails on the reef. We wanted a little bit of information on that but we wanted to know what are the interesting aspects of snails on the reef, what do they actually do, what role do they play, what happens if we lose them, are there some that have really interesting sex lives? Just little snippets to get to the reader."

And there are millions of creatures to be written about, from plankton, algae and sponges to jellyfish, sea anemones, corals, worms, crustaceans, fish, seabirds and mammals. The reef is teeming with life, though not as much as when Hutchings first investigated it. Hutchings says humans have overfished it but she believes Australia's reefs are better than those elsewhere.

"If you go to the Caribbean you hardly see any big fish any more … Remember where reefs are - they are straddled either side of the equator. If you look at that band, most of those countries are Third World. How can you tell an Indonesian that he can't go and fish? He's got to feed his family."

Overfishing is only one of the threats to the reef (see panel); climate change is the big one. Hutchings fears that, even if carbon emissions are reduced immediately, which in itself is unlikely, it would still be 10 to 15 years before there is any noticeable effect. This is why it is critical that conservation and research work continues. "If you talk to young kids now … these students have realised that this reef is precious and we need to look after it. I think this next generation is going to be incredibly important."

The Great Barrier Reef: Biology, Environment And Management is published by CSIRO Publishing.
Human harm

OVERFISHING Fishing of herbivores results in algae replacing corals. Fishing of carnivores depletes numbers. Dugongs on the Great Barrier Reef have declined by more than 90 per cent in the past 30 years.

RUN-OFF FROM LAND Brings in unnaturally high nutrients from agricultural land and increased sediments from land eroded through clearing.

CLIMATE CHANGE is not just a prospect; it is happening now. Coral bleaching due to higher water temperatures reduces growth, makes corals more susceptible to disease and can eventually kill corals.

RECREATION Fishing impacts (see above), anchor damage, accidental boat grounding, fin damage from divers, trampling and littering.

BIG PICTURE Coral reefs are in serious decline globally. About 30 per cent of coral reefs are severely damaged; up to 60 per cent may be lost by 2030.

From a chapter on human impacts on coral reefs by Terry Hughes, director of the Australian Research Council's Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies.

Ending the reef madness
Jill Rowbotham, The Australian 26 Nov 08;

OVE Hoegh-Guldberg is blunt about the gloomy prospects for the Great Barrier Reef.

"We have no time to lose," said the director of the University of Queensland's Centre for Marine Studies.

"We are three decades away from having a reef with no coral and less than half the species we have today. It is crunch time."

Speaking on the eve of the publication of a unique book, The Great Barrier Reef, the first comprehensive field guide to the world's largest continous reef, he stressed the imperative to act. "Part of the mission for us as scientists is to pass on the urgency and excitement about these issues."

His ambition is for the book to change the lives of school students, undergraduates and members of the public. "We need people who are waking up and getting active and making big changes in the way we live."

His co-editors were Australian Museum senior principal research scientist Pat Hutchings and James Cook University's school of marine biology and aquaculture head Michael Kingsford.

The book grew out of undergraduate courses on the biology of coral reefs that the universities collaborated on with the University of Sydney, conducted on Heron Island.

In addition, more than 30 reef experts contributed articles on themes including threats and issues, such as coral bleaching and coral diseases, and the challenges of coral reef fisheries. "By understanding the reef better through resources like this book, we stand a better chance of preserving this wondrous ecosystem."