Marine Freshwater Research

CSIRO PUBLISHING Marine Freshwater& Research Volume 50,1999 ©CSIRO Australia 1999 A journal for the publication of original contributions in physical oceanography,marine chemistry, marine and estuarine biology and limnology www.publish.csiro.au/journals/mfr All enquiries and manuscripts should be directed to Marine and Freshwater Research CSIROPUBLISHING PO Box 1139 (150 Oxford St) Collingwood Telephone:61 3 9662 7618 Vic. 3066 Facsimile:61 3 9662 7611 Australia Email:[email protected] Published by CSIROPUBLISHING for CSIRO Australia and the Australian Academy of Science Viewpoint © CSIRO 1999 Mar. Freshwater Res., 1999, 50, 831–7 Paradise lost: how marine science failed the world’s coral reefs Michael J. Risk Department of Geology, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON L8S 4M1, Canada Abstract. The response of the coral reef scientific community to the present global crisis in coral reefs is here compared with response times and response patterns of scientists in two previous international environmental crises: eutrophication of the Great Lakes and acid rain in the Northen Hemisphere. In both these previous crises, less than a decade passed from first appreciation of the problem to development of identification/evaluation/mitigation frameworks that were useful in a policy context. Key elements were avoidance of arguments over methods, genuinely multidisciplinary teams, and the presence of respected, technically trained managers. By contrast, twenty years after identification of the major stresses on reefs and description of the major monitoring strategies, there is no process–response model in place, in any country, equivalent to those produced in response to eutrophication of the Great Lakes or acid rain. Reasons for this failure include, but are not limited to: dominance by one field of science, biology; lack of competent scientific managers; and emphasis on monitoring programmes, with no clear idea how the results will be used. Introduction (2) Accumulation of resources. There needs to be scien- This paper examines how scientific research, scientific tific critical mass in order effectively to address the problem. management and government policy do or do not work (3) Monitoring and research. Ideally, these two activities together. I believe that, for coral reef ecosystems, these ele- continue in parallel. Monitoring should be a concerted activ- ments have not meshed as smoothly as in some previous ity directed towards detecting changes in a biological system cases. I present here my analysis of this failure. and should be integrated with research that attempts to iden- By ‘failure’, I mean that there has been an unacceptably tify (and perhaps ameliorate) the stressors producing these long delay from identification of the problems with coral changes. Research on stresses on biological systems is more reefs to establishment of necessary monitoring, evaluation effective when combined with a time perspective obtained and remediation protocols. Marine science, in this context, is from monitoring, and those monitoring programmes are taken to include academics, scientific staff of multinational most effective which focus on detecting the most likely development agencies and government scientists in the rele- sources of stress. vant countries. (4) Management–policy interface. This step is critical to It should also be made clear at the outset that some envi- dealing with any environmental problem, and it is this step ronmental problems are simply intractable at the present which most scientists point to as causing the most delays and time. In some countries, the pressures from industrial devel- confusion. This is not necessarily the case. opment and population growth are so great that there is not In reaching my conclusions, I will draw parallels between much that can be done at this time to prevent degradation of scientific responses to present pressures on coral reefs and nearby reefs. There may be environmental problems for large-scale environmental problems in the recent past that which the scientific frameworks for monitoring, evaluation have called for concerted action. It must be acknowledged at and mitigation are well worked out but cannot be applied for the outset that reefs possess unique characteristics which economic or political reasons. These do not constitute a affect the degree to which they may be described and failure of science, but rather a failure of society. managed. For one thing, to belabour the obvious, reefs are A successful approach to dealing with environmental submarine ecosystems. This limits the ease with which problems may be seen as a stepwise process: research programmes may be mounted. More important in (1) Identification and awareness of an environmental scientific management terms, however, is the fact that coral problem. This may stem either from public perception of a reefs are multinational, with most reefs occurring in the problem or from results of investigative scientific research. lesser-developed countries. It would certainly be unfair to In either case, one may consider that the meter starts running expect nations with few resources to mount expensive mon- as soon as knowledge of a problem becomes widespread. itoring and evaluation programmes. Of the 100-odd coun- (Many such environmental problems are brought to our tries that possess coral reefs (data from Wells 1988a, 1988b, attention via observed impacts on some element of the biota; 1988c), about 90% can be classified as developing nations. this demonstrates the utility of bioindicators.) The remainder may be classified as under the jurisdiction of 1323-1650/99/080831 832 Michael J. Risk a small number of developed nations: United States of early on that, in international work, there will never be agree- America, Australia, Israel, Japan, France and the United ment on methods. Quality assurance protocols were erected Kingdom. (To this list could be added Mexico, a nation with to allow comparison of results produced by different groups: excellent coral reef scientists and one whose economic ‘What you need is not common methods but common development is relatively more advanced than the majority results’. Management emphasized top-down directed of its neighbours in Latin America.) research, not curiosity-driven academic research. ‘When The major stresses acting on reefs worldwide are compa- PLUARG held meetings restricted to university researchers, rable among nations. These stresses are, in no particular a lot of useless debate went on about methods. Managing the order of importance, siltation, sewage, destructive fishing process becomes really important, otherwise it’s just an aca- techniques and urban/industrial development. One may demic free-for-all.’ therefore look to the developed nations to produce research, This effort was fundamentally a programme of govern- policy and legislative frameworks that may be transposed to ment agencies, not groupings of academic researchers. other parts of the world. Managers, who enjoyed great respect from both field- Any parallels drawn between present reef programmes oriented workers and bench scientists, were chosen primarily and past examples of previous environmental programmes for their scientific ability and secondly for their talent as are of necessity imperfect. To obtain the best possible com- managers. The point of choosing managers on the basis of parisons and contrasts, programmes chosen for comparison their scientific stature was mentioned several times by the should have the following attributes. interviewees: ‘These guys could smell bullshit a mile away.’ • The process–response–decision sequence must have Apart from the talent and influence of the managers, a char- occurred fairly recently, within the latter half of the 20th acteristic element of this programme was its multidisci- century. This ensures that scientific and management tech- plinary nature. Biologists, geologists, chemists and niques will be comparable. physicists were required to work together. Groups within • The examples must be multinational in scope, involving a PLUARG reported to the International Joint Commission, a potential population base in the millions. This brings the respected neutral third party with no political agenda. This scale of scientific endeavour and management problems into type of overall coordination is necessary to effective man- the scale with which coral reef programmes must deal. agement and policy development: the technical challenges • Ideally, there should be elements of tourism, fisheries, involved in eutrophication are at least as complex as those sewage disposal and industrial development. All of these surrounding stresses on modern coral reefs. affect reefs, and bring with them their own levels of com- Government policy was extremely responsive to research plexity. results. Phosphorus-based detergents were banned in The two examples I will discuss are eutrophication of the Canada before all the evidence was in. The USA acted more Great Lakes, involving Canada and United States of slowly, state by state, in the face of opposition from the deter- America, and the impact of acid rain in the Northern gent lobby. Hemisphere, involving more than a dozen countries on the The major findings of the sources and effects of eutrophi- top half of the globe. The scientific literature on these topics cation in the Great Lakes were largely produced by a couple would fill a small library: this paper can provide only the of dozen key scientists, working over a 10-year period (for

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