Comments on: The Policy and Politics of Deep Sea Corals http://deepseanews.com/2009/08/policy-behind-deep-sea-corals/ All the news on the Earth's largest environment. Wed, 23 May 2012 14:14:36 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.2 By: Doug Rader http://deepseanews.com/2009/08/policy-behind-deep-sea-corals/comment-page-1/#comment-7958 Doug Rader Thu, 13 Aug 2009 16:51:52 +0000 http://deepseanews.com/?p=5453#comment-7958 One of the most exciting initiatives designed to protect deepwater corals using this kind of fisheries authority is nearing completion in the Southeast. The South Atlantic Fishery Management Council has spent more than ten years, working in very close cooperation with world-class scientists, to delineate and now protect virtually all of the known deepwater corals in the four-state region from North Carolina to Florida. This work has developed under the management of the Coral Advisory Panel and the Habitat and Environmental Protection Advisory Panel, which I have chaired throughout this process. Though it had been known for more than 100 years that corals like Lophelia inhabited water more than 1000 feet deep in the region, it was only in the late 1990s when research was funded to begin characterizing the deep sea in this region. What Dr. Steve Ross (UNC-W) and Dr. John Reed (Harbor Branch) found was nothing short of amazing: nearly 25,000 square miles of ancient coral reefs and pinnacles, some as much as 500 feet tall, with individual corals more than 1000 years old, and some mounds as much as a million years old. Subsequent work has shown them to be biodiversity wonderlands, with new species discovered nearly every dive, and nearly limitless potential for the discovery of compounds new to science of potential pharmaceutical value – a brand-new pharmacopeia! We now know that deepwater corals are more extensive than shallow-water corals, and this massive coral ecosystem may well turn out to be the world’s largest. More work is needed to evaluate and characterize the seaward zone, where additional extensive reefs will be found. Most importantly, the South Atlantic Council is poised to protect it all, using (in part) the EFH doctrine Ken described. The proposed Habitat Area of Particular Concern (the highest level of EFH) covers more than 20,000 square miles (and also includes the regions only known methane seep community!). The wrinkle is that deepwater corals are also “fish” under federal law – and protected directly through a coral fishery management plan (which prohibits all harvest). The Council will take a final vote the week of September 15 on the first Comprehensive Ecosystem Based Amendment that amends all of the plans in the region, establishing this protection. The action includes careful design that is truly “win-win,” allowing non-damaging fisheries (e.g. for deepwater shrimp and golden crabs) to continue. Watch for this important vote! http://www.safmc.net/HabitatManagement/DeepwaterCorals/LopheliaCommunities/tabid/247/Default.aspx One of the most exciting initiatives designed to protect deepwater corals using this kind of fisheries authority is nearing completion in the Southeast. The South Atlantic Fishery Management Council has spent more than ten years, working in very close cooperation with world-class scientists, to delineate and now protect virtually all of the known deepwater corals in the four-state region from North Carolina to Florida. This work has developed under the management of the Coral Advisory Panel and the Habitat and Environmental Protection Advisory Panel, which I have chaired throughout this process.

Though it had been known for more than 100 years that corals like Lophelia inhabited water more than 1000 feet deep in the region, it was only in the late 1990s when research was funded to begin characterizing the deep sea in this region. What Dr. Steve Ross (UNC-W) and Dr. John Reed (Harbor Branch) found was nothing short of amazing: nearly 25,000 square miles of ancient coral reefs and pinnacles, some as much as 500 feet tall, with individual corals more than 1000 years old, and some mounds as much as a million years old. Subsequent work has shown them to be biodiversity wonderlands, with new species discovered nearly every dive, and nearly limitless potential for the discovery of compounds new to science of potential pharmaceutical value – a brand-new pharmacopeia!

We now know that deepwater corals are more extensive than shallow-water corals, and this massive coral ecosystem may well turn out to be the world’s largest. More work is needed to evaluate and characterize the seaward zone, where additional extensive reefs will be found.

Most importantly, the South Atlantic Council is poised to protect it all, using (in part) the EFH doctrine Ken described. The proposed Habitat Area of Particular Concern (the highest level of EFH) covers more than 20,000 square miles (and also includes the regions only known methane seep community!). The wrinkle is that deepwater corals are also “fish” under federal law – and protected directly through a coral fishery management plan (which prohibits all harvest). The Council will take a final vote the week of September 15 on the first Comprehensive Ecosystem Based Amendment that amends all of the plans in the region, establishing this protection. The action includes careful design that is truly “win-win,” allowing non-damaging fisheries (e.g. for deepwater shrimp and golden crabs) to continue.

Watch for this important vote!

http://www.safmc.net/HabitatManagement/DeepwaterCorals/LopheliaCommunities/tabid/247/Default.aspx

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