The Coral Reef Alliance - Coral Reef Tourism Protects Its Pot Of Gold, Taipei Times, 06/22/07
By Bonnie Tsui
Source: Taipei Times
06/22/07
Green sea turtles, cascades of glittering reef fish, blooming coral pillars -- countless travelers have come nose to nose with a thriving undersea universe while on vacation.
But increasingly, divers and snorkelers are swimming over bleached hunks of coral devastated by shore runoff or overfishing. From the South Pacific to the Caribbean, coral reefs -- which are among the most delicate of marine ecosystems -- are bearing the brunt of climate change and other human-driven activities -- including coastal development, deforestation and unrestricted tourism.
Now, many in the tourist industry are trying to halt the damage and it is no wonder. The dollars involved in reef-based tourism are significant: Australia's Great Barrier Reef alone draws about 1.9 million visitors a year, supporting a US$4.2 billion industry. According to the Nature Conservancy, the annual economic value of coral reefs to world tourism is US$9.6 billion.
Growing awareness of environmental issues means that the tourism industry has lately been a partner to conservation efforts in major reef areas. Though the Great Barrier is the most famous reef, it is not the"
The Coral Reef Alliance - Coral Reef Tourism Protects Its Pot Of Gold, Taipei Times, 06/22/07
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Kristin Rasmussen at Cascadia Research Collective in Olympia, Washington, US, and colleagues photographed the tails of humpbacks wintering off the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica. From their individual tail patterns they identified seven of the same animals after they had returned to the Antarctic. One mother and calf made the 8300-kilometre (5160-mile) trip in 161 days.
Using satellite data, the team also recorded sea-surface temperatures for the sites where humpbacks spent the winter. “Wintering areas occur where waters with temperatures between 21°C and 28°C are found,” says Rasmussen. This supports the idea that the long migration saves the whales energy in the end.
Some researchers claim that the grey whale holds the record for longest mammalian migration – from Mexico to the Arctic, estimated at about 7600 km (4700 miles). “However, no individual grey whale has been documented travelling the full extent of their migratory range, and it's possible that no grey whales actually make the entire migration,” says Rasmussen. Only humpbacks have been documented making the full trip.
Rasmussen says that proposals to hunt humpbacks – such as Japan’s decision to catch 50 humpbacks each year as part of its “scientific” programme – makes it important to understand whale migration. “Whales don’t respect political boundaries,” she says. “Killing whales in one area could potentially impact their population half way around the world.”
Journal reference: Biology Letters (DOI: 10.1098/rsbl.2007.0067)
