Coral bleaching in Cozumel?

[archman]

Any place that boasts "splendid" toadfish has to be good.

 

[Christi]

Weeeell... Cozumel reefs have a tendency to stay healthier than most other regions of the Caribbean, but the area does get mass bleaching events. 1989 and 1995 were particularly severe on the local reefs. The 1997-98 El Nino problems somehow avoided Cozumel. To quote Napoleon Dynamite, "LUCKEEEEE!"

Bleaching is usually related to water temperature. Cozumel reefs get all jacked up when it gets too hot, just like other reefs. The 2005 mean summer temps around Cozumel were much cooler than that for the parboiled eastern Caribbean, which explains a lot.

Scientists don't really survey Cozumel reefs much. Hardly at all, actually. Thus the public often synonymizes a lack of coral reporting to mean the same thing as the reefs being healthy. However, historical comparison studies by Goreau (a leading coral dude) have shown otherwise. It's the very devil to track down this research. There's some nice stuff about white plague on Cozumel corals.
http://www.globalcoral.org/Dolphin enclosures and algae distributions at Chankanaab, Co.htm

The reefs are still in better shape than most other places in the Caribbean. And americans really can't beat the prices either.

Regarding 2005 bleaching damage for the area, I haven't read anything but anecdotal or amateur accounts. Usually it takes at least a year before final reports are completed. I haven't seen anything on NOAA's coral researcher listserv regarding hurricane wilma. Not one peep. Which either means nobody's done any surveys, the research is still being worked up, or the researchers aren't on the listserv. EVERYBODY'S on the listserv.

Yes, we've been lucky. I'm not saying it can't happen here...but we haven't been hit with it yet...not severely or even enough to notice. In 2005, our warmest recorded water temp was 86. From my understanding the bleaching happens when the water temp is above 86 for an extended period of time.

As far as Wilma research of the reefs...I know that the local Marine Park scientists have done and are doing alot of studies, and some scientists from Mexico City and Merida have been down as well. I haven't really heard anything more on their findings/conclusions other than them assessing that the reefs sustained damage in about 30% of the area.

The marine park is offering another class soon to help with their studies...I will be sigining up. They just haven't announced the date yet.

 

[scubawife]

One normally doesn't see much (new) bleaching in the winter months. Folks that perform coral surveys during this time tend to be either:

1. Establishing a pre-summer baseline
2. Late in surveying from last summer
3. Testing hypotheses for less common bleaching factors (i.e. runoff, disease)
4. Diving in the winter because it's the only time they're available

#4 is pretty common. Hurricanes screw up a lot of scientists' schedules.

The bleaching that occured in the Akumal area happened this past summer. There is a very active environmental group there, CEA Akumal (www.ceakumal.org). They are continually monitoring the health of the reefs, water quality, and working on conservation issues and other non-ocean environmental issues.

It's interesting how different the Akumal reefs are from the Cozumel reefs, and that one area was effected while the other wasn't since they are so close in proximity.

 

[archman]

Yeah, the Akumal and Sian Kaan reefs got hit much harder than the Cozumel ones. I think Cozumel's major saving grace is that it's surrounded by deep water with decent currents that mix with the shallow water pretty easily. A lot of the sediments and human trash/poo get tossed into the canyon, too.

Regarding current Cozumel reef monitoring, the park people have only recently started long term monitoring programs. I know they have some AGRRA sites set up, but I have yet to see any results reported. It is however rather common for Mexican scientists not to report their findings to NOAA. I've been noting this reluctance for several years now... either their government doesn't like them doing it, or nobody wants to take the minimal effort to translate and report. It's unfortunate.

The Akumal and Sian Kaan reefs get a lot of U.S. and international scientists, which explains why we have so much more data. Ironically, there's a long term reef monitoring program at Quintana Roo that's sponsored by Texas A&M Corpus Christi. They've been at work for something like 15 years. They taught me how to dive!

Hey Christi, if you start helping out with the Cozumel marine park folks, maybe you can encourage them to disseminate their findings better, maybe even submit stuff to NOAA. It's the lead agency for Caribbean coral monitoring.