Protecting Cayman's Reefs: the Problem and How to Stop It

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Published on Friday, July 18, 2008

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Owen Foster

By Owen Foster

In the Cayman Islands, our main source of income is tourism. Every year, tourists fly to the Cayman Islands on jets as well as come ashore on cruise ships. The number of cruise ship visits have significantly increased over the years. As a consequence, the reefs off shore have received significant damage. Even though the damage has already been done, there are ways to fix it.

The Cayman Islands Government should install permanent moorings for cruise ships and implement Bio-Rock artificial reefs to regenerate the reefs which have been lost. Some repair methods would be, permanent moorings could be used so that ships would not have to drop their anchors on the fragile coral. Bio-Rock artificial reefs could be used to rebuild and replenish marine life in areas that have been destroyed by large ship anchors.

Due to the Cayman Islands not having a large enough dock for cruise ships to dock up to, the ships must resort to anchoring in George Town Harbour, and on some days in Spotts. Every time a large ship drops anchor in the waters around the Cayman Islands, the anchors get caught in the reefs and tear them apart. The worst affected area from this is George Town Harbour. According to an article found on the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESO) website, “Government scientists have acknowledged that more than 300 acres of coral reefs have already been lost to cruise ship anchors in the harbor at George Town, Cayman Islands.” This is a large area of coral reef that has been lost. If we don’t act now, we may not have any coral reefs left.

Coral reefs cover 0.17% of the world’s oceans. These reefs provide a habitat for up to 25% of all marine species. Scientists have identified 93,000 species living in coral reefs all around the world. It is estimated that there are up to one million species yet to be discovered. The area that reefs occupy is quite small but very diverse when the area they exist in is taken into consideration.

According to an article on environmental law found on the Washington College of Law web site, “ Scientists estimate that without preventative action up to 70% of the worlds coral reefs will be gone within 40 years”. The Cayman Islands does not have to be a contributor to this; we could be a role model for other countries and show people how to protect and rebuild their reefs.

One way to combat this problem is the use of permanent moorings instead of dropping anchor. Helix style anchors could be used as permanent moorings. Results from a test done by Pioneer Mooring Service in Dartmouth, Maine show that a typical Helix mooring can hold more than 20, 800 pounds.
The test was carried out twice on the same anchor. Both times the anchor itself was not compromised, instead the shackle and mooring lines failed. Networks of these moorings could be installed not only in George Town Harbour but also in Spotts and Cayman Brac to secure large cruise ships. George Town however is not the only place where these need to be installed. Cruise ship visits not only to Grand Cayman but also to Cayman Brac are on the rise. Mooring networks should be installed to support large-scale marine traffic that will increase on all of the Cayman Islands as time passes.

Another way to combat the problem of coral reef destruction is the use of artificial reefs. Typical artificial reefs are constructed using reef balls or by sinking man made structures such as ships. These types of artificial reefs create habitats for fish; however, it would take quite some time for coral to start growing on them. Even if coral is transplanted, coral grows very slowly. According to an article from (Answers Magazine) the average growth rate of coral per year is 0.8 millimeters to 80 millimeters.

As you can tell by this figure, it would take hundreds of years for the coral reef to grow back in George Town Harbour if it was to happen naturally. The answer to artificial reefs is Bio-Rock. Bio-Rock artificial reefs use electrolysis to promote coral growth. By setting up an electrolysis system on the sea floor, mineral deposition occurs on the cathode. Making the coral grow up to three times faster than normal. The cathodes and anodes can be made in any size and any shape. We could literally draw up a blue print for the shape we would want the reef to be and use this method to construct it in a shorter period of time.

As time goes by, these structures will continue to grow and get larger and become stronger. Even though Bio-Rock uses electricity, it is safe for divers and can be implemented at a very low cost. Tests have been preformed and results have shown that 3.8 to 17 volts show the best results.

Both of these technologies will have benefits to the Cayman Islands. The Cayman Islands Government should install permanent moorings for cruise ships and implement Bio-Rock artificial reefs to regenerate the reefs which have been lost. By doing this, we could, as a nation be a role model for other countries all over the world that have this same problem.

Owen Foster is one of three winners of the Ogier/Central Caribbean Marine Institute (CCMI) Environmental Essay competition, which was organised in support of the CCMI’s Green Guide to the Caribbean. He is a 17-year-old student of the Cayman International School.

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Comments:

Russ George:
I have read some of the many news reports on the ocean acidification and reef crisis that are presently extant. I beg to differ with the position that reducing our global carbon footprint will help save our ocean bathing beauties, the reefs. It's not that I don't fully support reducing our carbon footprint, I am rather more concerned about the role of the present deadly dose of anthropogenic CO2 already in the air on its way to our surface ocean waters. Those hundreds of billions of tonnes of anthropogenic CO2, the bulk of which we've prescribed and put en route in the past 75 years, is slowly dissolving into the surface ocean. By most accounts CO2 in the atmosphere takes on the order of 200 years to equilibrate with the surface ocean. Hence the pH drop we've been recording is just the proverbial tip of the dry-iceberg.

As the surface ocean absorbs the rest of this deadly dose, regardless of whether we emit more which we surely are doing, the acidification process already destined to occur is more than sufficient to change ocean ecology in far wider and disastrous fashion than merely scalding the bathing beauties at the shore. In fact the devastating effects CO2 has on the ocean is not proceeding only via H2O+CO2=H2CO3 (carbonic acid), there is a secondary reaction wherein CO2 is enhancing the greeness of the planets dry lands. There is a major benefit our high and rising CO2 delivers to droughty grasses who are losing less water via evapotranspiration, remaining green and growing bushier each spring, and as such are superior ground cover thus reducing topsoil loss in the wind. Tragically that dust in the wind is the major source of vital mineral micronutrients for the open ocean. Prophetically it seems, all we really are is dust in the wind.

So as our reef beauties cry out and dissolve like Dorothy's wicked witch in our acidifying oceans, the acidification will certainly continue for at least another century unabated even if we never emit another molecule of fossil CO2 into the air. At the same time as the oceans suffer this chemical shock treatment, like those we give our swimming pools, they will continue as well to lose their photosynthetic capacity to counter this onslaught. The loss of net primary productivity, NPP, is reportedly 17% in the North Atlantic, 26% in the North Pacific, and 50% in the sub-tropical tropical oceans.

We can find the fundamental proof of the depth of this problem by considering it from the point of view of basic chemical thermodynamics. Indeed we have expended a hundred terrawatts or so burning fossil carbon to put that deadly dose of CO2 into our atmosphere and ocean. No trivial energy savings will serve to counter its certain first principals chemical effects. We can still trust in what the Second Law of Thermodynamics teaches us in that one must balance equations energetically. If we are to address a problem created by terrawatts of energy we must devote terrawatts of energy. In this case those curative terrawatts better be emission free or we are lost.

So where is there a source of emission free terrawatts of curative power we can devote to saving the oceans and help restore the balance of Nature? It is of course ONLY available from photosynthesis and therein lies the course we must chart to restore our oceans as we must surely not simply imagine the damage we've prescribed can simply be ignored and start from the present mortally wounded state. No mere conservation ethic or effort will suffice, we are far to far over the tipping point for that to work. We must replenish and restore ocean photosynthesis for there in the vast living ocean expanse the terrawatts of power, solar power, can be found and used to compete with the H2O+CO2=H2CO3 reaction. Therein lies hope if we act now to assist the ocean plants, phyto-plankton, to convert CO2 in the ocean to life instead of death. Without replenished mineral micronutrients, without our determined efforts to administer the antidote, life in the oceans, and on this small blue planet, will surely revert to the cyanobacteroa; state from whence it came.

If you are a religious person you might liken what we need to do as seeking absolution for our sins of emission by our acts of contrition and ecorestoration, otherwise the path to perdition is that of dissolution of those sins into dying oceans.

Russ George - founder/president
Planktos Science
San Francisco
www.planktos-science.com

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