Effect of Tsunami on Marine Life

Interesting news story:

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=stor...nt_041231023839

Seems needlessly alarmist to me but I suppose they needed some new angle for yet another disaster story.

I somehow doubt that the coral was terribly damaged by a few moments exposure to air or by the one time silt-out that they might experience. I also doubt the damage will take "decades or centuries" to recover. They say it all the time and I suppose we'll see. Clearly, the damage sustained by the reef would be dependent on depth.

We should be more concerned with the tragic loss of life than the disappointment of slightly less pristine reefs to dive on. I wager this will hardly be important.

Damage to the reefs is a major issue for both the survivors in the coastal fishing villages as well as those in the tourist towns. When reefs are damaged the marine life that people depend on for their living & food either leave or die off. With the fish gone the traditional life of a fishing village also dies. At the same time their fields have been rendered unproductive due to all the salt left by the flooding, their fish ponds smashed open - how are they going to survive? Now think of the resort areas & live aboards that are dependent on a steady stream of divers coming through, and what will happen when the divers go off to unaffected reefs. The cash economy that supports the entire region is gone. At the same time the increased human usage in unaffected areas puts more pressure on reefs already stressed by the recent warming events. Reef damage isn't just a matter of disappointment to a few divers - it's a matter of survival for everyone in the coastal areas.

The brief exposure to air probably won't be a major factor in the coral's survival but the silt will. It won't be just a light dusting of sediment either, but could be several meters of mud & debris laced with sewage and chemicals. Enclosed commercial shrimp, algae & fish farms will have been destroyed, leaching vast amounts of fertilizers, antibiotics, & high levels of organics onto the reefs. Mangrooves & sea grass flats that held back sediment have been wiped out leading to more sedimentation in the future. All of the heavy debris moved by the tsunami - rocks, cars, boats, building materials, trees - destroy the reefs as thoroughly as a ship grounding.

How fast the coral can come back will depend a lot of factors. On badly it's damaged, how quickly the overload of mud is cleared away, on how close is the nearest healthy population that can supply coral larvae, temperature variation, algae growth, human pressure, etc. The shortest time reported is about 20 years and that was in an area close to healthy coral which served as a source of recruitment if I remember right.

Hi Leslie,

Do you know if Reef Check will be heading over to do surveys?

Cheers

James

Sorry, James, I don't know. Judging by the chat on various coral-reef & science servers a whole lot of people would like to immediately start assessment & restoration studies but that will depend on whether they can get funding. The big NGOs should be able to get teams out pretty quickly.

Leslie

OCEAN ROVER TSUNAMI UPDATE - 4 JANUARY 2005

In this update:

* CBS News Distortion

* Situation in Phuket

* How you can help

* Ocean Rover schedule: no changes!

* Recommended websites

CBS NEWS DISTORTION

To those of you who saw Ocean Rover in the CBS News report about coral

damage: do not believe what they are telling you! We are furious at CBS.

One of their producers contacted us and asked if we could help them get

to the Similan Islands to report on coral damage. They assured us the

piece would be “fair & balanced”.

We did everything we could to assist the CBS news team and they spend

half a day filming and interviewing people on board Ocean Rover. One of

our clients kindly gave them his underwater video footage for use during

the broadcast. CBS promised our client that his footage would be used in

a responsible manner.

Our Cruise Director Hans Tibboel described one specific divesite in

Surin Island with the words: “it looked like a giant sandblaster was

used”. Again, Hans was describing only one divesite and made positive

remarks about the actual lack of damage at other places. Of course, the

CBS editor used the “sandblast” soundbite and hardly anything else.

Footage was also arranged in a “before & after” method that is not

consistent with the real situation. All the beautiful “before” footage

shown by CBS was actually filmed AFTER the tsunami.

Somehow the media just cannot help themselves and turn everything into a

gloom & doom story. CBS should be ashamed of what they did here. We have

talked to their producer since but of course she blames the New York

editor. This is the way the media works. The way the news piece came out

is 100% the opposite of what was promised to us. We urge fellow dive

operators to be very careful in dealing with the media. These people do

not let scruples get in the way of a juicy story. Shameful!

The CBS piece is damaging to our reputation and business. It paints the

wrong picture about the true level of coral damage in the Similans AND

it makes our own website reports look like lies. All we can say is when

you dive with us, you trust us with your lives. When you read our

website, you can trust us to be truthful.

SITUATION IN PHUKET

As the Indian Ocean Region slowly stabilizes it appears that Thailand,

thanks to a more developed infrastructure, is able to recover from the

disaster faster than placers such as Sumatra and Sri Lanka, which have

the highest numbers of casualties. But in Thailand too there are

countless human tragedies, people who lost their loved ones, their homes

and their businesses. Still, everyone speaks of pulling together,

rebuilding and surviving.

Phuket, though hard hit on her west-coast beaches, is in better shape

than Kao Lak and Pi-Pi islands and the clean-up is well underway. Patong

Beach celebrated New Year's Eve in subdued fashion with a memorial

service near the beach. In Phuket and Kao Lak, emergency relief aid is

now in place with no immediate need for further shipments. In spite of

the overwhelming events, people realize they have to pick up the pieces

and get their lives and businesses back on track.

Those who call this callous fail to see that last thing Phuket needs

right now is an economic meltdown caused by tourists staying away as a

result of inaccurate news coverage. Thousands of ordinary Thais are

employed in the resorts that are now damaged and closed. Mass

cancellations would destroy what is left of the island’s fragile

economy. If you are booked for a Thailand holiday, please do not cancel.

There are many exaggerated news stories about the situation in Phuket.

Reports about disease, contamination, water and food shortages and even

“widespread looting” are totally incorrect. TV footage of the horrific

events of 26 December is repeated over and over but meanwhile a lot has

happened that is not shown on TV. Everyone is working hard to return to

some sort of normalcy and tourists are beginning to reappear on the

beaches. Oddly, the beaches look like they did 20 years ago: white clean

sand and calm seas. Mr Watchara Apornsiri, Director of the Royal Phuket

Irrigation Project and a Phuket native declared that the sea water at

Phuket's beaches is clean, uncontaminated and safe for swimming.

HOW YOU CAN HELP

We have received hundreds of messages of support and we are touched by

everyone's concern. Many of you have expressed a wish to contribute

money but worry that their contribution will simply be absorbed into

machinery of some mega aid agency. People want to be certain their

donation reaches those who really need it.

There are several reputable organizations in Phuket setting up relief

funds. One such organization is the Rotary Club of Patong Beach. The

fund aims to supply immediate as well as long-term financial aid (e.g.

scholarships) for children who lost their parents in the tsunami. You

can make a donation on-line at www.rotarypatong.org

<http://www.rotarypatong.org/>.

Similar accounts are being set up by other clubs and individuals. More

details as we learn them. No matter which fund you support, make sure

you supply your details so you can be kept informed about what was done

with your kind donation.

OCEAN ROVER CRUISE SCHEDULE

No changes in Ocean Rover's schedule. Our 2004-2005 Thailand-Myanmar

diving cruises will depart as scheduled. The sole exception is the

special Andaman Islands cruise that was to depart on 6 January 2005. We

hoped to go ahead with this cruise and bring relief supplies to the

Andaman Islands at the same time but the Indian Government closed the

area for foreign flagged shipping. Ocean Rover will stay at anchor in

Chalong Bay until the next regular cruise which departs 22 January.

RECOMMENDED WEBSITES

Check the following websites for news and updates about what is really

happening in Phuket

www.phuket.com <http://www.phuket.com/>

www.phuketgazette.net <http://www.phuketgazette.net/>

http://www.image-asia.com/post_tsunami_phu...huket_krabi.htm

www.rotarypatong.org <http://www.rotarypatong.org/>

www.ocean-rover.com <http://www.ocean-rover.com/>

All this supposes that the reefs were "smashed open" or that there was significant sediment deposits. This is a one time event. The sediment would have to be huge to have an impact that would last "decades or centuries". Not saying it didn't happen, just don't assume that it did.

No doubt that IF the reefs were destroyed and the fish populations dried up that it would have a huge impact that would take a long time to recover but I'd have to see more than mere speculation that it was the case. As it stands, I think its just a play to get funding for studies. I'm far more concerned about the immediate impact on lives above the surface.

When adventurers eventually return to these areas, it is unclear what they will find. The extent of underwater damage from the tsunami is not yet known, but experts say it's likely the ocean floor and marine life have suffered. Unlike surface waves, the tsunami's force was created by a 9.0 underwater earthquake, which distributed the waves' velocity evenly from top to bottom, according to Henry Yeh, an ocean engineer with Oregon State University. In 1960, an enormous tsunami that hit Japan lifted 30 feet of mud from the ocean's bottom.

"All the coral surrounding Thailand was probably destroyed or seriously injured when this wave hit," says Yeh. "Coral is used to wave action, but a tsunami is so different that nothing in the ocean is prepared for it."

More immediately apparent is the loss of the hotels and dive shops along the Thai coast. "The beaches are gone, the resorts are gone, whole small islands are essentially underwater now," says 12-year area resident Chip Pough, 64, via satellite phone from his boat near Phuket. "The guys who have dive shops near the beach, their compressors are underwater, and they don't have any electricity. The entire Indian Ocean diving industry is kaput for a year until they can rebuild."

Taken from today's La Times outdoor section. I don't know if it is anymore reliable than the CBS story mentioned above. When reporting politics they tend to be very biased.

So the earthquake did tremendous damage in the immediate vicinity where it occured. No surprise. That has nothing to do with diving of course.

I don't see why it follows that the wave would destroy all coral in its path and I doubt that seriously.

Curiously, these pictures of Thailand's beaches appears not to be like the ones painted in the LA Times article. Sounds like sensationalism to me.

I agree with Craig on being more concerned with the life above water at this point...Jason Heller's story tells it all. In any event, I came across this article concerning Andaman Coral hit by the Tsunami over at the BBC.

Here are a couple of links with recent updates both above and below water. There is some reef damage, and some reefs are undamaged.

http://siamdivers.com/guest/diving-conditions.htm

http://phuket-photos.com/frameme.php?page=...-tidal-wave.htm

I don't think anyone's denying that the immediate response needs to be focused above water, on the survivor's needs & ensuring that their long-term needs are met as well. It's just that for so many of the people in coastal SE Asia the condition of the reefs & surrounding areas are vital to their livelihoods & future. As reports have pointed out, some areas are largely untouched while others are severely damaged and will need years to recover. I've only seen a few reports; I'm in Fiji until February 7th for a biodiversity survey and my internet access is quite limited.

On a slightly different tangent, here's a report from the Wall Street Journal on how reefs & mangroves affected the impact of the tsunami.

Cheers, Leslie

*On Asia's Coasts, Progress Destroys Natural Defenses*

By ANDREW BROWNE

Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

December 31, 2004; Page A5

HONG KONG -- The ring of coral in crystal waters around the Surin Island chain off Thailand's west coast forms a sturdy defense against the sea. So when the tsunami struck on Sunday it punched a few holes in the reef, but the structure mostly held firm.

The reef, says Thai marine environmentalist Thon Thamrongnavasawadi, may have saved many lives. Only a handful of people on the islands are known to have perished -- most scrambled to safety as the first wave exploded against the coral.

Tragically, across much of Asia, coastal communities found themselves with no such shield against nature's fury. The protective reefs, sand dunes and mangroves that look out toward the Indian Ocean in a broad arc from Sri Lanka to Bangladesh and Indonesia have been dynamited and bulldozed by a force as unstoppable as the tsunami itself -- the force that drives some of the world's fastest-growing economies.

*/Natural Buffer/*

Where dense mangrove forests once provided a buffer between sea and land, now there are countless shrimp farms and hotels. Sand dunes have been flattened by coastal highways, reefs blown up to make way for ports.

Mangroves -- trees and shrubs that live in tropical tidal zones -- line one-quarter of the world's tropical coastlines. But Asia is hurriedly uprooting them as its economies take off. In less than 20 years between 1975 and 1993, Thailand's mangrove area was almost halved, says Edward Barbier, a professor of economics at Wyoming University and editor of a recent book on Asia's disappearing mangrove ecosystems. India laid waste to as much as 50% of its mangroves between 1963 and 1977. Belatedly, some countries have made efforts at replanting.

Mangroves offer a double layer of protection against the pounding surf: Low red mangroves anchor themselves in mud flats along tidal estuaries, their flexible branches and tangled roots absorbing the sea's power. Behind them stand black mangroves as tall as trees.

Environmentalists point out that coastal communities around the world are vulnerable to natural calamities: Florida took four direct hits this year from hurricanes. But whereas the cleanup in Florida takes just a few months, it could be years before life returns to normal in poor parts of Asia.

To be sure, not even mangroves could have parried the blow from Sunday's tsunamis, and the waves inflicted severe damage on relatively undeveloped sections of coastline, too.

But ecological damage "has left coastlines vulnerable," says Mr. Barbier, and if natural defenses had been left standing, they "would have reduced some of the losses" by reducing how far and fast the waves surged inland.

In stripping the mangroves, Asian countries have created real estate for tourism, one of the region's biggest foreign-exchange earners, but along the most exposed part of the continent where the sea laps the shore. Thatched tourist cottages hang precariously off cliffs on the Malaysian resort island of Langkawi, and seafood restaurants stand on stilts above Thai beaches.

Yet while hundreds of sun-seeking tourists from northern parts of Europe and Asia were washed away by the tsunami, most victims were impoverished fishing families.

Environmentalists and economists describe a process in which relentless urban development, aquaculture and tourism create winners and losers along Asia's coastline. Tourist resorts increase employment opportunities for some locals, but push others aside. Wealthy tourists relax under umbrellas in the most desirable beach spots, while the fishing families they displace rebuild their flimsy homes in more marginal -- and more dangerous -- locations down the coast.

"They lose twice," says Mr. Barbier, who has studied the process in Southeast Asia -- once to the developers, next to the elements.

*/Jumbo Spoiler/*

But by far the greatest spoiler of Asia's coastline are shrimp farms. Thailand is now the world's biggest shrimp exporter; Indonesia and India are not far behind. The U.S. is the biggest buyer. Cheap tiger prawns have created prosperity around Asia, but at a cost: Shrimp farms demand brackish

water and flat land, both found in abundance where mangroves grow.

A typical fish pond looks like a bomb crater, and coastal Asia is pocked with them. Each lasts for no more than eight years before the many chemicals and antibiotics that are poured into them in the process of raising shrimp make them unusable. The shrimp farmers move on, cutting more mangrove

forests for new farms. In Indonesia's Aceh province, devastated by the tsunami, mangroves are being chopped down as timber for sale to nearby Malaysia and Singapore.

Along the east coast of India, had the mangroves been left standing, "hotels and settlements would have been a little further away," says Swayam Prabha Das of the World Wildlife Fund in New Delhi. "The damage could have been limited."

*/Lesson in Ecology/*

The Indian government is now reviewing the implementation of regulations, frequently flouted, that bar all development 1,650 feet from the sea in areas where mangroves and coral thrive. "I think some common sense will prevail now," Ms. Das says.

Likewise in Thailand, while Mr. Thamrongnavasawadi mourns the human loss along with the destruction of stretches of reef around the Surin Islands, he is heartened by the lesson in ecology that the tsunami delivered. Indeed, officials in the Maldives said extensive reefs smothered the tsunami, and though 69 people are confirmed dead so far, the loss of life there could have been much worse.

Mr. Thamrongnavasawadi's Web site is flooded with offers of help from divers eager to participate in a national project to measure the effects of the tsunami on Thailand's coral reefs. Of the 20 reefs around the Surins, two or three have been irreparably smashed, he says.

"It's a very clear point: Coral reefs save lives," he says.

(End of article.)

By PAUL RECER, AP Science Writer

WASHINGTON --  The tsunami that took a heavy toll in human life also battered Indian Ocean coral reefs that already were in distress from pollution and global warming, possibly causing damage that will require decades to recover, experts say.

Scientists have yet to conduct a complete survey of damage to the coral reefs from the tsunami, but experts fear that some of the Earth's most spectacular coral formations may carry scars from the killer wave for many years.

Tom Hourigan, a coral reef expert for the National Marine Fisheries Service, said that coral formations throughout the Indian Ocean were severely damaged by El Nino warming in 1997 and 1998 and were just beginning to recover when they were slammed by the tsunami last month.

"It is very likely that the tsunami would damage the coral and some of the worst damage would come from debris thrown up against the reefs," said Hourigan.

He said the shallow reefs along hundreds of miles of beach in Indian Ocean would be victimized by a "one-two tsunami punch."

First, the tsunami wave would rise as it entered shallow water and smash into the coral reef, said Hourigan. The force of the wave itself could damage the reef. But then would come the second punch. As the wave swept back into the ocean, it would carry tons of debris __ including cars, trees, refrigerators and furniture __ along with sludge and silt.

The heavy debris would hit the reefs like battering rams, bulldozing the fragile coral formations. The sludge can bury the coral, suffocating it.

"One of the biggest impacts will be from the debris pulled off the land onto the reefs," said Hourigan. "We've been doing quite a bit of work in the western Hawaiian islands in removing debris. It is likely that a lot of debris coming off the land will be damaging to the reefs."

He said in studies following typhoons in Guam showed that tin roofs blown onto coral caused significant damage when ordinary wave action used the tin to grind away at the reef.

Some minor damage is repaired by the coral fairly quickly, but major reef destruction can take decades to heal, he said.

Coral reefs also may suffer more diseases and even death from the silt and sand that chokes the tiny organisms that builds the reefs.

"Some entire reef ... ecosystems could have been buried by sediments flushed into shallow environments," said Russel E. Brainard, chief of the coral reef division of the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center in Honolulu. For reefs normally washed by high tidal action, this sediment could be swept clean within weeks or months. But in reef areas protected from tidal waves or currents, the cleansing could take years or decades, Brainard said in an e-mail.

As tsunami waves retreat to the ocean, they also flushed off the land oils, paints and other hazardous chemicals, said Brainard.

"All of these chemicals are now in the near shore ecosystems interacting with all types of marine life," he said. "These stressors could result in diseases to corals, algae, fish and other (organisms). The impacts could be long lived.

Brainard said that plastics, including such things as fishing nets, fish line and traps, are also washed into coral reefs and the near shore environment. Such plastics will last in the marine environment for years, even decades, he said.

The loss of coral reefs could severely reduce the amount of fish available to some small, oceanside rural communities in Asia and Africa that depend on the sea for food.

"The three-dimension structure of a coral reef is the most important factor in the richness you see on a reef," said Hourigan. "Fish depend on it for hiding places, for the prey they feed on.

"A large amount of the protein that human communities need come from fishing on the coral reefs," he said. If the reefs are severely damaged, then this could affect the fish population "and have an impact on those communities for a long period of time."

___

On the Net:

NOAA Fisheries: http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov

Another story off the web. It seems like all these stories are written without on the site surveying of the possible damage. They are more theoretical than reporting of actual damage.

I agree that helping the survivors is of much greater importance. At some point though visiting the affected areas may be the best thing you can do to help the locals recover their businesses in the tourist areas.

I suspect that the reefs will recover much faster than the experts predict. However the effects of world wide pollution could have a significant effect on the recovery.

Some communications from Coral-L concerning tsunami damage. The report mentioned by Veerachai Tanpipat is in Thai but has many UW images.

Leslie

Not sure if this is of any real help to folks, but Reef Ball Foundation has gotten reports from Maldives of steel hulled vessels 20 meters deep that were sunk as artificial reefs moving 300 meters, Reef Balls in 20 meters depth (Pallet Ball Size) moving 10 meters and coral heads being tossed around like dice.

Our stablility calculations in the area would suggest that currents at 20 meters must have exceeded 5 knots to be able to move an unanchored Reef Ball.

We also got a report from Thailand of major damages to nearshore natural reefs (Racha Island Area).

Cordially, "Restoring Our World's Oceanic Ecosystems"" Todd Barber Chairman reefball@reefball.com Reef Ball Foundation, Inc. 6916 22nd Street West Bradenton, FL 34207 http://www.artificialreefs.org (All Reef Ball Sites)

_________

Here in Hawaii we did some survey work after Hurricane Iniki several years ago. We found areas of extensive reef damage down to 70 feet or more which looked as if a bulldozer had gone down slope. However, often within 20 or 30 meters laterally, facing the same direction, the reef was untouched. I suspect this may be the case with tsunami impacts as well.

Aloha, John

john.naughton@noaa.gov

_____________________

The following link

http://www.talaythai.com/issue/tsunami/20050106.php

is the latest report (Chong-Kol-Kard, Surin Island) by Dr. Thorn and his

team. There are damage in a few loactions. The final report is not done yet.

Cheers,

Chai

Veerachai Tanpipat <chai@gistda.or.th>