Forgot to mention that corals grow best in very low nutrient waters - very
slowly but they extract the very best from the very least - they don´t
grow in estuaries or other over-nutrient-endowed places. So when we
arrange the reefs to be over-fed, they´re done.

They make their own micro-environment - at a certain depth, and at a
certain temperature, and that micro-environment makes for more biological
diversity and productivity than almost anywhere else in clean tropical
waters. If that micro-environment is over-fed, then algae (seaweeds) take
over and those guys don´t give away anything - so the fish and the
shellfish starve.

But you don´t find many shells actually in reefs - if they´re there,
they´re hiding. You find shells around reefs - on the coral ´leaf-fall´
next to them, or on the lagoon flats, or on the outward slopes leading
below the coral levels to the deep sea.

After all, shells are lazy animals, slow-moving, and only eat what they
come across if and when they happen to hit it. If they hit a large bit of
seaweed on their way to lunch, they just stop, and starve.

When I see that happening here, where the only apparent pollution is my
cigarette smoke, then I begin to worry a bit.

regards

Richard

see:
www.coconutstudio.com
for stuff about this island

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