I pass this along because the general health of the world ocean, and especially of reef communities, is of extreme relevance to malacology and conchology - and both are in steep decline in recent decades.

-Ross Mayhew.

SCIENTISTS DOCUMENT DEEP-WATER CORAL MORTALITY EVENT

   Scientists from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, in
cooperation with researchers from the U.S. Geological Survey and National Park
Service, are reporting the first description of coral loss on a deep U.S.
Caribbean reef. Their findings are reported in this month's issue of the
journal Continental Shelf Research. The coral mortality event on a deep reef
was detected off St. John in the U.S. Caribbean using a remotely operated
vehicle (ROV) deployed from the NOAA ship Nancy Foster noted during a sea floor
mapping mission in 2005. "Over the past 30 years we have seen a tremendous
decrease in live coral cover on shallow reefs in the Caribbean,” said Mark
Monaco, a marine biologist from NOAA’s Center for Coastal Monitoring and
Assessment. “The extensive loss of coral on this deep reef is especially
noteworthy since deep reefs could serve as a source of future recruits for
shallow reefs during times of stress."

The well-documented degradation of shallower reefs that are often closer to land
and more vulnerable to pollution, sewage, and other human-related stressors has
led to the suggestion that deeper, more remote offshore reefs were less
vulnerable. Yet the distribution, status, and ecological roles of Caribbean
reefs deeper than 30 meters are not well known. Using video and pictures taken
from the ROV, coral cover decline was estimated at 25 percent.

Source: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, 16 October 2007
http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2007/20071016_deepcoral.html

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