Figure 1. A fan shaped coral called Elkhorn coral, Acropora Palmata.

Largely because of the influence of Jacques Cousteau, I now work on a ‘way cool’ and important project on the health of the Florida Keys coral reefs [Figs. 4 & 5]. (Corals are small animals that live in colonies and secrete calcium to form a skeleton on the outside of their bodies, which then becomes the framework of the reef [Fig. 6]).

Figure 2. A coral called Agaricia Tenuofolia. Agaricias are called lettuce corals because they resemble lettuce plants underwater. Their plates are very sharp, so be careful when swimming around them. Agaricia Tenuofolia helps to form reefs in shallow water where there is a lot of wave energy. They can grow to about 2 meters in diameter and live for over 50 years.

Oceanographers are interested in the Florida Keys because these are the only reefs in the United States (other than Hawaii), and the reefs are home to the greatest number of corals, fish and plant life in the sea. More importantly, coral reefs are very sensitive to pollution, and by measuring the health of reefs we can better understand the health of the ocean. As the human population of the world grows, it is extremely important to monitor and control pollution. We started this project 3 years ago and one of the first questions was, “How can we measure how healthy a reef is?” I got together with some colleagues and we modified some existing video equipment to take underwater pictures of the reef along lines which we call ‘transects’ at 30 reefs spaced throughout the Florida Keys [Fig. 7]. We convert the video to digital computer images to look for changes in coral abundance and the presence of diseases such as Black Band Diseases which tell us about the health of the reef-building corals. We record this data on computers and are creating a large database containing information about each of our sites.

Figure 3. Dustan and Jacques Cousteau on the research ship Calypso. For over fifty years, Calypso served as the research vessel for Captain Jacques Yves Cousteau. The movies of his expeditions showed the world that the oceans were alive and full of marvelous creatures. I had the honor to sail on Calypso and to work with her captain and crew and will always cherish memories of her rumbling engines, creaking hull, delicious food, and spirit of adventure.

1998 is the Year of the Ocean and it will be our fourth year of monitoring the Florida Keys. In addition to continuing with this project we are working with people in other countries (Belize, the Maldives, Seychelles and Mexico) where there are biologically rich reefs. We expect that they will use our sampling methods and equipment because the data can be analyzed by computer, and this means that results from the various locations can be accurately and easily compared with each other. Also, we can gather a lot of data with our equipment, making it easier to come to correct conclusions about trends using statistics. Our web site, http://www.cofc.edu/~coral/, contains more information.

Our work is important because we owe it to the future generations of Earth (you and your kids, and their kids, and so on) to make sure that they have a clean, healthy environment to live in, complete with all the species and wondrous ecosystems that we now have. Captain Cousteau said it best, “We can find happiness in protecting the world around us not only because we cherish it for its awesome beauty and power and mystery, but because we cherish our fellow humans, those who live today and will live tomorrow.”

Figure 4. Map of Florida reef project

Figure 5. Carysfort Reef (1975 and 1985) is the largest and rishest reef in the Florida Keys. In the ten years between thse two pictures, the health of the reef began to decline. Today, 1998, the reef is still declining. Much of the reef substrate (rocks) are covered with algae, there are fewer corals and fish, and the water is usually a murky green instead of the clear blue it frequently was in 1975.

	Figure 6. This set of images are an expanded coral showing the extended tentacles and open mouths for feeding, usually at night. Then a contracted coral showing the yellow brown coral color that comes from the symbiotic algae called zooxanthellae that help corals grow their skeletons. The one on the right is a red coral, of the same species.

Figure 7. A video transect showing changes in the reef community over one year. The transect is at a depth of about 13 meters (40 feet) on Carysfort Reef, Florida. One of the corals in this transect has become infected with a disease (White Plaque) while others do not seem to be changing. Our survey revealed that the coral cover of this transect had changed from 13.2% to 11.8%, a 15% decrease in just one year. Future sampling will show if this trend will continue, or perhaps the corals will begin to regrow their lost tissues. [© DustanLab 1997, University of Charleston, S.C.]