But nobody seems able to report incidents, and the supposed report cards do not exist. To have the biologist who wrote the EIA also act as the head of the monitoring crew is also suspect - but then Kathleen comes from the BEST Commission anyways - the organization responsible for approving developments in the Bahamas.
While she is set up to appear independent of the development, her counterpart, a Bahamian named Livingstone Marshall, is the official environmental chief at Baker's Bay Club. He also comes from the BEST Commission - he was hired away from his position as the Prime Minister's environmental consultant.
Back on that sunny day in 2006, at the bottom of Baker's Bay, Cervino found a handful of large concrete blocks covered in algae.
A small section of the EIA had led the scientists here. Although little was mentioned about the reef in the EIA, there was a tiny section that explained that artificial reefs could be used to restore and repair reefs damaged by development.
Artificial reefs are often failures, and no sane conservationist would ever consider an artificial reef to prop up a healthy reef - they are last resorts for reefs already nearly dead. Furthermore, the immense size of the Guana Cay reef would make artificial reefs an impossibility for mitigation anyways.
And what the scientists found made perfect sense. The artificial reefs were covered in algaethey were a complete failure, indicating that the entire published plan for protecting the coral reef would be a failure.
The animals that secrete a stony exoskeleton and create the building blocks of the coral structure are called polyps. They are incredibly beautiful animals in miniature, like tiny anenomes; fragile little monsters belying the mountains they build. There are thousands of coral species, each with unique attributes designed to survive in unique habitats, or to fill unique roles in complex reef habitats.
Dr. Cervino's expertise is unique in the coral world - he diagnoses diseases in polyps, and has a fondness for their internal structure. The specialized nature of his research is evidence of a science that is coming into its own; Cervino's research stands on the shoulders of other, more general research that is with each month, more conclusively unraveling the mysteries of the coral world.
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 Detail from Great Guana Cay reef |
Over the past 50 years, but especially so in the 1980s, 1990's and today, coral reefs have been dying. By the year 2030, scientists predict that only fifty percent of the world's coral reefs will remain. This possibility will represent one of the most devastating and singularly abhorrent events ever committed by humanity. With this destruction will be widespread loss to our economies, to biological diversity and to the Earth itself - coral reefs are crucial to the regulation of the Earth's atmosphere.
Because of the widespread deaths of coral reefs around the world, most nations have implemented strong protection for them. But, just as the Bahamas denies sea turtles vital protection where others have long ago joined the international community, the Bahamas has no genuine laws to protect its coral reefs.
What is responsible for the death of coral reefs? - overfishing, invasive species, climate-change induced bleaching and so forth. There are even reports of chipped boat paint and sunscreen contributing to coral deaths. But one umbrella issue stands above the rest for nearshore corals, particularly in the Caribbean.
Corals die from nutrient overload.
This is the irony and beauty of the coral story. Most dense, species-rich ecosystems rely on an abundance of nutrients to thrive. Coral reefs can survive only in nutrient-poor water. Scientists have even determined the maximum nutrient threshold in which corals can survive.
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