Marvelously Resilient Coral

Really good, informative stuff, Jim. Thanks.
Maybe you can fill me in on a process I’ve always wondered about. On the shallow reefs we surf on in the Indian Ocean, they all have wave damaged flat tops with the living coral growing on the sides of all these deeper channels, about a meter wide, that cut through all over the reef, obviously allowing water flow and nutrients to get to the living coral and allow it to survive. It appears that the coral never blindly keeps growing across the channels, thus choking them and the whole reef. Some process is involved where all the corals mutually refrain from growing across those channels and choking them. Any ideas? Do the polyps have eyes?
As for bleaching, parts of our local reef at St Leu, Reunion, have bleached every summer for the last 4 decades and recovered each time within a couple of months. St Leu is one of the healthiest and quickest growing reefs in the world, and has amazing variety of different coral species for such a small area, mostly fire coral in the impact zone, which seems to thrive in very shallow water.
Another thing not mentioned in the GBR reports was any mention of damage being done to the shallow water corals when they are exposed, high and dry, every summer in baking tropical temperatures during spring low tides. It is only lucky, or a fact of its existence, that the lowest tides, when it is exposed completely above water, come around full and new moon when the tide is high at midday, so the coral is not exposed to the severe tropical midday sun, directly overhead as the summer solstice passes over our 21*S position, goes to 23•7*S, then is back directly overhead 2 weeks later, cooking the place a lot longer, in those 4-6 weeks than anywhere closer to the equator. The GBR also suffers the same process. The dying or bleaching of parts of the GBR you mention, especially those seen to be one meter deep on average, may well be explained by it having been exposed above water during the summer spring low tides.
Weather conditions on those days of exposure may explain the variance of different areas and years.
I have to also mention the barrier reefs running 2000km up both coasts of Madagascar, especially the west coast which is nearly comparable to the GBR in length and, in some places, width. It is all pristine and in fantastic condition, though the world has been made to believe it is just about extinct and are keen to send troops in to protect it from the Malagasy people who are living off it sustainably, if only because of their lack of technology and its gargantuan, near unlimited size.
The west coast has daily tidal differences of more than 3 meters due to the fact that the tides arriving in the Mozambique Channel have to go round the huge island and arrive from both the north and south of the island at about the same time, doubling the effect. That means the times of high and low tide arrive about 6 hours later than “normal” and high tide on full and new moons is in the morning and low tide, especially the very low summer springs, occurs at tropical midday, which would really cook it if exposed high and dry. The surfing reefs appear to be generally deeper than those in Mauritius and Reunion, which have only a one meter tide difference, and that may be the reason. Depth is controlled by the height of summer spring low tides. The hollow, best, most tubing waves break on the reefs with the most shallow water, so we are always conscious of the coral depths and conditions, every day out there for decades. It is often only inches deep but the coral remains the same depth for decades, from our observation. The process that limits its upward growth is obvious.
The recent world media reports about Madagascar being totally ablaze are completely false. All those flying over it recently saw no fires or smoke. There always is some seasonal burning of the long yellow grass as part of land management because they are cattle herders, needing the new green shoots which spring out the ground with the first rains, and the fires are lit just before the rains are expected. If they didn’t burn, their land would quickly revert back to bush, forest or jungle, in many places. Africa is the same and so is Brazil.
As far as observations on sea level rise goes, the town of St Leu, Reunion, has been a good place to judge because the center of town, 20m from the water, is slightly below sea level and the biggest swells can wash over the beach, onto the main road and spill into town. That can happen 1-3 times per year. Observation over 4 decades has us seeing the waves arrive on the road less often than in the 70s. So, from a place which is the most susceptible to sea level rise, we are noticing less rise, if anything, and certainly see nothing to fear at present. The million year old, 3010m high volcanic island, 50km in diameter, is more likely to be sinking into the crust because of its weight than rising, though the hot spot under the active volcano in its south eastern third may be making it swell and rise in parallel with any sea level rise. Take your pick.
All the marine biologists I’ve ever questioned, seemed to be unaware that coral reefs only grow in towards the land as the land erodes in time. The best way to explain it to them is that if it grew one centimeter per year, out to sea on the existing coral, an island like Mauritius, maybe 20 million years old, would be 400km wide, instead of it being about 40km. Ancient Madagascar world be the size of Africa, maybe. They all work against beach erosion, for some reason here. As a result, the very shallow barrier reefs, under their control and “protection,” on Reunion’s west coast are slowly filling up with coral bits broken off by the constant big swells, and the lagoons are slowly getting shallower and choking.
Added to that the installation of a Marine Reserve throughout the whole area of the island’s once totally safe swimming beaches which caused a massive infestation of thousands of giant killer bull sharks, and those who have usurped power over our waters are not very popular here, after 23 major shark attacks since 2011, 11 of them fatal, including 2 children bitten in half, while 9 others lost an arm or leg, or both. A honeymooner was bitten to death in front of his newlywed wife. A 20 year old girl was fatally attacked on Valentine’s Day. A Labrador dog was eaten whole while actually on the beach, dragged back into the water by a monster shark, only a few meters up the beach and not long after 15 year old Sarah was bitten in half in front of her little sister, while snorkeling at the waters edge. It is much worse than the film Jaws, and way, way longer.
Those running the Reserve continued all these years to deny that the Reserve and its total protection of sharks had anything to do with the attacks concentrated in the Reserve, which had no previous attacks and was safe as a bathtub before. The attacks started 4 years after the Reserve was installed, and continue to this day with next to no one ever in the water. Once these power grabbers get control they hold it at the point of a gun and keep it, no matter what. Their sharks are eating all the Reserve’s biomass, which has not increased after 13 years of total protection, and the shallow, very fragile lagoon, which the Reserve was mainly installed to protect, is now seriously overcrowded because it is the only safe place to swim. At a cost of hundreds of millions, they have presided over and controlled an environmental and economic disaster and a human tragedy of shocking degree and duration, which got worse and worse while they fought control of big shark numbers, refusing to allow any culling. The last 4 attacks have been fatal as the sharks get bigger and more numerous.
Entry to the water anywhere on Reunion, except inside the little lagoon has been outlawed and policed for the last 6 years, and the fine increased recently. Welcome to the brave new world of human exclusion from nature, and reserved for the elite and those who work for them.
More than half the island has been made World Heritage, and so, along with the ocean being outlawed, the ecologists in power are now restricting the behavior of the inhabitants who live there and kept it all those centuries good enough to be awarded World Heritage status. Soon the price of entry will restrict it all to only the richest visitors and the “scientists” and their guards.
Reunion, dictated to by Paris is a blazing example of the Green takeover, way in advance of the rest of the world, and the inhabitants and everyone else are suffering under the regime, while the tourist economy, which you’d expect decent environmental protection would attract, has become non existent except for people visiting family.
One other note, while I’m at it, is to point out that there is definitely a lack of polar amplification in Antarctica. Seeing that we are sure from the records that polar amplification does always show in a heating or cooling world, it suggests that climate is forced when Antarctica heats or cools. It is its position with that hundred million tons per second current going round it that reduced the Earth’s temperature and made ice form and grow on the planet 15 million years ago, so it obviously dominates the world climate. The world’s heat arrives in the water down there and at the line of convergence gets spun round the globe a few times, its heat never getting anywhere near the pole or ice, and the excess heat is bled to space. If the rest of the world starts heating, the line of convergence moves slightly south but the world doesn’t heat. But if Antarctica heats, for some reason of its own, the rest of the world responds, and likewise if it cools. The answers to what controls world climate will be found by looking in Antarctica.
As for alarms of any ice breaking off Antarctica, 78mm of precipitation falls on average every year over its enormous permanent ice surface and remains frozen there, which is enough to lower sea level a couple of millimeters a year. Seeing the sea level is not falling every year, we expect a thousand or so cubic kilometers of ice to break off every year, so icebergs the size of small or large state breaking off are only to be expected, as the ice slides into the sea replacing the floating shelves. Just as we expect all China’s black perfectly radiant black ball soot falling on Arctic ice to melt it when the sun shines on it.
I reckon Antarctic sea ice extent in winter is a big indicator. The latent heat energy exchanges and where it all goes is planetary in its enormity. The Southern Oscillation is best described as the cooling El Niño and the even more cooling La Niña. Evident global affect, everyone agrees. It is a forcing from Antarctica that keeps the world cooler than it was 15 million years ago. Ocean average temperature was 20*C and it is now 6*C.
Sorry to add all that on which has nothing to do with coral but some of it is simple enough to put doubt in the minds of those sucked in by the scare. Antarctic ice loss and its precipitation, for example, and black soot is always convincing. Arctic melt is their big showcard. Coral bleaching is just a fake power and money grab. Cheers.