Reef Ramblings

Sir Arthur C. Clarke who died a few days back in March 2008 at the age of 90 was well known as a scientist and science fiction writer. What few people realised, including myself, was that he was a pioneer of scuba diving and undersea exploration

Since my teens I’ve been an enthusiastic reader of science fiction. I read as much of Clarke’s work as I could lay my hands on, always enjoying the real science in his work. Although I recall that he’d written a couple of books set under the sea it wasn’t until I read a posting on the Coral List by Thomas J. Goreau, president of the Global Coral Reef Alliance, that I learnt about his contribution to Scuba and reef exploration.

I thought it might be worth sharing the information I’ve gleaned over the past couple of days with a wider audience, those of you interested in the fascinating world beneath the surface of the sea.

Clarke became interested in undersea exploration in the early 1950s. He moved to the island of Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) in 1956 after he’d first stopped off there while travelling to Australia. Between 1956 and 1964 he wrote several fiction and non-fiction books and articles about the Indian Ocean. With his friend Mike Wilson, he filmed the Great Barrier Reef of Australia; it’s from this that his 1957 novel, The Deep Range, derives. Clarke also worked as a director of Rocket Publishing, London, Underwater Safaris, Colombo, and Spaceward Corporation, New York.
After becoming paralyzed after an accidental blow to the head in 1962, he wrote the fiction book, Dolphin Island, believing it to be his farewell to the sea. Fortunately, after recovering he was later able to accompany his friend Mike Wilson on an underwater adventure six miles off the coast of Sri Lanka, which was depicted in his 1964 book, The Treasure of the Great Reef.

Clarke, a keen scuba diver, was attracted to the island’s rich marine life. In his words, “When I arrived in Sri Lanka, I was a little disillusioned with life beneath the waves. I remember writing at the time that ultimately ocean life was crippled, because fish could not develop fire and fire is the basis of all technology.”

“But when I saw first hand the amazing variety of marine life beneath the waves off the Sri Lankan coast, I found it hard to believe that anything we encounter in space could be more wonderful, weirder or more spectacular.” (Author’s note: My sentiments entirely!)

Arthur C Clarke was a pioneer of inner space, working with Cousteau on the aqualung, involved with the first undersea living experiments and becoming an Honorary Life Member of BSAC (the British Sub Aqua Club).

His undersea adventure stories must have been instrumental in triggering the interest of many children and adults in the underwater world and diving.

“We seldom stop to think that we are still creatures of the sea, able to leave it only because, from birth to death, we wear the water-filled space suits of our skins.” Arthur C. Clarke

His book “The Coast of Coral” is the first book on diving in coral reefs written in English, and describes his adventures diving along the Great Barrier Reef in 1950, in search of adventure. Although the fame of this book led many to regard him as the first diver on the Great Barrier Reef, Clarke said that when he first arrived there he met Fritz Goreau (another reef pioneer, father of Thomas F. Goreau, grandfather of Thomas J. Goreau) who had beaten him to it, coming out of the water with Thomas F. Goreau’s homemade rebreather. Clarke was said to have greatly admired Fritz Goreau, whose photographs of marine life in the Great Barrier Reef, published in Life Magazine in 1950 and 1951, were the first high quality underwater photographs and the first to expose the public to the wonders and beauty of life in the coral reef.

Following his diving adventures in Australia he turned to diving in Sri Lanka and wrote another fascinating book about diving, “Serendib”, based on the ancient name for Ceylon, which was regarded as such a fortunate place that the word “serendipity” is derived from it. For many years he dived every time he could in what were then the exquisitely beautiful reefs around the island, and watched with great sorrow as these were almost entirely destroyed, largely by mining for construction material in a country with few limestone resources. Clarke was so pained by this, that he could never bring himself to write about corals again, although he continued to be fascinated by them. He was horrified at how the world of reefs he had loved had vanished, practically without trace.
As the originator of Clarke’s Law: “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic” he was very interested in the work of the late Wolf Hilbertz and Thomas J. Goreau on electric coral reef restoration, which he immediately understood. He lobbied the Sri Lankan Government as hard as he could to use it to restore their coral reefs and fisheries. Sadly, they have yet to listen, being pre-occupied with other matters than bringing back their lost corals and fish.

In the words of Thomas J. Goreau, president of the Global Coral Reef Alliance, “Coral reefs have lost another forgotten pioneer.”

A Bibliography of Arthur C. Clarke’s Works Connected With the Sea, Both Fiction and Non-fiction.

Derived from information published on www.arthurcclarke.net.

1954. The Deep Range. (Fiction)

It has taken a long time, but humankind has won its battle against the sea. Now, professionals harvest plankton with which to feed the world, but like space, the sea has not yielded all its secrets, and men such as Franklin, the protagonist of this tale, will never rest until all its fathomless mysteries have been challenged.

1963. Dolphin Island: A Story Of The People Of The Sea. (Fiction)

Late one night (in the world of the future), a giant cargo hover ship makes an emergency landing somewhere in the middle of the United States, and an enterprising citizen named Johnny Clinton stows away on it. In the space of only a few hours the craft crashes into the Pacific Ocean. The sole survivor is Johnny, whose life is saved by the ‘People of the Sea’ – dolphins. A school of these fantastic creatures guides him to an island on Australia’s Great Barrier Reef. There Johnny becomes involved with the work of a strange and fascinating research laboratory, learns skin-diving and survives a typhoon – only to risk his life again, immediately afterwards, in a cliff-hanger of a climax!

1990. The Ghost From The Grand Banks. (Fiction)

A hundred years after the sinking of the Titanic, two of the world’s most powerful corporations race to find a way to raise and preserve the doomed luxury liner. The quest to uncover the secrets of the wreck and reclaim her becomes an obsession . . . and for some, a fatal one.

1956. The Coast Of Coral. (Non-fiction)

World-famous science and science-fiction author Arthur C. Clarke and photographer Mike Wilson spent two adventurous years exploring the Great Barrier Reef, the mightiest coral formation in the world. Presented here are ‘the adventures and mishaps, successes and failures’ of that underwater expedition, as recorded by Clarke himself. Illustrated with rare underwater photographs, here is a unique look into a region of mystery, of boundless beauty and danger — one of the most intriguing frontiers on our planet.

1958. Boy Beneath The Sea. (Non-fiction)

The marvellous world beneath the sea is not reserved for adults. Mike Wilson, the noted photographer, has taken forty-nine magnificent photographs of young divers and the phenomena they see in the waters around Ceylon. There are pictures of various types of coral and fish. There is a section devoted to the boys’ exploration of a sunken ship, and another on underwater archaeology, showing the boys examining an ancient temple now swallowed by the sea. Watch David and Kevin as they dive. Also see Rodney Jonklaas, famous Ceylonese underwater hunter and biologist as he catches fish.

1958. Voice Across The Sea. (Non-fiction)

A complete, though non-technical, account of the laying of the first transatlantic telephone cable across the ocean.

1960. The Challenge Of The Sea. (Non-fiction)

A study in deep-sea exploration and the possibilities of future developments and explorations of the sea, written by an experienced underwater diver and salvager. The Chapters are: The World of Water; The Shape of the Sea; Men Among Fish; Ships of Tomorrow; Voices from the Deep; The Floating Prairie; The Harvest of the Sea; The Last Roundup; Wealth from the Waves; Monsters of the Night; The Book of the Past; The Submarine Playground.

1960. The First Five Fathoms. (Non-fiction)

In splendid pictures and text the authors show how young skin divers may become masters of the first five fathoms, the most fascinating and beautiful part of the sea. They direct the reader’s first steps to the sea, and explain the use of snorkel, mask, and fins. The book also contains the plain truths about what happens to your body underwater, basic facts about diving equipment, and also the roles of etiquette to follow in a world much different from our own. (Intro by Jacques-Yves Cousteau)

1961. Indian Ocean Adventure. (Non-fiction)

1964. Indian Ocean Treasure. (Non-fiction)

(With Mike Wilson) Describes the activities of a group of divers who found a sunken ship off the coast of Sri Lanka.

1964. The Treasure Of The Great Reef. (Non-fiction)

2002. The Reefs Of Taprobane. (Non-fiction)

Looking for new underwater worlds to conquer, Arthur Clarke and Mike Wilson followed up their expedition to Australia’s Great Barrier Reef (described in The Coast of Coral) by exploring the romantic seas surrounding Ceylon. Meetings with dangerous and beautiful marine creatures were only one side of the expedition’s activities. Their adventures included the discovery of many wrecks and the investigation of a 3,000-year-old Hindu temple lying on the ocean bed.

Afterword.

Many of the books listed in this bibliography are completely new to me. I look forward to getting hold of them, reading them, and then coming back to update the descriptions above, in a way relevant to those interested in the seas and underwater life.

I’m indebted to Thomas J. Goreau for both bringing this to my attention and for some of the content of this article.

Any questions or comments, or if there are any particular topics you’d like to see covered here, please feel free to get in touch with me: tim@midlandreefs.co.uk

Tim Hayes
Midland Reefs
©2008

Support IYOR2008. www.iyor.org

Red Acro Bugs in the UK – Prevention is the Best Medicine.

It seems that a few more reefkeepers are putting up their hands and admitting to having problems with these pesky critters. I can’t emphasise strongly enough how important it is for everyone to quarantine new coral purchases prior to placing them in the display aquarium.

In view of this I’ve decided to go over the basics of coral quarantine as the main subject of this month’s Reef Ramblings.

Coral Quarantine.

A coral quarantine system is not an expensive luxury. Indeed some of the items needed for your quarantine system can be considered as some of those spare pieces of equipment that every reefkeeper should have on hand for emergencies. Think of it as your spare heater, spare pump, spare lighting, etc.

OK, so what constitutes a quarantine system? It’s just a tank with a heater, a pump for water movement and lighting. I use a 60cm x 30 cm x 30 cm tank (in English that’s 2 foot long, one foot high, one foot wide). The heater needs to be suitable for maintaining a temperature of around 24˚ – 25˚C, in practise usually a 100 watt heater, depending on the ambient temperature where the tank’s positioned, don’t forget to include a thermometer. For water movement say a Koralia 1 or perhaps a Pico 1200 fitted with a Hydor Flo to give a little bit of surge. As any corals being quarantined are not going to be in this system for too long, 2 – 60 cms (2 ft) T8 fluorescent tubes should be adequate (don’t forget the reflectors though!).

Fill the quarantine tank with either 100% water from your main reef or with, say, a fifty-fifty mix of reef water and newly mixed saltwater. As soon as it’s running at correct temperature and salinity it’s ready to use.
Add your newly acquired corals to the tank and then observe for the next 14 to 21 days. The time period is pretty arbitrary, but remember the longer you quarantine for the better chance you have of spotting any undesirable hitchhikers. This isn’t foolproof; you can still find animals such as crabs appearing out of rockwork months after its introduction.

Although I’m writing this in response to Red Acro Bugs, they’re not the only reason for practising quarantine: Red Acro Bugs, Acropora Flatworms, Montipora Nudibranchs, Soft Coral Nudibranchs, Pest Flatworms, Predatory Snails, Aiptasia, Majano Anemones, Mantis Shrimps, Predatory Crabs, the list goes on…

During the quarantine period closely observe your new corals, and look for evidence of any of the above-mentioned pests. Don’t just look during the day, take a look at night using a torch (flashlight if you’re American) some of these animals can be fairly cryptic; others such as pest anemones are obvious. If it is the Red Acro Bugs you’re particularly concerned about I’d also suggest examining your corals under a magnifying glass, not just once but every 3 or 4 days. If any signs of infestation are seen you can then start treating the corals with dips without going in to a state of panic about your entire reef. At this point it would also be appropriate to reach your hand behind your neck and give yourself a congratulatory pat on the back for having the foresight to quarantine your new corals…

By practising quarantine you can deal with any potential pests or predators before the corals are introduced into your display tank, saving yourself lots of heart ache and expense, indeed the cost of setting up your quarantine system is no more than that of a couple of desirable corals yet it could save you the cost of replacing your entire reef.

Quarantine – you know it makes sense!

International Year of the Reef 2008.

I hope you noticed the logo at the top of the page. This year is the International Year of the Reef 2008 (IYOR2008).
The ICRI (International Coral Reef Initiative) International Year of the Reef 2008 is a worldwide campaign to raise awareness about the value and importance of coral reefs and threats to their sustainability, and to motivate people to take action to protect them. All individuals, corporations, schools, governments, and organizations are welcome and actively encouraged to participate in IYOR 2008.

This year Midland Reefs, along with Tim Hayes, is working to promote awareness of IYOR 2008 to the aquarium hobby and industry. Look out for a series of articles in Practical Fishkeeping (PFK) written by Tim, where the emphasis is on The Responsible Reefkeeper, looking at the various ways the hobby and the reefs interact with each other.

To learn more go to: www.iyor.org

Meanwhile you can do your bit by telling non-reefkeepers about these marvellous ecosystems and how they are endangered by human activities. If you want to go one better than that, then how about showing off your reef to non-reefkeepers? Remember most people will never get a chance to see a wild reef, by showing your reef to someone who’s never seen a coral or a reef fish, you’ll be opening their eyes to the beauty that may be lost if action isn’t taken.

If you’d like some promotional material about IYOR2008 for educational purposes or to help promote IYOR, please email me at: tim@midlandreefs.co.uk

Carbon Use in Bleached Corals.

New research indicates that the recovery of bleached corals depends both on how much food the corals can eat and how healthy they can keep the symbiotic zooxanthellae within their tissue.

When corals bleach under aquarium conditions we have a reasonable understanding of how to help them survive. Over time a bleached coral will recover its population of zooxanthellae; it’s possible that not all of the original algae have been expelled and it’s also possible for corals to recruit new zooxanthellae from the water column, a process that may take many months. During this time corals need to be offered a plentiful supply of food as they no longer has access to the nutrition that was formally supplied by the zooxanthellae. Until the corals recover their full quota of algae we treat them as though they’re non-photosynthetic, because, temporarily, that’s what they are.

Recently researchers have come up with an explanation for the mechanism behind the success of this strategy. Andrea Grottoli and her team at Ohio State University have been focusing their research on investigating the key role that carbon plays on the recovery of damaged coral reefs.
Previously they’d discovered that one of the corals they’d tested, Montipora capitata, was able to recover rapidly from bleaching because it increased its rate of feeding five-fold in comparison to how another coral, Porites compressa, fed. This feeding strategy enables Montipora to survive the long-term damage that corals can suffer when sea temperatures climb beyond their natural temperature range, whereas Porites might not.

What wasn’t clear from the earlier experiments was how the corals actually made use of this additional carbon for their survival. Corals get carbon in two ways, either as a product of photosynthesis from the zooxanthellae or directly by feeding on zooplankton. When ocean temperatures rise, corals may eject their algae altogether, or the algal cells themselves lose the pigments needed for photosynthesis. Without their algae corals appear white, the condition referred to as bleaching; extended periods of bleaching can lead to the death of the coral.

To determine exactly how corals obtain carbon and how they use it to survive, samples of both healthy and bleached corals, of the two species, were placed in aquaria replicating ocean conditions. In one set of experiments, seawater containing higher-than-normal levels of a carbon isotope, C-13 was introduced. In the second experiment the corals were fed zooplankton that were also heavily laced with the carbon isotope.
The experiments were designed to track the carbon take up and determine whether it was coming from photosynthesis or from the corals’ feeding, and then to see how it was utilised. This would also show whether the process differed between healthy and bleached corals, or between one species and another.

The experiments showed that healthy corals took up more of the seawater-labeled carbon than the bleached corals.
In the healthy corals carbon was transferred into the algae where it is used for photosynthesis, ultimately ending up in the animals’ skeleton. Showing that the corals are using photosynthetic carbon for calcification and to meet their daily metabolic demands.
The carbon consumed while feeding, however, isn’t ending up in the skeleton. Instead, it’s ending up both in the tissue of the coral polyp or inside the algae. With bleached samples, the coral is apparently feeding carbon to the algae.

It was already known that nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus were exchanged in this way but the discovery that this also happens with carbon is a new one, suggesting that there is a great deal more coupling between the coral and the algae than was previously thought. Once the coral gets the carbon from feeding into its system, it locks it in, using it for energy storage and tissue growth, and when bleached, to feed the algae.

This appears to demonstrate that photosynthetic carbon is used for metabolic demands and calcification and that the carbon gained from feeding is used for tissue growth.
Without both forms, corals cannot fully recover. All corals need both photosynthesis and feeding for recovery and the rate of those two processes is the key to whether the coral can actually meet all its metabolic demands and ultimately recover.

So, now we know why our strategy of feeding bleached corals in the aquarium works. I also believe that this information also reinforces why it is important to actively feed your corals rather than the old-fashioned view of just lighting them.

Any questions or comments, or if there are any particular topics you’d like to see covered here, please feel free to get in touch with me: tim@midlandreefs.co.uk

Tim Hayes
Midland Reefs
©2008