PROJECT TO PROTECT GUAM CORAL Submitted by admin on Wed, 08/08/2001 - 00:00
By Scott Radway Pacific Daily News
HAGÃ TÃA, Guam (August 7, 2001 – Pacific Daily News) -As oceanographer Eric Wolanski, clad in scuba gear, descended into Fouha Bay in Umatac, he noticed something seriously wrong: He couldn t hear anything but his breathing. The reef makes no sound anymore, said Wolanski, a researcher from the Australian Institute of Marine Science.
When a reef is healthy, fish and shrimp are plentiful and when they eat, their mouths make a snapping sound, Wolanski said. There should have been crackling, he said.
Instead, there was silence, because the reef is far from healthy, suffering in part from years of sediment flowing into the bay, preventing coral from spawning and suffocating some of the existing coral.