Furry crabs may be healing Great Barrier Reef

The Daily Star, February 05, 2013

This undated handout photo obtained on February 5, 2013, shows a diver
 beside a three-metre Acropora hyacinthus (plate coral) infected with white
syndrome in Queensland. AFP PHOTO / F. JOSEPH POLLOCK

                             

SYDNEY: Furry crabs once thought to be damaging the Great Barrier Reef may in fact be helping save the coral by stopping the spread of disease, a researcher said Tuesday.

Scientists at James Cook University studied the impact of furry coral crabs on fragments suffering from white syndrome, a deadly disease that appears throughout the Indo-Pacific and causes coral tissue to slough off.

"I think the crabs are helping by consuming that tissue as it falls off and also by eating any of the other associated microorganisms that could thrive on that dead and dying tissue," researcher Joseph Pollock told AFP.

Pollock said the crabs did not kill the disease, the cause of which is still unknown, but his study showed they significantly slowed its progress.

"It slows it by about three-fold," he said, adding that the disease was often associated with warmer water temperatures.

"It could be that these crabs are giving it (the coral) a bit of a chance to stay alive until potentially those water temperatures could come down or the coral could put up a defence to stop the disease progression itself."

Pollock, from the Queensland university's School of Marine and Tropical Biology, said he had been working on what causes the destructive disease.

"It can kill two-metre, three-metre coral colonies that are decades old in a matter of just months," he said, adding that it was a major threat and sometimes overlooked.

Australia is under growing pressure to step up protection of the Great Barrier Reef, a world heritage site, which has been damaged by the predatory crown-of-thorns starfish.

Conservationists also fear the reef is at risk from a gas and mining boom, resulting in increased coastal run-off and more marine traffic, and coastal development.

Pollock said there were links between white syndrome and factors such as warmer water temperatures and coastal run-off.

He added: "Once a crown-of-thorns starfish comes through, even the parts that are still left alive are still very susceptible to the disease... they are all sort of intertwined together."

Pollock said his study at Lizard Island, about 240 kilometres (150 miles) north of Cairns, involved collecting healthy and diseased coral colonies, adding crabs, and observing the fragments for three weeks.

He said the researchers found the crabs were strongly attracted to colonies hit by white syndrome.

"This means that when a coral is infected with the disease, crabs from nearby coral colonies could migrate to the diseased colony, slowing the disease," he said.

"This could be a very interesting feedback mechanism whereby these crabs help to slow coral disease on reefs."

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“2011 and Beyond” - What you are seeing, and why - Jan 16, 2010 (Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll) (Text version)

"....Let us just talk about the ocean for a moment. We won't even get to what's happening in the air and what mammals might experience. Let's just speak of the ocean. Have you heard about the salmon? What has your science warned you against? You're overfishing! The sea is dying. The coral is dying. The reefs are going away. You're not seeing the food chain that used to be there. You've overfished everything. Fishing quotas have been set up to help this. Oh, all those little people in the red room - they don't know about the purple. Red people only know about the red paradigm.

Did you hear about the salmon recently? There's too many of them! In the very place where quotas are in place so you won't overfish, they're jumping in the boats! Against all odds and any projections from environmentalists or biologists, they're overrunning the oceans in Alaska - way too many fish.

What does that tell you? Is it possible that Gaia takes care of itself? That's what it tells you! Perhaps this alignment is going to keep humanity fed. Did anybody think of this? What if Gaia is in alliance with you? What if the increase in consciousness that raised your DNA vibration has alerted Gaia to change the weather cycle and get ready to feed humanity? Are you looking at the ocean where the oil spill occurred? It's recovering in a way that was not predicted. What's happening?

The life cycle itself is being altered by the temperature change of the ocean and much of what you have believed is the paradigm of life in the sea is slowly changing. A new system of life is appearing, as it has before, and is upon you in your lifetime. It will compliment what you know and expose you to a new concept: Gaia regularly refreshes the life cycle on Earth. ...."