y three daughters grew up in a home
with aquariums, and for many years
a 300-gallon (1,135-L) marine tank
dominated the dining room in our
colonial farmhouse and was the
first thing to greet all visitors. Large
family meals were eaten and homework done by
the glow of this 8-foot-long reef, and many young-
sters in our small town in Vermont had their first
encounter with live animals from far-flung tropi-
cal islands in the Indo-Pacific. No doubt some left
shaking their heads about the obsessive reefkeeper
using a tank with moray eels and lionfish and live
rock to rant about marine science and zoology, but
apparently the lessons took hold: my eldest daugh-
ter, Jessica Lawrence, now a biologist with the en-
vironmental law organization Earthjustice, recently
spoke at the annual meeting of UNESCO’s World
Heritage Committee in Krakow, Poland, urging re-
newed international resolve to protect coral reefs.
On behalf of 22 conservation and cultural organi-
zations, she helped raise the alarm that two of President
Donald Trump’s executive orders threaten to remove
critical legal protections for Papahanaumokuakea
Marine National Monument in Hawaii, which would
worsen prospects for preservation of coral ecosystems
in the world’s largest marine protected area.
Parental pride aside, this issue looms large for all of
us following the mounting news about coral bleaching in
the very countries that are most vulnerable to warming
seas and many that supply the aquarium trade. In a re-
port published simultaneously with this issue by CORAL
online, Jessica’s colleague, Australian-born Noni Austin,
an Earthjustice lawyer, tells us that up to 50 percent of
the corals in the Great Barrier Reef have died in the last
two years alone due to coral bleaching.
“Growing up in Australia, I saw the full magnifi-
cence of the Great Barrier Reef before anyone had heard
the term ‘coral bleaching.’ My parents took my brother
and me to the islands, and we found the beauty and di-
versity of corals and fishes breathtaking. It is sobering to
think that this vibrant underwater world could become
just a memory within my lifetime.”
In Noni’s piece we meet Dr. Fanny Douvere, co-
ordinator of the Marine Program of UNESCO’s World
Heritage Centre and co-author of a sobering new re-
port on risks of climate change to World Heritage
reefs around the world. Dr. Douvere says, “Our workled us to concludethat all 29 World Heritage–listed
reefs will cease to exist as functioning ecosystems by
the end of the century without a substantial reduction
in global greenhouse gas emissions. If global emissions
continue on their current trajectory (‘business as usual’
emissions), within the next 20 years, many reefs will ex-
perience bleaching at a frequency that provides no oppor-
tunity for corals to recover, a process that typically takes
15 to 25 years.” For example, without drastic reductions
in global emissions, Papahanaumokuakea and the Great
Barrier Reef are predicted to experience bleaching twice
per decade by 2029 and 2035 and annual bleaching by
2041 and 2044, respectively.
But there is still hope,” Douvere says, if we can limit
global temperature rise to no more than 1.5°C above
pre-industrial levels, the long-term goal of the parties to
the Paris Agreement. For things an aquarist can do, fol-
low the link below. In the meantime, Noni Austin and
her Earthjustice colleagues are working to defend the
huge tract of reefs in the Hawaiian Archipelago. Inte-
rior Secretary Ryan Zinke is about to release his recom-
mendation about Papahanaumokuakea (first designated
by George W. Bush and expanded by Barack Obama) to
President Trump. Concerned citizens can go to http://
http://www.earthjustice.org for updates.
—James Lawrence
ON THE INTERNET
World heritage reefs on the brink: http://bit.ly/2vy5pFHEarthjustice lawyer Noni Austin: ready
to defend Hawaii’s huge tract of World
Heritage reefs.M
Moorish Idols on a Pacific Ocean reef:
Threatened by a multi-year global
bleaching event that is still unfolding.REEF SCENE: RICH CAREY / SHUTTERSTOCK; INSET: COURTESY EARTHJUSTICE.ORG
Washington vs coral reefs: A new generation takes on the defense of marine protected areas̄ ̄̄ ̄̄ ̄