Dan Rather, dying coral reef, algae blooms and images from the Everglades... by gimleteye

Rather, on the DirectTV channel, HD Net, reports on the dying coral reef of the Florida Keys. The transcript is available (below). Photos of Everglades "restoration" that washed into my email server:


If you have the patience to read the transcript of the Rather program, it begins on page 12 of the PDF file, here:

Excerpt:

LAPOINTE
Well, what we saw today was quite an algae bloom, on the bottom, cinobacterial bloom, a
plant we call lyngbia, that grows on soft corals. It produces some nasty toxic compounds.
And we're very concerned about the lyngbia. It's becoming a problem algal throughout
many of Florida's coastal waters and fresh waters as well, because it produces tumor
promoting compounds, very concerned that it may be contributing to problems like
fibropapilloma in sea turtles who inadvertently eat it.

RATHER (VOICE OVER)
SO FAR NO DIRECT LINK HAS BEEN CONFIRMED BETWEEN THE ALGAE
AND LESIONS AND TUMORS APPEARING ON TURTLES AND DOLPHINS, BUT
COMMERCIAL DIVERS ARE STARTING TO SEE THE CHANGES IN THE SEA
CREATURES AND ON THE REEF. RICK TROUT EARNS A LIVING DIVING OFF
THE FLORIDA KEYS.

RICK TROUT, COMMERCIAL DIVER
Many of the animals, sea turtles in particular these days, but also dolphins and whales,
will come in with what's known as a papilloma virus. It looks like a real nasty, ugly wart
but it actually can grow over the animal's body.

RATHER (VOICE OVER)
TO SAVE THE TURTLES, BUSINESSMAN RICHIE MORETTI FOUNDED THE
TURTLE HOSPITAL. MORETTI BOUGHT A BEACH HOTEL IN THE KEYS ON A
WHIM AND MADE THE SALT WATER POOL AN AQUARIUM. HE DECIDED TO
RESCUE TURTLES IN EXCHANGE FOR THE CHANCE TO ADD ONE TO HIS
COLLECTION. THE TURTLES TOOK OVER THE POOL AND HIS BECAME A
FULL-TIME JOB.

RICHIE MORRETTI, TURTLE HOSPITAL FOUNDER
We’re seeing what may be a virus. They grow lesions over as much as 75 percent of their
soft tissue and a lot of times because of the vascular nature of the eyes, the tumors form
around the eyes and it cuts off their vision and then they starve.

RATHER (VOICE OVER)
MORETTI CAN ONLY TREAT THE SYMPTOMS WHILE RESEARCHERS KEEP
LOOKING FOR THE CAUSE. AND THE CLUES ARE OUT THERE ON THE
REEFS, WHERE COMMERCIAL DIVER RICK TROUT SEES MANY MARINE
SPECIES IN A RACE AGAINST TIME.

TROUT
You go out to some of the reefs that you saw 20 years ago and it's depressing. It's, it’s not
what you wanted to see you want to see things get better. But unfortunately, we've seen
things get worse down there. Compared to the- 20-25 years ago there are many of us that
have gone out to the reefs and seen that the colors, the vibrancy of the water, and those
colors, just get muted away by all the algae that ends up covering the colors and
strangling the actual little coral creatures.

RATHER (VOICE OVER)
SCIENTISTS ARE DESPERATE TO DO SOMETHING AS THEY SEE THE CORAL
DIE BEFORE THEIR EYES. A CORAL THAT IS NEEDED BY A QUARTER OF
THE CREATURES OF THE SEA. A CORAL THAT IS ESSENTIAL TO LIFE IN
THE OCEANS.

LAPOINTE
This reef was the most beautiful part of Florida when I first saw it in the late 1970's. And
it looked vastly different than it looks today, and it really rips my heart out to come back
to see these reefs I knew as a child and see them - it looks like they’ve been vandalized,
you know, burglars came in and stole all the fish and coral. They're just, you know, a
very small fraction of the resources left today.