Interview with Marine Scientist Roberto Iglesias-Prieto
By Stephen Leahy
FORT LAUDERDALE, Florida, U.S., Jul 31 (Tierramérica)
“There would be no white sands on the beaches of Cancún without the Mesoamerican reef,” Professor Roberto Iglesias-Prieto, a marine ecophysiologist working at the Institute of Marine Sciences and Limnology of the National Autonomous University of Mexico, told Tierramérica.
Tourism is Mexico’s third leading source of revenue, and the country needs to invest much more in protecting its valuable coral systems, says the expert. But to explain the problems that coral reefs face “it is not enough to be an ecologist; one has to be an economist and political scientist as well,” he adds.
The Mesoamerican reef, which is off the Yucatán Peninsula and is shared by Mexico, Belize, Guatemala and Honduras, extends 1,100 kilometres, making it the largest in the Atlantic Ocean and the second largest in the world, after the Great Barrier Reef east of Australia.
Corals are crucial for the health of oceans and are home to 25 to 33 percent of marine life. The livelihoods of one billion people rely on coral reefs, directly or indirectly.
But the reefs are dying as a result of excessive fishing, pollution and climate change, which is heating up the water and causing acidification.
Few coral reefs will be healthy beyond 2050 if significant reductions in emissions from the burning of fossil fuels do not occur in the near term, most experts in this field agree.
Tierramérica’s Stephen Leahy spoke with Iglesias-Prieto during the 11th International Coral Reef Symposium in July in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
TIERRAMÉRICA: Are Mexico’s coral reefs properly protected?
ROBERTO IGLESIAS-PRIETO: There are several protected areas, but most of these allow multiple uses such as recreation and fishing. Unfortunately there has been no real commitment or investment by the federal government in reef protection and management. Reefs like the Mesoamerican provide services worth billions of dollars such as attracting tourists, providing hurricane protection, and preventing shoreline erosion.
The beachfront in Cancún (southeastern Mexico) is incredibly valuable. The tourists are mostly going to the beaches, not the forests, yet the forests are the focus of the country’s conservation policies.
TA: How are you trying to change this?
RIP: I appear before the federal and state governments and try to convince them to invest in reef protection and management. Right now a small fee that tourists pay is about all that is available. Unfortunately, governments do not see coral reef conservation as a priority, but I am trying to change that by showing the economic benefits of reefs. It’s not enough to be an ecologist; you also have to be an economist and a political scientist.
TA: Your own research is on how corals use light. Can you explain?
RIP: Corals are fantastic light traps. They are far more efficient at using light energy from the sun than plants on land. Corals harvest light and spread it internally to supply their symbionts (algae) with light energy. The symbionts are what give corals their incredible colours and transform light into nutrients for the corals to live on.
TA: Corals in the Caribbean region have been dying or bleaching in recent years. Why?
RIP: Corals are very sensitive to environment changes. Climate change is warming the surface water of oceans. Raise water temperatures around corals by only 1.5 C degrees higher than the average summer temperature and that’s it. Corals bleach because they lose their symbionts and they die without them.
TA: What do you mean when you say corals are “the marine canaries in the coal-mine”?
RIP: Corals are clear evidence of the impact of climate change. If we don’t take action and we lose them, we will be fighting for our survival. We have to keep insisting and telling people that.
For full interview see “Cancún’s White Sands Wouldn’t Exist Without Coral”
Just published Sept 2010: Record Heat Killing Caribbean and Indian Ocean Corals
[My previous 2008 articles on coral reefs]
Cutting CO2 Could Save Dying Corals
A Third of Corals Face Extinction
Life Support Needed For Coral Reefs
“We’re Running the Risk of Unstoppable Climate Change” — Oceanographer
Stephen Leahy, International Environmental Journalist 
Professor,
I would like to know: Is it possible for the human beings to exist without the coral reefs?
What everyone can do in daily life activities to save our earth, environment, corals?
If possible, please send me your list of publication or the websites in which your interviews are published.
Thank you very much professor !
Humans will survive without corals but hundreds of millions of people will be affected.
What to do?
Shift to Climate-safe Living by following Three Basic Principles:
Reduce. Eliminate. Demand. R.E.D.
1. Reduce fossil fuel consumption everywhere.
2. Eliminate all non-essential activities and products that involve burning fossil fuel.
3. Demand that business and government provide transport, actvities and products that use minimize fossil fuel use.
Reduce. Eliminate. Demand. R.E.D.
[…] Lose Corals and We Will be Fighting for Our Own Survival […]
ok.im lyk in the 7th grade but we r doing some reseach on diferent things an i picked coral reefs beacuse they r so butiful and they need respect and when yu make this website it means alot well keep doing a good job
sincerly jassay aka jasmine
Tks. corals are the most amazing creatures, learn all u can and maybe you will see them in the ocean one day.