Identifying and recording the world's
tropical corals may seem like a quest without end. But for coral
taxonomist, Dr Doug Fenner, a United States' specialist in corals of the
Great Barrier Reef and Southeast Asia, it is a mission of beauty,
adventure and scientific discovery.
While working with the Australian Institute of Marine Science in
Queensland, Doug joined two expeditions on board adventure dive and
research vessel Undersea Explorer, to investigate corals along the
northern outer edges of the Great Barrier Reef and on remote Osprey Reef
in the Coral Sea.
"There is little data on the coral diversity of the reefs of the Coral
Sea," said Doug, "I had already used a rapid assessment method to
evaluate the diversity of coral at a variety of Southeast Asian sites
and wanted to compare these findings with the coral diversity found on
the outer regions of the Cairns Section of the reef and at Osprey."
Osprey Reef
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According to Doug, coral reefs are the most diverse set of organisms in
the world's oceans.
"Individually, corals are at the base of the food chain for marine
life," he says, "While together, as coral reefs, they provide a major
source of food for people in many tropical countries. These reefs also
protect the shoreline from erosion by storm waves and because they are
so beautiful, they are major tourist attractions, bringing in billions
of dollars for places like Australia and the Caribbean."
Together, Doug and the team clocked up 20 expedition dives, recording a
total 247 coral species on the GBR and Osprey Reef sites.
"For perspective, the entire Caribbean has only about 55 species of
coral and Hawaii has only about 65," explained Doug.
His research on Osprey's coral diversity is the first scientific
investigation of this kind on the site.
"Although no study finds all the species in an area, we did identify a
high species diversity of healthy abundant coral at Osprey with few or
no dead corals, Crown-of-Thorns starfish or coral diseases sighted," he
said. "We found 11 species which were known from other countries but
never reported in Australia before ,and one coral that may prove to be a
new species."
For Doug, his findings suggest that Osprey Reef in particular, deserves
officially protected status and that "the reefs of Eastern Australia
still have a good number of coral species left to find."
Further reading -
Dr Doug Fenner's Osprey Reef Report
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