8

In recognition of the foregoing, the International Maritime Organization decided that the identification of particularly sensitive sea areas could assist in the process of developing a basis for the uniform application of protective principles and measures for such areas, regardless of their location. The IMO adopted guidelines for the identification and designation of particularly sensitive areas in November of 1990.

The IMO guidelines define a particularly sensitive area as one which needs special protection through action by the IMO because of its significance for recognized ecological or socio-economic or scientific reasons and which may be vulnerable to damage by maritime activities. In order to be identified as a Particularly Sensitive Area, the area must meet at least one of the listed criteria (e.g. Ecological criteria are uniqueness, dependency, representativeness, diversity, productivity, naturalness, integrity, vulnerability; Socio-economic criteria are economic benefit, recreation, human dependency; Scientific and education criteria are importance for research, baseline and monitoring studies, educational opportunities).

The guidelines identify various measures that can be proposed to the IMO for application in a particularly sensitive area. These include routing measures (traffic separation schemes, inshore traffic zones, precautionary areas, deep-water routes) and areas to be avoided by ships or certain classes of ships. The guidelines discuss other protective measures which have been utilized in the past such as voluntary or compulsory pilotage, and measures which could be considered such as special construction requirements, speed restrictions, prohibition of cargo transfer and control of ballast water discharges.

At the time the Guidelines were adopted the IMO also designated the Great Barrier Reef as the first Particularly Sensitive Area and approved a resolution calling on ships to act in accordance with Australia's system of pilotage through the reef.

The United States also applied to the IMO requesting that the Florida Keys which are most sensitive to maritime traffic and vulnerable to groundings be designated as "areas to be avoided" on a voluntary basis. This designation was adopted in 1990. The United States has not proposed the Florida Keys Marine Sanctuary as a Particularly Sensitive area although this could be considered if voluntary measures do not prove effective. We have already made this area to be avoided mandatory for U.S. vessels. The IMO has also approved another sensitive area off the coast of California as an area to be avoided as well as several traffic separation schemes.

9

Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species

The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, better known as CITES, is a global organization for managing only one aspect of the protection of the environment--international trade.

CITES has been in force since 1975 and now has 114 Parties. There are specific requirements restricting trade in listed species. These restrictions vary depending on which of three Appendices a species is listed on. Appendix I lists species which are threatened with extinction. No trade is allowed in these species. Appendix II lists species which could become threatened with extinction unless trade is regulated. A listing on either of these first two Appendices must be approved by a vote of the Parties. Appendix III lists species which individual countries have chosen to protect and which require the cooperation of other countries to control trade from that country in that species.

All reef-building corals are listed on CÏTES Appendix II, as is the semi-precious black coral. CITES protection could be useful in protecting listed species from the damage done by harvesting them for trade, which can cause severe local depletion. I should point out that trade in most coral species, either semi-precious species used in the jewelry trade, or those reef building species of hard coral taken for the aquarium trade or as building materials, only compounds the problems created by a more general degradation of the habitat.

Let me close by saying that these intergovernmental agreements are not ends in themselves. They only tools by which to achieve international cooperation for the protection of the environment in general and of coral reefs in particular. As with any tool, the product depends on how skillfully it is used. Moreover, even if they achieve their ends completely, they are not in themselves sufficient to protect coral reefs. These government-level instruments can only be effective if there is local support and grass-roots action. Coral protection will require a dedicated effort, perhaps forever, by NGO's, all levels of government, and by private citizens.

Thank you.

Mr. SCHEUER. Thank you. We appreciate your testimony.

Now we will hear from Mr. Walter Jaap, Associate Research Scientist at the Florida Marine Research Institute of the Florida Department of Natural Resources in St. Petersburg. Please proceed, Mr. Jaap.

Mr. JAAP. Good afternoon. Thank you for this opportunity to speak. I am especially grateful to the Representatives and their staffs for focusing Washington's attention on coral reefs. I am representing the Florida Department of Natural Resources and State of Florida which has a very strong interest in the coral reef system down here.

"Seaward of the Florida Keys lies a unique State and national treasure. This treasure is not gold, silver, or diamonds; the treasure is the subtropical marine ecosystem of mangrove forests, seagrass meadows, and coral reef communities" (Jaap 1991). Coral reefs are well known for their beauty and complex diversity of life. They are the oceanic equivalent of the tropical rain forest, in providing an almost infinite variety of habitats for plants and animals. The ecosystem is important for its economic, ecological, coastal protection, and wilderness values.

The Florida Reef Tract extends from Fowey Rocks to Dry Tortugas. There are 6,000 patch reefs and 60 miles of bank reefs between Fowey Rock and Sand Key. The Florida Marine Research Institute's geobased information system group and the NOAA National Marine Sanctuary Program are currently mapping this area so that its reef, seagrasses, and mangroves will be more accurately defined.

The biodiversity of the area is poorly understood. With the exception of a few taxonomic categories, for example corals and fish, the number of resident species is wretchedly documented.

The Department of Natural Resources began its research in the Florida Keys in the late 1960s. The research continues and is being expanded with support of the salt water fishing license monies and trust funds received from vessel groundings. Historically, research focused on pink shrimp, stone crab and fin fish fisheries, things that you can eat. Habitat research has recently concentrated on coral reefs, seagrasses and mangroves, both on the ecology and episodic phenomena. The coral reef research has recently established long-term study sites in John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park, Looe Key, Western Sambo Reef, off Key West, and six locations at Fort Jefferson National Monument, Dry Tortugas. This work is especially important and is funded by the U.S. National Park Service, to whom I am grateful.

The coral reefs can exist for thousands of years. Geological changes usually occur slowly, for example, sea level change. However, the component reef communities change more frequently, in a time scale of decades to centuries. This etiology of change is often poorly understood. For example, in 1878 a perturbatious phenomena identified as "black water" decimated stag horn corals at Dry Tortugas, and we don't know what this black water event was and we probably never will.

Sustaining ecological research is one of the essential approaches for developing an understanding and for predicting the effects of human activities on ecological processes. Long-term ecological re

search seeks to uncover processes that seem to become hidden because they either occur very slowly or because they lag years behind the causes.

In the absence of long-term research, serious misjudgments can be made, hindering attempts to manage the environment. Lack of historical perspective can place short-term studies in the invisible present. J.F. Franklin, has identified a number of important areas for this long-term ecological research, including slow processes, rare episodic phenomena, processes with high variability, subtle processes, complex phenomena, testing theories, validating concepts, and selecting hypothesis. All are appropriate for long-term coral reef research.

There are a number of hypotheses regarding the deterioration of coral reefs, both in a general and specific case. The long-term ecological research on coral reefs is in its infancy, few databases accurately document trends over decades or longer. The studies that are of a sufficient duration report that shallow-water reef communities are principally governed by physical processes and deeper reef communities appear to be primarily governed by biological interaction.

Conventional wisdom assumes that user abuse-that is, vessel grounding, divers and snorkelers, exceeding the carrying capacity of the habitat, the overexploitation of fisheries, stocks, pollution, (that is eutrophication, point and none-point source) and toxic intersection contaminants, are the principal causes of deterioration of Florida Keys coral reefs. Global climate change can also be evoked as a potential agent of change. Four episodes in which the coral reefs bleached, 1987, 1989, 1990 and 1991, document the possibility that CO2 greenhouse warming and increased ultraviolet radiation caused by ozone depletion may be affecting the Florida coral reefs.

The epidemic mass mortality of populations of herbivorous black spiny urchin (Diadema antillarum), populations in 1983 may have influenced algal standing crops. The increased algae growths may result from reduced grazing. Evidence is inconclusive to render final judgments regarding any of these issues.

A multi-disciplinary approach to determine the causes of coral reef change is being taken under the SEAKEYS program, and I am sure John Ogden will talk more in detail about this.

The integration of physical, chemical, and biological investigations is slowly presenting a clearer picture of the processes that govern Florida's coral reefs. Our research at Dry Tortugas, John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park, Looe Key, and Western Sambo are an integral part of this program.

We are proceeding with long-term research needed to understand the dynamics of the reef communities on an appropriate spatial and temporal scale. This includes sampling the adult and juvenile plants and animals. Plant and animal populations are dependent upon recruitment of replacements to sustain the species. Two years of sampling imply that scleractinian, the stony corals, are recruiting very slowly onto settlement plates that we have placed out in the environment. This could be because the stress of the bleaching episodes in the past few years has reduced or terminated reproduction of the reef corals.

Extreme devastation to coral reefs has been caused by merchant vessel groundings. In an effort to determine if recovery can be expedited, my research institute has experimentally transplanted a reef community onto the Mavro Vetranic grounding site at Dry Tortugas. The goal of this study is to test the hypothesis that recruitment of reef plants and animals will be improved by moving the adult organisms into the barren, scarified areas.

The Florida Department of Natural Resources supports expanding research on coral reefs and improved stewardship of the coral reef resources. These goals require coordination and a joint effort on the part of all Federal and State agencies, academic institutions, and conservation action groups. Future generations are depending on our prudent management of the coral reefs.

Jimmy Buffet, a local troubadour, has a verse in a song about changes in attitudes and changes in latitudes. There is a great need for a change in attitude and magnitude in policy of funding for coral reef research and management. Thank you.

[The prepared statement of Mr. Jaap follows:]