“The bastards have buried so much of the habitat,” says coral reef specialist Daniel Clark, attempting to stifle any residual anger.
Not entirely certain he should be sharing this, Clark pulls back - for a moment. “I get mad,” he continues. “I don’t get sad, I get mad.”
Fishing through the memories of that day in 2001, Clark recalls the events “that changed everything.”
“Tom was shocked. They always are,” says Clark, referring to biologist Thomas Goreau and the others he’d previously shown the reefs. “I remember Tom saying, ‘My goodness, how could the scientific community have missed this all these years?’”
Clark had taken Goreau beach diving that day out in the Broward County surf, desperate to prove to the biologist what Clark had known for years. Desperate to prove to Goreau that the rare coral habitat did, in fact, exist.
“The [Broward County] locals had known it was there for years,” says Clark, a local himself. “But if Tommy says it’s there, it’s there,” he adds, grateful for everything Goreau’s word has bestowed on the cause Clark spent years championing.
“It wasn’t just the local divers anymore. That changed everything.”
A calm desperation settled across Florida as the last of the hurricanes made its exit, and citizens began the tedious job of picking up the pieces. Meantime, the State, having witnessed a sweeping blow to its No. 1 industry, tourism, sketched out a recovery plan.
The plan included rebuilding the beaches, which, as a result of the recent rash of storms, took a brutal hit. In fact, according to the Department of Environmental Protection’s Florida Beach Erosion Control Program, prior to the hurricanes this past summer, more than 409 miles – approximately 50 percent – of the state’s beaches were already experiencing erosion.
The report also notes that about 299 of the state’s 825 miles of sandy beaches were experiencing “critical erosion.” Miami beaches alone draw 7 million visitors each year, according to the Florida Shore and Beach Preservation Association. Broward County’s beach industry brings in around $2 billion per year and employs some 36,000 people. Beach-related dollars spent by tourists annually reach into the billions. Considering Florida’s economy is so heavily reliant on its beach tourism, these statistics illustrate a precarious fate.
As a result, the effects of the hurricanes generated heavy media interest. Newspapers as well as news channels heightened their coverage of the storms’ impacts, often focusing solely on the surface of the beaches, and often claiming the hurricanes were solely to blame.
“Under water, nobody who isn’t looking really sees [the effects of beach-rebuilding projects on the corals],” says Clark, president of the Coral-Springs based non-profit organization, Cry of the Water. Clark agrees that most of the media and scientific focus has indeed been on the surface shoreline of the beaches, and not underneath. As a result of this, thirty years of continuous beach-rebuilding projects have severely diminished a rare system of near shore coral reefs located just off a stretch of beach in Broward County. With future projects already scheduled, Clark fears these precious few remaining corals may one day be rendered obsolete.
Clark, who has been pushing coral reef awareness in Florida for over three decades now, describes the remedy for erosion as two-prong – and goes on to dispel the widely held notion that these beach “renourishment” projects are effective.
“We need sustainable beaches,” says Clark, adding that in order for this there needs to be sustainable reefs in Florida as well.
Stressing the significance of this relationship, Clark notes it is unique as well.
“A healthy coral reef system promotes a healthy beach,” he says. Not to mention a healthy tourism.
Florida’s coral reefs are currently the No. 1 diving destination in the world, bringing in over 3 million tourists and $220 million each year.
Off a stretch of sandy beach in Broward County’s Ft. Lauderdale, a rare and unique wealth of thousand year-old near shore Staghorn corals is a particular draw for divers. Located between Port Everglades and Lauderdale by the Sea, no less than 150 feet offshore, are the last remaining in a system of Staghorn corals that once stretched all along southeast Florida. According to Clark, who has been diving off Broward County since the early 70s, they are the only near-shore reefs left in the continental United States.
In 2001, already aware that Broward County’s reefs were quickly disappearing, Clark enlisted the help of biologist Thomas Goreau, a coral reef specialist and the president of the non-profit Global Coral Reef Alliance.
Goreau – whose father, also Thomas Goreau, was the first diving marine biologist in the world – grew up swimming the waters off of his native Jamaica. Years later, after receiving a doctorate in bio-geo chemistry from Harvard University, Goreau went on to establish the alliance in 1990. Thus, Goreau, with both his lineage and experience, seemed the ideal candidate to bring to South Florida.
“About two years ago (in 2001), Dan contacted me about the near shore coral reefs down in South Florida,” recalls Goreau, who not long after received a video of the reefs from Clark. Blown away, Goreau scheduled a trip to visit South Florida. Upon Goreau’s arrival, and wasting no time, Clark immediately took Goreau beach diving to show him the reefs.
Appalled at the blatant oversight that over the years has led to the destruction of nearly an entire system of live near shore Staghorn coral, a rare and rapidly vanishing species, Goreau readily agreed to continue his research in South Florida.
Goureau had previously spent years researching coral reefs around the world in developing and isolated countries. And now, here he was in booming South Florida, amidst one of the most significant findings of endangered coral reefs in North America.
“I wrote the first description of the reefs with Dan,” explains Goreau, still in disbelief.
He recalls being shocked when he learned Southeast Florida had once been home to an abundance of near shore Staghorn corals. Corals that, says Goreau, “no one ever bothered to study, except as after-the-fact environmental assessments.”
“They are almost entirely gone now,” he adds.
In a 2003 motion, Cry of the Water and Global Coral Reef Alliance, along with several other organizations, petitioned Gov. Jeb Bush and the State of Florida to halt plans that would ultimately destroy Broward County’s near shore reefs. The petition addressed a proposed dredging plan to rebuild the area of Broward County beach where the near-shore corals reside. The invasive plan, termed Segment II (referring to the area of the beach), would almost ensure the complete eradication of the remaining coral reefs.
Knowing well that dredging had been a major factor in the destruction of the once vast system of corals along southeast Florida, Clark and Goreau passionately argued every possible angle—from the plan being “economically wasteful” to it being “environmentally irresponsible”—but nothing worked. Their appeals were largely ignored by the State.
Slightly disheartened, but no less motivated, the pair continued to rally support for the Broward County reefs. On the heels of this past summer’s hurricane onslaught, their arguments now seemed more compelling than ever.
“There’s no better defense for a beach than a live, growing coral reef,” says Goreau, who recalls arguing this same point on his many visits to Tallahassee. In particular, notes Goreau, the coral’s ability to constantly grow and repair itself.
As the corals grow, explains Goreau, they release sediment, or sand, which acts to replenish the beach—naturally.
“All the unnatural alternatives [currently being used to replenish beaches] are short-sighted beach ‘renourishment’ approaches,” he says, noting dredging in particular. “They constantly need to be redone.”
Adds Clark: “The irony is, [by dredging] we’re destroying the natural break waters and the natural reefs that are protecting these beaches, near-shore reefs being some of the most important.”
The duo continued to address the issue with legislators in Tallahassee, particularly with the Governor. Stressing the ugly reality of Segment II—and the lack of objective studies on the impacts of dredging projects such as this—Clark and Goreau slowly won concessions from the State, beginning with the postponement of the Segment II dredging project.
Dredging—a process by which sand from elsewhere is transplanted onto an eroding beach—is extensive and complicated, argue Goreau and Clark, adding it requires keen oversight in order for it to be done safely and effectively. In theory, the projects should result in long-lasting, sandy, healthy beaches. But this is rarely ever the case.
Because dredging companies tend to use low-grade, low-quality (i.e. less expensive) “sand,” the resulting sandy beaches are only temporary. Reason being, the sand (usually broken pieces of shell) is very light for the amount of surface area it has, and is easily swept up and washed away.
This lack of durability guarantees that after a short time the sand will again require replacing. The resulting turbidity and increased sedimentation cause the water to stay muddy for days and sedimentation to settle on the corals, blocking out the sun, causing the sun-starved coral habitat to suffocate and die.
“There are areas,” says Clark of southeast Florida, “where up to 60 percent of the coral reefs have been lost.” Lost, he explains, due to ineffective and irresponsible dredging projects.
The State of Florida, in partnership with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, funds these dredging projects for the “renourishment” of beaches. The main problem, according to Clark and Goreau, is the focus on the quick fix rather than the sustainable options—the ‘now’ rather than the ‘later.’
In late 2004, Gov. Bush and Florida cabinet members agreed to proceed with a separate dredging project, Segment III (slated to begin Spring 2005), giving Clark and Goreau more time to study the impacts before Segment II is to begin.
“Governor (Bush) and cabinet agreed to give us 18 months after Segment III was done so we can go out there and insure that the studies [of the impacts] are done correctly,” Clark says.
As a result, when the Segment II dredging project aimed at Clark’s Broward County reefs is again brought before Gov. Bush and his cabinet, Clark will be better equipped to take them on.
“Nobody’s every documented the true impacts [of the dredging projects],” says Clark, who plans on following Segment III (the area of Port Everglades south to the Dade County line) very closely.
“Its not going to be: the contractor looks the other way [when things go wrong],” he says. “This time will be different.”
In Florida, beach erosion has increased by over 100 miles since 1998. As a result of global warming, sea levels are rising incessantly, causing more erosion. And when no one was looking, southeast Florida lost somewhere between 75-80 percent of its once vast and sweeping near shore coral reefs. If Segment II is green-lighted, Clark estimates an astonishing 24,000 more corals – corals that could aid the eroding beaches – will be buried and suffocated. Upon mention of this number at a recent meeting in Tallahassee, a county consultant connected with the project made a point to prove Clark wrong.
“He said the number was actually closer to 25,000.”