Pawlik Lab
Reefs of the Past: Dry Rocks, Christ Statue, Florida Keys, 1987
updated
In this video, we see the dramatic decline in coral cover on shallow reefs in the Red Sea on the Egyptian coast south of Marsa Alam between 2019 and 2023 caused by 5 summer seasons of unprecedented warm seawater temperatures and storm events. These reefs are compared to those further south on the Saudi Arabian side of the Red Sea below Al Lith, which experienced deadly heat events about a decade ago. All of these reefs are far from human settlements and tourists and are only lightly impacted by fishing -- they are dying of heat from climate change.
Video clips from the Egyptian coast of the Red Sea below Marsa Alam from May 2019 and (mostly) December 2023. Taken while onboard an Aggressor Live-aboard diving cruise. Highlights include very large napoleon wrasse, oceanic white-tip sharks, feeding striped mackerel.
Enjoy!!
In memoriam of a beautiful, distinctly Caribbean, shallow-water coral species.
Video clips of the Caribbean pillar coral, Dendrogyra cylindrus, which has recently undergone a devastating decline because of the spread of a disease to which it is highly susceptible.
Sadly, this coral is already functionally extinct on most reefs in the Caribbean.
See this video from San Pedro, Belize, taken by divers in 2022 of a large area of reef covered by pillar coral colonies, all of which are dead.
youtu.be/iXdtGBWpc1Q
Video made 7 March 2023 while diving with Captain Hook's Scuba Center of Big Pine Key.
Looe Key Reef is very shallow (30 ft max depth, mostly 25 ft) with no drop off, formerly having very large live coral heads. Hard coral cover is now a small fraction of what it was in the past, but what's left looks good. Some observations:
(1) Huge parrotfishes! Shows that marine park protection works! Also, schools of large blue tangs. Lots of herbivory by fishes. As a consequence, seaweed abundance is low, and pink coralline algal crusts are easily seen. Listen to the sound of large parrotfishes grazing (4:07).
(2) Sea fans are thriving, no evidence of sea fan disease (aspergillosis) that was a much-discussed emerging threat in the 1990s.
(3) Lots of black grouper. Small snappers and grunts hide in sea fans showing fear of reef sharks, which are present (9:30, 10:10).
(4) Tragic loss of many large coral heads (4:20). But, higher coral survivorship than expected with recent SCTLD outbreaks. Out-planted staghorn corals seem to be doing well.
(5) Surprisingly large giant barrel sponges for a very shallow site.
(6) Despite hiding behavior of fishes, parrots and other fishes were remarkably unafraid of divers.
Videos from 4 dive sites (indicated in video) on the south side of Islas del Rosario, Colombian Caribbean, recorded 18-19 February 2023. Despite proximity to Cartagena and sediment loads from nearby river mouths and canals, these reefs have high living coral cover! Coral disease is present (6:20), and there is plenty of evidence of past coral loss, but coral health looks relatively good compared to other Caribbean reefs. Notice the high high abundance of sponges on these reefs, with many very large giant barrel sponges (10:50). Also, these sites are remarkably free of emergent (branching or fan shaped) gorgonian corals, which are highly abundant on most Caribbean reefs. Thanks to Drs. Sven Zea and Monica Puyana for hosting these dives using Diving Planet - Centro de Buceo.
youtube.com/@UCyF57OYQvSXOQS9qTNzr4Ew
The Coral Reef Research Hub is a career development website for a growing community of coral reef professionals, researchers and early career scientists. At the core of our Hub is a free social media style interface that allows members to network with each other, create niche research groups and facilitate collaboration. By increasing collaborative efforts among researchers from around the world it is hoped to reduce duplication of work and speed up the collection of information that will help save coral reefs. The Hub also provides career opportunity listings, publication hosting, a mentorship program, knowledge sharing master classes, a small research grants program, and more. This makes us a unique online resource whose ultimate goal is to help those working to protect coral reefs around the world achieve their career and/or research aspirations.
Find us on facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/coral...
Our website: thecoralreefresearchhub.com
Footage: Envato Market Place; Music 'Underwater Expanses' by SonicScope. Licensing information can be provided on request.
Videos from the reefs of central Maldives (North and South Male Atoll, Ari Atoll), 3-16 January 2023 while diving on board the Maldives Aggressor live-aboard yacht.
Only one site (Rangili Mandivaru, S. Ari Atoll) had high coral cover (with large table corals). All other sites had low coral cover with broken reef and rubble. Fish life was fantastic, with lots of big fish, sharks, mantas, etc. Clear evidence of grazing (mostly by lots of surgeon fishes) keeping the reef free of macroalgae, but with lots of pink encrusting coralline algae. Many new coral recruits, which is a hopeful sign. Lots of cleaner wrasses and cleaning stations. Visibility was fair to poor at most sites.
For an article on this aquarium, see this link:
http://people.uncw.edu/pawlikj/2007TFHPawlik.pdf
Images of the sea anemones and their anemonefish on reefs of Komodo National Park, Indonesia, from 31 July to 5 August 2022 while diving on-board the Indo Aggressor out of Labuan Bajo.
Note that there was bleaching of anemones on some of the North and NW reefs in the Park (but not to the south). Not sure if this is the beginning of a broader bleaching event, or just a minor occurrence, but the dive guides had not seen this level of bleaching before.
Images of the reefs of Komodo National Park, Indonesia, from 31 July to 5 August 2022 while diving on board the Indo Aggressor out of Labuan Bajo.
Note that there was mild bleaching of corals and anemones on some of the North and NW reefs in the Park (but not to the south). Not sure if this is the beginning of a broader bleaching event, or just a minor occurrence, but the dive guides had not seen this level of bleaching before.
Particularly impressive footage taken at Batu Bolong, a heavily-dived site with intense currents and amazingly dense benthic cover and fish life.
Highlights of diving on the Tubbataha reefs in the Sulu Sea, Philippines.
Diving from the Philippines Aggressor liveaboard in April 2022.
See the previous video of the whale shark and manta encounters on the same trip.
Encounters with a whale shark and manta on Tubbataha Reef in the Philippine's Sulu Sea, 21 April 2022. Note the cleaner wrasses on the manta at the start of the sequence and as they rise from the coral head at 4:00. Thanks to the guests and staff of the Philippines Aggressor for a wonderful time diving on this UNESCO World Heritage site!
Reef survey videos from the Northern Red Sea, from the islands off Hurghada, Egypt, NE to the Tiran Islands. Despite the substantial human impacts on these reefs, including the close proximity of a large city (over 250,000), lots of tourists (pollution, sunscreen use), hundreds of live-aboard yachts with intensive diving, heavy overfishing, and the passage of thousands of large container ships through the middle of this area to reach the Suez Canal, the corals on these reefs remain mostly healthy.
Video taken in August 2021 while aboard the Red Sea Aggressor.
Schools of glassfish swimming around a coral pinnacle on a reef in the northern Red Sea off Hurghada, Egypt, August 2021.
Video tour of 4 shipwrecks from the northern Red Sea off the Egyptian coast of Hurghada taken in August 2021 on a diving live-aboard trip with Aggressor.
Check out all the great WWII cargo in the Thistlegorm beginning 10:00!
Surprisingly, this is a controversial scientific topic, and this video allows the viewer to evaluate the "sponge increase hypothesis" for themselves, by looking at video captured at 20 m intervals from 160 to 40 m on mesophotic reefs in Puerto Rico and Roatan.
A video survey of the reefs on the NW and SW coasts of Roatan Island, Honduras, and a seamount between Roatan and Cayos Cochinos in January 2021.
Highlights of diving 17-22 Jan 2021 off the N and S coasts of Roatan and seamounts N of Cayo Cochinos, Honduras, from the liveaboard yacht Roatan Aggressor.
Thanks to the terrific staff of the Roatan Aggressor, and a big shout-out to the wonderful participants from across the US who came together for this cruise!
Highlights of diving along the Kona coast in December 2020.
Thanks to Jack's Diving Locker!
Manta rays (Mobula alfredi) feeding on plankton attracted to bottom lights in Keauhao Bay, Kona, Hawaii, 17 December 2020.
Bait-fish feed on the plankton, and they attracted the undulated moray eel (Gymnothorax undulatus), which successfully caught several.
Thanks to Jack's Diving Locker for a fantastic experience!!
Can't go diving because of COVID, so let's check out our "reef in captivity!"
Video of the reef tanks in the Teaching Wet Lab (room 1209) at the Center for Marine Science, UNCW in Wilmington, North Carolina.
Two 90 gallon tanks connected by 2 refugia and one sump - total volume is about 450 gallons.
I've had LOTS of time to work in these tanks in the past few months!!
Some highlights of Jan 2020 dives from the Turks and Caicos Aggressor liveaboard. Enjoy!
Night diving off the Turks and Caicos, January 2020.
Very active nurse and reef sharks, and large black jacks hunting over the reef.
Video survey of reef crest (less than 5 m) on south side of Carrie Bow Cay, Belize, home to the Smithsonian Institution's Caribbean Coral Reef Ecosystem Program.
One of the few remaining places in the Caribbean with high cover of branching corals of the genus Acropora.
This video shows catastrophic loss of living coral cover on a Caribbean coral reef on the west side of the Turks and Caicos islands in the Caribbean. Shot in January 2020, it shows the aftermath of two events in 2019: the arrival of a new disease in May, and bleaching from warm seawater temperatures in Aug/Sep.
At 7:15, you can see a particularly large brain coral in the final stages of disease.
You can read the BBC story at:
bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-51035398
To see what reefs looked like before disease and climate change had its worst effects, see:
youtube.com/playlist?list=PLkzIM8bicViavsAQuYZIgHqSYVbLzG9qA
I've had this aquarium since 2005, and have learned a lot about maintaining it.
This video provides some additional historical documentation, and shows how to make form-fitted trays to line the interior bowl of the tank to maximize the sediment bed for the best growth of aquatic plants. Grow lights have also been unobtrusively added to the sides of the aquarium to maximize plant growth.
The playlist that includes the two previous videos will pop-up at the end of this one.
For more on this aquarium, see this link:
http://people.uncw.edu/pawlikj/2007TFHPawlik.pdf
This is a video survey of reefs around the Caribbean at 40-80 ft depth (10-25 m), mostly recorded in 2018 and 2019 at recreational dive sites. The survey shows that (1) fore-reefs are surprisingly similar across the Caribbean, (2) reef-building coral cover is very low, (3) there are lots of seaweeds and octocorals (gorgonians), and (4) giant barrel sponges are common, and provide important structure on these reefs. While sponges may be providing homes for fishes and invertebrates, they also grow over the few remaining reef-building corals, and hold space that baby corals would need to recruit.
Huge Napoleon wrasse, blue-spot rays, moray eels, etc.
Amazing coral cover. Gigantic coral heads. Among the healthiest reefs left in the world.
March 2019
A video tour of reefs off the SW coast of Barbados, January 2019, at 10-25 m depth (see map at start of video).
Things to notice: (1) Huge biomass of large giant barrel sponges (Xestospongia muta) in unusual growth forms, with sponges overgrowing and smothering live coral heads, (2) fairly high coral cover, particularly of Madracis mirabilis in large mounds, (3) Acropora almost absent (only one patch seen), (4) low macroalgal cover, with lots of black spined sea urchins hiding, but cyano mats in some areas, (5) low fish abundance.
Lots of juvenile hawksbill turtles foraging for sponges - conservation programs are working!!
Filmed January 2019 with dive support from GFish Watersports, next to the Radisson Aquatica hotel in Carlisle Bay, Bridgetown, Barbados.
Video mostly taken around the intersection of 2nd and Ann St.
Dive video taken 6 July 2018 of the wrecks of the Hyde and Markum off Wilmington, North Carolina, on a dive charter through Aquatic Safaris out of Wrightsville Beach. The wrecks are close together, about 18 miles off the coast. The Hyde had a number of sand tiger sharks inside and around the wreck. The large sea slug (nudibranch) Hypselodoris picta on the sponge Dysidea etheria can be seen at 10:30.
This video is an update to one I did 5 years ago about the restoration of a 1880s Victorian-era cast-iron aquarium made by the JW Fiske Company of New York City. The link to that video is:
youtu.be/UVQivbrJN4M
In this video, I show the latest group of fishes to live in this tank, a group that includes 8 bettas.
Read an earlier article about this aquarium at this link:
http://people.uncw.edu/pawlikj/2007TFHPawlik.pdf
Coral reef rescue: Save the parrotfishes! by Boston Dang and Joseph Pawlik
The Pawlik Lab's 2018 entry in the Ocean 180 Video Challenge won first place in the "amateur" category. The "challenge" is to present a recent scientific journal article in 180 seconds (3 min) that can be understood by 6th-8th grade students.
To learn more about the Challenge, and the other entries, see this website:
http://ocean180.org
More on the first place win here:
https://uncw.edu/news/2018/05/uncw-faculty-student-team-wins-ocean-180-video-challenge.html
January 2018 diving on reefs on the North side of Roatan, off Sandy Bay. Great sequence of neon gobies chasing parasitic copepods on the surface of a black grouper starts 4:30. Beautiful green turtle at the end. Note the bleached corals on this reef -- these are recovering from a bleaching event that peaked in October 2017.
Reefs off the South side of Roatan, near Las Palmas, east of the opening to Mahogany Bay. January 2018.
How do we save sharks on coral reefs? Make them much more valuable to the locals alive than dead!
This video is from a ~40 minute shark dive to 70 feet off the SW coast of Roatan, Honduras. In operation for ~12 years, the owners say there have never been any accidents. The feeding station attracts 10-20 female Caribbean reef sharks with a maximum length of ~9 ft.
The Credits: Cameraman – Bogdan Jablensky, Photographer – Albert Korda, Scientific Director and Script – Vassil Zlatarski, Consultant for Scleractinia associated organisms – Nereida Martinez Estallela, Diving Officer – Juan Alvarez.
Time-stamp data:
1:02 -- Geological formations with fossil coral reefs, Lower Cretaceous, Urgonian, N. Bulgaria
1:21 -- Geological formations with fossil coral reefs, Neogene, N. Bulgaria
1:28 -- Geological formations with fossil coral reefs, Lower Cretaceous, Urgonian, N. Bulgaria
1:34 -- Geological formations with fossil coral reefs, Neogene, N. Bulgaria
1:35 – World map with the coral reefs
1:40 – Cuban Archipelago with the coral reefs
1:43 – Vassil Zlatarski (V. Z.), Scientific Director and Script
2:09 – Title: The recent coral fauna of Cuba
2:13 – The film presents some results of the joint investigation 1970 – 1975
2:16 – of Academia de Ciencias de Cuba
2:20 – and Bulgarian Academy of Sciences
2:22 – Underwater work for the project
3:01 -- Cuban Archipelago
3:09 – V.Z. among the collection
3:47 – Working underwater
4:10 -- Map of Cuban Archipelago to show the location of Golfo de Guacanayabo
4:16 – Working underwater
4:29 – Scheme of Gran Banco de Buena Esperanza (GBBE; for more information: Zlatarski, V. N., S. Gonzáles Ferrer. 2017. Gran Banco de Buena Esperanza: unique Caribbean coral reef system. Reef Encounter, 45:60-62.)
4:39 -- Working underwater
6:04 – Rio Escondido, E of Havana
7:01 – Seascapes of fringing reefs
7:16 – Cayo Damas, W of Santiago, S Cuba
8:45 – Entrance of cave, Rio Escondido, E of Havana
8:51 – Cayo Damas, W of Santiago
9:08 – Tubastraea coccinea
9:21 – Mycetophyllia lamarckiana
9:23 -- Meandrina meandrites
9:40 – Mycetophyllia lamarckiana
9:43 – Colpophyllia natans
9:52 – Astrangia solitaria
10:04 – Mussa angulosa
10:17 – Montastraea cavernosa
10:21 – Cave entrance, Puerto Escondido, E of Havana
10:28 – Agaricia agaricites forma unifaciata
10:32 – Gardineria minor
10:43 – V. Z.
13:45 –Alberto Korda, Photographer
14:14 – Cayo Diego Perez, S Cuba
14:17 – Bogdan Jablensky, Cameraman
14:40 -- Mussa angulosa
14:43 – Agaricia agaricites forma unifaciata
15:14 – Coenocyathus caribbeana (not Caryophyllia)
15:17 – Seascape
15:49 –Juan Alvarez, Diving Officer
16:06 – Scolymia lacera
16:09 -- Scolymia lacera
16:11 -- Scolymia lacera
16:13 – Eusmilia fastigiata
16:15 -- Scheme of barrier reef
16:22 – Montastraea cavernosa
16:30 – Mussa angulosa
16:38 -- Eusmilia fastigiata
17:01 – Dendrogyra cylindrus
17:03 – Dendrogyra cylindrus
17:39 – V. Z.
17:50 – Siderastraea siderea and sponges
18:08 -- Madracis decactis, pathoaberation (nanoforma) due to sponge
18:40 – Agaricia agaricites perforated by Cliona
18:55 – Left, nanoaberation of Tubastraea coccinea due to sponge; right, T. coccinea normal growth
19:08 – Colpophyllia natans
19:18 – Eusmilia fastigiata, pathological intra-colony variation in the periphery
19:24 – Siderastraea siderea
19:36 – Montastraea annularis complex
19:37 – Agaricia agaricites forma bifaciata
19:40 – Colpophyllia natans
19:46 – Acropora cervicornis
19:49 – Montastraea cavernosa
19:51 – Mycetophyllia lamarckiana
19:56 -- Scheme of barrier reef
20:03 – Millepora and Montastraea cavernosa
20:06 – Millepora
20:14 – Scheme of barrier reef
20:21 – Millepora
21:44 -- Scheme of barrier reef
22:05 – Acropora palmata
22:28 – Porites porites
22:41 -- Isophyllia sinuosa
22:43 – Isophyllia rigida
22:45 -- Millepora
23:10 – Dendrogyra cylindrus
23:43 -- Scheme of barrier reef
23:50 – Acropora cervicornis, Guanabo, E of Havana,
24:18 -- Scheme of barrier reef
24:49 – Alberto Korda
25:13 – V. Z.
25:23 – Montastraea cavernosa
25:25 – Meandrina meandrites
25:30 -- Bogdan Jablensky
26:34 – Dimorphocoeniopsis beauvaisorum, Lower Cretaceous, N Bulgaria
26:43 – Montastraea cavernosa
26:44 – Agaricia agaricites forma bifaciata
26:47 – Dichocoenia stockesi
26:50 -- Dichocoenia stockesi
26:53 – Montastraea cavernosa
26:59 – Siderastraea siderea
27:13 – Montastraea annularis complex
27:29 – Diploria clivosa
28:33 -- Seboruco Formation in front of Hotel Nacional, Havana
28:49 – V. Z.
33:09 – Nereida Martinez Estalella, Consultant for Scleractinia associated organisms
33:57 – Acropora cervicornis
34:24 – Different phenotypes of Dichocoenia stockesi
34:30 – V. Z.
35:03 – The coral collection, Dendrogyra cylindrus
35:53 – Alberto Korda
35:56 – View to Sierra Maestra from Cayo Damas, W of Santiago
Film Credits: Cameraman – John C. Halas, Key Largo National Marine Sanctuary; Scientific Director and Script – Vassil N. Zlatarski, Smithsonian Institution; Narration – Judith F. Halas, Key Largo, Florida; Special consultant – Eugene A. Shinn, U. S. Geological survey.
Filmed in November 1987, finished – December 1987.
Time-stamp data:
0:01 -- Pawlik Lab in association with Dr. Vassil Zlatarski presents …
0:06 -- Reefs in the Past: Grecian rocks, off Pinnecamp Park, Key Largo, Florida Keys, 1987
0:12 -- Underwater. Title
1:12 -- Gene Shinn
1:33 -- Gene Shinn turns to air photo
3:26 -- Scheme
5:29 -- Underwater, mooring buoy G9
5:51 -- Solenastraea patch
6:36 -- Acropora cervicornis
7:11 -- Colpophyllia natans, Pomacanthus paru
7:32 -- Meandrina meandrites
7:48 -- Solenastraea
8:04 -- Montastraea cavernosa
8:43 -- Diploria strigosa
8:48 -- Eusmilia fastigiata
9:05 -- Lobster, Panulirus argus
9:59 -- Siderastraea siderea
11:19 -- Montastraea annularis complex
12:00 -- Acropora palmata
14:16 -- Reef flat, Acropora palmata
14:52 -- Back reef slope
16:07 -- Montastraea annularis complex
17:35 -- Diploria
17:48 -- Cannon
18:18 -- Barracuda, Lemon shark
18:38 -- Dead Acropora cervicornis
18:52 -- Healthy Acropora cervicornis
19:41 -- Damselfish
20:25 -- Mooring buoy G2
21:11 -- Favia fragum
21:24 -- Acropora cervicornis
21:27 -- Starfish, Oreaster reticularis
22:09 -- Mooring buoy G8; coral neoplasms
23:48 -- Damselfish
24:21 -- Black grouper, Myctoperca
24:27 -- Colpophyllia natans
26:15 -- Montastraea annularis complex
26:41 -- Millepora
27:31 -- Acropora palmata
29:06 -- Colpophllia natans
29:45 -- Montastraea annularis complex
30:39 -- Diploria labyrinthiformis
31:37 -- Strombus gigas
31:47 -- Thalassia
31:53 -- Acknowledgments
32:25 -- End


