Government and others must mobilize to eradicate threat to black coral reefs

Beneath the warm turquoise waters and vibrant colorful reefs of Hawaii, a nasty storm is brewing, reaching white-out conditions that would stop an Eskimo in his tracks.

The bends and bows of deep-water shipwrecks, caves and rocks are being blanketed with snowy white pillows of gelatinous material.

At closer look, these pillows are the eight flexible pinnate tentacles branching off the soft coral stems of Carijoa riisei, commonly known as snowflake coral. This blizzard of snowflake coral is termed by a University of Hawaii researcher, Dr. Sam Kahng, as a "silent underwater invasion."

Snowflake coral was first discovered at Pearl Harbor in 1972. Presently, it is outcompeting Hawaii’s state gem, black corals. Extremely fast growth — a whopping 1 inch every two weeks versus black coral’s minute growth rate of 2.5 inches every year — and competition for resources are main factors in the invasion.

Snowflake coral carpets the coral beds, suffocating and killing the black coral species. In some areas, up to 90 percent of the black coral colonies are completely overgrown and smothered. Snowflake coral thrives in depths without sunlight so the effects are hidden from view until the situation becomes irreversible.

The late Richard Grigg, who was a professor and reef expert at the University of Hawaii, believed that of the 287 non-native invertebrate species in Hawaii, snowflake coral is the most invasive. It has been documented for upwards of 40 years — but is there an effective method of control yet? No.

Why do we need to manage snowflake coral? The answer is plain and simple: money. Black corals are a valuable commodity because they are used for the manufacture of precious jewelry. These black coral colonies support a $30 million statewide industry and are one of the keys to a successful Hawaiian economy. In short, black coral is a cash cow.

So how can we begin to manage this difficult situation? The goal is to control the existing populations. Some ways to do this are to educate SCUBA divers and submersible teams to identify, photograph and manually pull and capture snow- flake coral when it is found on black coral colonies. This could be in the form of add-on information to dive classes, posters in dive shops and signs around popular SCUBA diving entrances.

Volunteer programs such as Reefcheck and the Reef Environmental Education Foundation (REEF) could be the main drivers of a statewide successful ecotourism opportunity, thus keeping the costs at a practical level.

Since these programs are funded by governmental, nongovernmental and nonprofit agencies, small grants from these groups could be given to PADI (Professional Association of Diving Instructors)-sponsored dive shop owners to incentivize recreational and professional deep divers to bring in information and captured dead snowflake coral.

The incentives could be in the form of monetary credit toward the dive shop retailer — thus helping the small-business owners, the economy and the reefs.

If the invasion of snow-flake coral is not managed in a timely manner, black coral colonies could be facing irreversible loss. Some of these ancient coral beds are said to be the oldest living organisms on Earth.

Protecting our priceless natural history and making certain our economy thrives are two objectives that must have our attention to preserve for future generations.