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A. Appleyard writes;
>Addendum: Could coral reef death sometimes be partly due to removal of
>sharks letting coral-eating fish get too many and eating the coral out?
>like the deer in Yellowstone Park getting too many and eating the
>grazing out after Man wiped out the wolves there.

The bleaching of the corals is much different than damage from coral
eating fish.  When bleached, the coral loses it's symbiotic algae
while keepin it's tissue intact.  Feeding fish eat the tissue.
Also, because of the complexity of the coral reef ecosystem, I don't
think you would see an obvious effect of the loss of sharks on the
corals.  There are a lot of other reasons not to kill off sharks, but
I don't think saving corals will be an obvious one.
If anybody is interested in coral bleaching, the Hawaii Institute of
Marine Biology has a summer program studying the effect of UV on
corals. (Sorry if I strayed from diving topics)
                                                Jeff

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