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> I was reading an article in the New Scientist re loss of bio diversity. > (8th April) > It concentrated on the Pacific Islands and in particular the Hawaiian > bird population. > Have you guys at Bishop got any idea of how great the impact of the > arrival of man has been on the U/W life of the Pacific Islands? Is > it comprable with the bird loss? (est >2000 sp!!!!). > We have had some dramatic disasters here in Australia with the introduction > of northern hemisphere life in ballast water ;( Have you had similar > problems? No, marine fishes were not NEARLY as impacted by the arrival of humans as the birds were. It's damn near impossible to make a marine fish go extinct because of the way their reproductive biology works. Population sizes of certain food fishes have been very much impacted (especially after the introduction of western fishing methods), but nowhere near enough to threaten the species' survival. I'm not as certain about the invertebrate life. There is a certain octocoral that dominates deep ledges that was not reported from Hawaii prior to about 20 years ago. It seems likely that this may have been introduced by ships (hull or ballast water), but then again, there wasn't a whole lot of scientific diving on deep ledges more than 20 years ago.... In general, our terrestrial/freshwater ecosystems have suffered MUCH more than the marine ecosystems. Aloha, Rich Richard Pyle deepreef@bi*.bi*.ha*.or* ******************************************************************* "WHATEVER happens to you when you willingly go underwater is COMPLETELY and ENTIRELY your own responsibility! If you cannot accept this responsibility, stay out of the water!" *******************************************************************
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