CoralReefWreck (Say 5 Times Fast)

Most of these corals have now died due to their immune system being taxed by an unknown cause. Cyano bacteria and this mysterious oval shaped algae have now killed almost all of these 100 year old corals. I  have good reason to beleive that the military’s use of radar and sonar are weakening the reef to cause a full collapse.

This is bad enough, but now there are giant 5 ton parts of the reef falling off of the underwater cliff and now lying dead in the mud below!

If you are not concerned about the corals all dying along the north shore of Kauai then you should now be concerned if you own a beach front home or sell homes!!

In the past the massive energy of our big waves in the winter was focused on this part of the reef. You know this if you surf there like I do and often break my surf board trying to duck dive under these waves. Large corals on the edge of the reef made the wave break.

Now that these large corals and huge chunks of the reef are dying and falling off the cliff there will be less reef structure to cause the waves to break and expend their energy before they hit the beach!

Just do your own simple test at home. Turn on your garden hose and see how long it takes for the water to run down your driveway. Then put a bunch of big rocks on your driveway and turn the hose on again. You will see it takes a lot longer time for the water to reach the street due to the resistance of the rocks in the water flow. The water flow will also loose its power before it gets to the street. Simple physics kids learn these days in high school.

The barrier reefs protect the beach and coastal developments. The reef itself is glued together by coralline algae. This hard, coral like algae, is also dying and the reef is falling apart and starting to crumble. Much like you car falling apart as it rust in the moist sea air along the north shore of Kauai. Look fine for a while then the bumper falls off.

There will be less protection for the beach front homes as the reef disintegrates. This along with rising sea levels will cause more homes to be washed out to sea, more than likely starting this winter!!

One only needs to go look at Rocky Point on the north shore of Oahu and you can see first hand what this will look like.

It is a good time for banks and insurance companies to bail on financing coastal homes or developments here in Kauai! We do not even have strong set back laws and people are still building close to the sea. They will loose their homes before their children will inherit them, when they pass on.

Here are some pics out of my video I shot yesterday. The first one is the location where I dove yesterday marked, sample site. The second is a giant part of the reef covered in live coral from 2 months ago! The third is of it lying 30 feet below now covered in mud, along with other huge pieces of the reef that were once right under the surf break! I also included pics of the coral junk yard now building up on the sea floor in the mud.

Also pics of the few remaining live corals on the top of the cliff and what the algae looks like that is killing them at about 2 inches a week per coral. Also some of the sea creatures that will soon loose their habitat from a huge eagle ray and moray eel that came to visit with me during my dive, to the butterflyfish that eat the live coral. No more food for them shortly!

This is the first time in my over 40 years of diving where I have seen a reef Collapse and it is really disgusting! Every one else will see it soon because the effects of this will be lousy surf and accelerated coastal erosion that will ruin may peoples lives and tourism in Kauai.

And still the government has not responded with the funds to properly study and try to stop this disaster from happening! Maybe when 50 homes falling into the sea next winter, they will wake up! I just home that no one will be in these homes when it happens!