Most environmental impact assessments either ignore or discount the effects of nutrients, or use inadequately sensitive methods to claim that they are too low to make a difference, which might be true in any habitat EXCEPT a coral reef. Of special concern are heavily fertilized golf courses on tropical islands with nearby reefs, and in particular the major fertilizer elements nitrogen and phosphorus.īecause these trace amounts of nutrients are so hard to measure accurately, very few researchers do. Very small amounts of these elements, undetectable except with the most sensitive analytical methods, trigger explosive growth of nuisance algae blooms. Almost all other elements the algae need to grow are present in excess in the sea, so their growth rates are limited by the least abundant elements they need, which are nitrogen and phosphorus. This is no surprise because plants need high concentrations of fertilizers to grow fast, and when these are washed into the sea, they act as fertilizers for marine plant growth. Along most coastal zones the predominant source of nutrients is human sewage, but in some areas livestock manures and agricultural fertilizers can be the major source. As a result development of coastal tourism next to reefs almost inevitably results in the death of nearby reefs, and tourists then must go a long way to see healthy corals and fishes. Whenever nutrients are too high, coastal zones are overgrown with nuisance algae, killing corals, and fish and shellfish habitat. Along developed coastlines almost all the nutrients come from human sources, and they greatly overwhelm the natural ones.

Nutrients in coastal waters have many sources, including natural nutrients recycled from healthy coral reefs, mangroves, seagrasses, and upwelling of cold deep ocean waters. Goreau, 2007, Tourism, water quality, and coral reefs. For example see footage showing algal blooms killing corals near nutrient sources from dolphin pens in Mexico and intense concentrations of White Plague Disease, the coral disease that kills corals the fastest (corals die at up to 10 cm a day), and which affects most coral species, around the Cayman Turtle Farm effluent in the documentary film by T. Besides massive growth of algae there is strong evidence at sites with high levels of nutrients of strong local correlation between pollution and coral diseases. The currently used standard limits almost everywhere are based on human drinking water quality standards, and we can safely drink water with nutrient levels hundreds of times higher than those which kill coral reefs.ĪNY source of excessive nutrients, whether from golf course fertilizers or other sources, is a problem for coral reef habitats. Coral reefs therefore need the strongest, ecosystem-specific water quality standards to be protected. Goreau, 2010, Land-sourced pollution with an emphasis on domestic sewage: Lessons from the Caribbean and implications for coastal development on Indian Ocean and Pacific coral reefs, Sustainability, 2: 2919-2949). Coral reefs are the most sensitive of all ecosystems to high concentrations of nitrogen and phosphorus nutrients, because they are overgrown and killed by weedy algae growth at nutrient levels so low that they would not impact any other ecosystem (A. Massive blooms of nuisance algae caused by excessive nutrients are called eutrophication. This study is to our knowledge the first to examine direct impacts of golf courses on coastal algae and coral reefs, but such impacts would be much more widely found had they been searched for. These impacts are only starting: promptly cutting off all sources of nutrients will be needed to save Guana Cay reef from being over-grown and killed by nuisance algae in the coming years. Reefs near the golf course show an increase in weedy algae overgrowing and killing corals, and new outbreaks of coral diseases that were not found in earlier surveys. The spatial pattern and abundance of algae species clearly indicates excessive levels of fertilizer nutrients leaching from the golf course via groundwater flowing into the coastal zone. Observations in early January 2012 found massive blooms of “sewage-type” algae smothering beach rock and sand where Baker’s Bay golf course greens lie nearest to the shore of northwestern Guana Cay. James Cervino, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institutionīakers Bay golf course fertilizer damages reefs at Great Guana Cay, Abacos, Bahamas Troy Albury, President, Save Guana Cay Reef Goreau, PhD, President, Global Coral Reef Alliance Summary of Observations of Sewerpipe Algae at Bakers Bay

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