What Is Natural?: Coral Reef Crisis

Features

• Cover Type: Hard Cover with 304 pages
• Published by: Oxford University Press, USA
• Edition: 1st Edition January 21, 1999
• Written in: English
• ISBN 10 Number: 0195123646
• ISBN 13 Number: 978-0195123647
• Book Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.4 x 1 inches
• Weighs: 1.3 pounds

Product Review
Students of marine biology have long been fascinated by the superorganisms called coral reefs, formed over thousands of years from skeletal remains and other matter. Many of those students have warned for several decades that these uncommon reefs are endangered by human development. Now, historian of science Jan Sapp writes, they are faced with another, paradoxical threat: the accelerating destruction of reefs by a creature called Acanthaster planci, the crown-of-thorns starfish. These starfish were a rarity when they were first observed off the coast of Australia in the late 1950s. Since that time their population has blossomed, with some scientists debating the cause but linking it at one time or another to familiar troublemakers, including global warming, overfishing, pesticide use, and atomic testing. Still other reputable scientists, Sapp writes, have dismissed the crown-of-thorns controversy as a hoax, claiming that most coral reefs are in no danger. "Facts, theories, values, and politics were so entangled in the controversy that it was often as difficult for us to separate them as it was for scientists to separate anthropogenic from natural change," he notes. Among the points in the debate that he finds most interesting is this: What happens when a natural predator threatens an already endangered species or habitat? The answers that he suggests are far from definitive, but they open up a discussion that will become increasingly important as more and more ecosystems require protection. --Gregory McNamee

From Publishers Weekly
Why has a once-obscure starfish destroyed swaths of coral reefs all over the Pacific? What should we do about it? Sapp, a professor of the history of science at York University in Canada, offers few answers in this digressive, poorly focused study. The spiny, poisonous crown-of-thorns starfish mystified biologists by turning up in great numbers on Australia's Green Island Reef in the early 1960s, injuring tourists and eating the coral. By 1970, crown-of-thorns infestations were laying waste to reefs from Australia to Guam. Sapp follows the intense scientific debates over whether human activity caused the starfish booms, and whether and how to save the coral. Sometimes he explains the reefs' travails in detail; other times he treats the crown-of-thorns outbreaks as case studies in ecological policy, comparing them to later, greater debates about, for example, El Ni?o. Sapp has collected plenty of scientific articles, government reports and conference proceedings from each stage of the starfish debate. But he fails to tie his sources together. Instead, he jumps from one broad topic to another: should scientists interfere with natural processes they don't fully understand? How do the media and public react to environmental crises? How have these reactions changed since the 1960s? How should coral-reef experts "behave in the midst of global environmental uncertainties?" What can those starfish outbreaks teach us about other, newer threats to coral reefs? It's hard to tell, in this sometimes technical, jumbled and very academic book, which problem Sapp wants most to solve, or whether he even offers any solutions.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Reader Reviews
As a wedge in the reflection of our coral reef management policy, crown-of-thorns starfish outbreaks attracted people's attention on our deteriorating reef environments. With the concern of biodiversity conservation, Jan Sapp included and organized documents of scientific studies and political events to examine the proposed reasons of starfish plagues and its influence on global reef management. For those who are interested in coral reef biology and environmental management, this easy-read book provides good amount of reef ecology knowledge, also reveals a good case to understand how on-land decision makers determine the fate of underwater world.