Tsunami and hurricane defenses around the world are failing; UT scientist suggests drastic action

AUSTIN (KXAN) - As tsunami warnings and watches sound around the world following an 8.5 earthquake registered off the coast of Russia, scientists are warning that one of the best defenses against damage from tsunamis and hurricanes is facing its potential doom.

"Without the reefs, there will be no coastline protection, so all the beachside properties will be basically washed away," said Professor Mikhail Matz with the University of Texas' Department of Integrative Biology.

According to the Matz, coral reefs along coasts in our oceans are key to coastline protection from severe weather.

"Reefs right now absorb more than 90% of the wave energy which hurricanes brings," Matz said.

Research following the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami found this absorption is also true for these giant waves.

In a 2006 paper published in Geophysical Review Letters, researchers found that healthy reefs provide friction that slows tsunamis, reducing their damage.

"A healthy coral reef sitting in front of an island, or at the fringing an island, can cut the basically the height at which the tsunami can get inland by as much as 50%," said Professor Michael Oppenheimer with Princeton University.

Oppenheimer, a leading expert on climate change and long time participant in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, ran the team who wrote that 2006 paper.

"The thing that causes [tsunamis] to break or slow down is when they hit land. So any kind of barrier, natural barrier, in front of the area where people are living on land, is going to help dissipate the energy," Oppenheimer said.

Coral reefs are dying

This natural storm defense is facing devastation. Around the world, warming oceans and disease have seen decline. Matz studies coral in the Caribbean, where little hope remains.

"The whole livelihood of all the communities throughout the Caribbean are tied to the proper functioning of the reefs," Matz said.

Before the 1980's, reefs off the coast of Florida were thriving, verdant gardens. Over the last 40 years, Matz said, the reefs have been dying and scientists don't know exactly why.

Some reefs around the world bounce back or have adapted. In the Coral Triangle, a part of the ocean between Indonesia, the Philippines and Papua New Guinea, reefs recover after they're damaged.

"The recovery is what they have mastered. They can spring back, even if they are completely gone through due to hurricane or bleaching," Matz said.

A push for radical action

In a new paper published this month, Matz and a group of scientists from around the world announced a push for radical action to save reefs in the Caribbean.

"Is it ethically acceptable to stand along saying, 'Oh, we don't know. It may cause harm, so you will have to die in three months.'? This is the situation we're trying to solve," Matz said.

Matz said that the current policy for reef recovery is the "Preservationist Precautionary Principle," which aims to restore the reef to how it was before the 1980s. This means taking species, like the Elkhorn Coral, which is essentially extinct in the reef, and replanting it using specimen grown in aquariums.

"You put them out, they just sit there for a while and die in a year, maybe two, but they fail to create substantial structure, and it's just they keep dying," Matz said.

Matz and his fellow authors argue for taking relatives in other parts of the Caribbean and genetically mix and match them with the coral growing off the coast of Florida. Elkhorn, for instance, also grow off the coast of Honduras where they thrive.

"Let's try to help them handle the change, rather than try to revert their state to the past, which is impossible because the conditions are wrong," Matz said.

Matz argues that taking a radical approach like this could not cause more damage than has already been done.

Oppenheimer said that saving coral reefs will also benefit the economy of communities that rely on them for fishing and tourism.

"If we could protect coral reefs, we would save human lives. We would save species that depend on the coral reef to live. We would save recreation areas where the original reason for going there is now going to disappear," Oppenheimer said.

About 25% of the species in the ocean are found in and around coral reefs, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. More than 80% of coral reefs in the ocean have seen bleaching, where life abandons the reef and they turn white, or have died completely.