Ocean
Watch
Monday, September 8, 1997
Coloring book educates
about Pacific coral reefs
When the Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National
Marine Sanctuary was created in Hawaii, some people argued we didn't need
it. "Why add a federal agency to protect that which is already
protected?" they asked.
There were several good answers, but one that rang
clear was the promise of marine education. Federal dollars, proponents
said, would go into much-needed teaching programs about preserving our
humpback whales and their habitat, the ocean.
One product of that promise is the Pacific Coral Reef
Coloring Book, one of the sanctuary's responses to 1997 being designated
the International Year of the Reef.
This is no run-of-the-mill coloring book: The text,
written on the left, explains coral reef biology and ecology in English,
Samoan and Hawaiian. The pictures, on the right, were drawn by Hawaii
resident Kathleen Orr and have a distinct local flavor.
Here are some facts I learned from this book:
The reefs with the most biodiversity
(different kinds of plants and animals) are in the far western Pacific and
southeast Asia. The farther you go from this rich center, the fewer
species you see.
Australia, close to this coral core, has about 2,000
species of fish. American Samoa, farther away, drops to about half that
with 1,000 fish species. And Hawaii, thousands of miles away from the
coral reef center of the world, has less than 500 kinds of fish.
Triton's trumpet snails (whose
shells you see in every souvenir shop from here to India) are great allies
of the coral reef, both in life and in death.
In life, one of the trumpet snails' favorite meals is
the crown-of-thorns starfish, a species notorious for eating coral. After
death, the trumpets' enormous shells provide homes for equally enormous
hermit crabs. Crabs are scavengers that clean the reef floor of dead plant
and animal material.
We can help the reefs by never killing snails for their
shells nor buying such shells in shops.
Jacks, called ulua in Hawaiian, are
often seen on coral reefs. For these strong swimmers, the reef is a
hunting ground.
In contrast are butterflyfish, commonly seen on coral
reefs. Some species spend their entire lives near a single clump of coral.
The sanctuary has come through with its promise of
marine education. Now all we citizens have to do is take advantage of the
offer.
To request these free coloring books, call 541-3184 on
Oahu, 879-2818 on Maui.
