Harvey Newstrom wrote:
> "Michael S. Lorrey" <retroman@together.net> wrote:
> > If it is a human virus that is killing the coral, then its likely brought
> > there by the divers who protest about the coral's destruction.
>
> Mike, you've set off my bogometer. This guess of yours makes absolutely
> no sense. I live down in Florida, and I am not aware of any protestors
> visiting the reefs. Protestors like to stay topside with people they
> can protest towards. We have thousands of tourist divers every year.
> Why do you blame the protestors as being the carriers of human virii?
The people I have seen in the media protesting the coral die offs are sport divers who are also environmentalists. Of course, I should always take what I see in the media with a heavy dose of salt. I don't doubt that sewage and agricultural runoff is responsible for some of it, however if that were all it was, solving the problem would be easy. However, sewage was blamed for the red tide phenomenon not so long ago, when it turned out to be caused by a change in deep sea upwelling currents caused by a hurricane back in the 70's which changed shoal patterns around on the east coast....people in the gulf of mexico blame oil exploration for all of the gunk that floats around, when the majority is due to the large amount of natural oil seeps that are present, plus the fact that the geography makes the gulf a natural wind trap for all of the garbage in the sea...
Mike