The Hawaiian Reef

Caitlin Truax
Along the northwestern islands of Hawaii there is one of the most complex ecosystems in the world. This particular ecosystem is unique in that it is completely separated from the other coral ecosystems around the world. Because of this seclusion the Hawaiian Islands are given a generous amount of reef species that cannot be found in any other ecosystem. “Generally speaking, 25 percent of all coral reef species in the islands can be found nowhere else,” said Gulko, the leader of a film expedition who documented this reef in 2000. The team was called the Jean-Michel Cousteau’s Ocean Futures Society. They set out to illustrate the newly discovered changes in the reefs’ ecosystem.
Deep under the earth’s surface is a plume of magma. As the pacific tectonic plate of the earth moves, as the hot spot grows closer to the island more magma seeps from the islands volcanoes. As long as the island is over the hot spot it will grow. But as it moves away from the hot spot it will erode and sink. The erosion of the island may separate itself from the reef leaving it an atoll.
Separation from the reef would be devastating, but it seems that it is the only thing tearing us away from the reef. Scientists say that small-boat fishermen have been over-fishing the area. Jacks, sharks, parrot fish, and other reef dwellers have been disappearing from these reefs. But they don’t have any hard facts about the number of fish being taken, however that is the only explanation given. The result is poor economical flow. The ecosystem can’t sustain itself, without these fish the maintenance of the reef has been compromised. The reef is becoming overgrown with algae since there aren’t enough fish to eat it off and some of the coral has disintegrated. But scientists agree there is still time to save it.
Though it would take many years for the reef to separate from the islands, these geographical and human-related traumas will make an impact on the ecosystem. New birth may arouse positive change in the ecosystem, but as time takes its toll the reef it may not be the same eclectic assortment of unique spices that it once was.