Rose Atoll :: A World Treasure in Peril :: Part III
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| Brown booby, Rose Atoll National Wildlife Refuge, American Samoa. Image: 00914 Species: Sula leucogaster |
White (or fairy) tern, Rose Atoll National Wildlife Refuge, American Samoa. Image: 00872 Species: Gygis alba |
Brown boobies, Rose Atoll National Wildlife Refuge, American Samoa. Image: 00908 Species: Sula leucogaster |
Since we originally joined the science team to assist with underwater surveys of the wreck site, neither of us was prepared for what we would witness during our visits ashore, a spectacle of wildlife that emphasizes the critical importance of the atoll for nesting and roosting seabirds. While essentially only twenty acres of compacted coral rubble, tiny Rose Island manages to support a small forest of rare Pisonia trees and a rich assemblage of wheeling, diving, nesting, hatching and crying seabirds. Chicks and eggs seem to be under every bush and tree while juveniles walk openly about, fearless. Inquisitive boobies – red-footed, masked and brown – hover above the shoreline in large groups, crying incessantly. Brown noddies and sooty terns flush from the cover of Pisonia, soon to return to their stumbling chicks and nests laid on the barren coral rubble. Red-throated frigate birds hover high above, sky-borne pirates poised to steal a lesser bird’s catch. Diminutive white terns gracefully flutter about among the trees, pure alabaster but for their large black eyes and exotic blue beaks – could there be more delicate and enchanting creatures?
Such magical visits ashore afforded us time not only to intimately observe these captivating and naïve birds but also to contemplate a sobering thought that is at the heart of our team’s work at Rose Atoll: This solitary speck of land atop the atoll, cradling a unique abundance of life, is nothing more than a fragile rubble aggregate, subject to the whim of tides and currents that may have already begun to change in the wake of the grounding.
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| Paul W. Gabrielson, Ph.D., collecting algae and coral samples, Rose Atoll National Wildlife Refuge, American Samoa. Image: 00824 |
Wreck of F/V Jin Shiang Fa, Rose Atoll National Wildlife Refuge, American Samoa. Image: 00709 |
Debris from wreck of F/V Jin Shiang Fa, lagoon talus slope, Rose Atoll National Wildlife Refuge, American Samoa. Image: 00789 |
Rose Atoll’s coralline algae reefs have managed to withstand natural disturbances such as hurricanes, varying salinity and changes in sea level. Can they also adapt to the unnatural changes caused by the Jin Shiang Fa? Of greatest concern is the death of the slow-growing, reef-building coralline algae through local structural reef injury and widespread toxin-induced die-off and replacement. The disappearance of these coralline algae may lead to long-term bioerosion that ultimately weakens the reef, altering current patterns and threatening the existence of Rose Island, its forest and its avian inhabitants.
Rose Atoll’s misfortune may ultimately serve to illustrate how delicate the link is between reef welfare and the existence of remote seabird and turtle nesting sites, and how vulnerable such ecosystems are worldwide. Groundings such as that of the Jin Shiang Fa injure tropical reefs and atolls, yet few such incidents occur in countries with the means and interest to carry out damage assessments, sponsor follow-up research efforts, or attempt to mitigate injury to the reef. By chance, had the Jin Shiang Fa ran aground elsewhere, would anyone have heard about it?
