Rapture Reef was an undersea Eden , C of miles out in a distant , ocean wild . It was a pristine , coral wonderland , renowned among maritime life scientist . But now it ’s gone . This month , dazed scientists discovered that a hurricanewiped Rapture Reef off the maplast fall .
Researchers with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ( NOAA ) and their partner scientists returned earlier this month from a 22 - day hostile expedition in thePapahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument , an Alaska - sized protected nerve tract of ocean and coral atolls nor'-west of the main Hawaiian Islands . The scientists ’ principal delegation was to collect extra specimens of new species of alga and see how reefs around uninhabitedLisianski Islandwas recovering from a savage coral bleaching event in 2014 .
But Randy Kosaki , NOAA ’s Deputy Superintendent of the Monument , evidence Earther that both those delegation felt a hiccough when the researchers reached French Frigate Shoals , Papahānaumokuākea ’s largest atoll and home to Rapture Reef , arguably the crown jewel of the archipelago ’s Witwatersrand organization . In October 2018,Hurricane Walakaroared over the shoal as a family 3 tempest , nearly annihilating an entire island . But no biologists had been in the water around French Frigate Shoals since then .
Heavily damaged coral reef at French Frigate Shoals after Hurricane WalakaPhoto: Kailey Pascoe/NOAA
“ We were gestate some storm damage , some broken coral , ” recounted Kosaki , but nothing could have prepare them for their reunification with Rapture Reef . “ For Rapture Reef to be pass over off the face of the Earth , it was like a punch in the catgut . ”
Kailey Pascoe — a researcher at the University of Hawai’i at Hilo — was among the first to revisit the situation .
“ We dropped down and at first I intend I was at the wrong situation because all I could see was rubble and sandpaper , ” Pascoe told Earther .
Map of Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument and the Main Hawaiian IslandsImage: NOAA
She and her colleagues took photos of the ravaging and resurface . Kosaki — who was on the gravy boat — wondered if the chemical group of researchers was scan the GPS correctly after he see the underwater diver ’ photos .
But then they noticed an acoustical receiver below used by one of their colleagues to log mark predatory Pisces that drown by . The red coral were buy the farm , but Rapture Reef ’s receiver remained , plant in the underwater wasteland like a grievous mark .
“ That was our check , ” Pascoe said . “ Rapture Reef was demolished . ”
Several schools of fish swim above the reef at French Frigate Shoals in Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument.Photo: James Watt/NOAA Office of National Marine Sanctuaries
She retrieve what the reef was like when she first saw it in 2015 on a research cruise to Papahānaumokuākea .
“ It was one of the most beautiful website , ” Pascoe say . “ Just tons and dozens of fish , lots of schools of all different types . band of predatory animal : uluas , monk seals , Galapagos shark , whitetips . It was a very diverse ecosystem before the hurricane .
“ Everything is idle . It looks like a parking lot now . ”
A shark swims over a coral reef at Rapture Reef in French Frigate Shoals that was heavily damaged by Hurricane WalakaPhoto: Kailey Pascoe/NOAA
Kosaki remembers when the reef was first named . In 2000 , NOAA push to explore Papahānaumokuākea from the perspective of conservation biota . Just by chance , one of the first spots Kosaki and his fellow worker search was Rapture Reef , which they on the side distinguish after their charter vessel , Rapture . He call it one of the most beautiful reef he ’s “ ever seen in 35 years of diving event in Hawai’i . ”
But Rapture Reef was more than just eye confect . It , like other nearby atolls , was home to a uniquely high proportion of Pisces species found nowhere else on Earth . The Hawaiian Archipelago has distinctive coral reef ecosystems , the consequence of their physical closing off in the middle of the vast Pacific where they ’ve develop mostly out of the stretch of Asian and American reef . As a result , about a quarter of the fish species are autochthonal to the island , and this biodiversity oddity iseven more pronouncedin Papahānaumokuākea . Rapture Reef was also one of the only stead in Hawai`i where giant Acropora table coral grew in teemingness .
The Rand promptly became a revered and heavily - studied site among scientist working in Papahānaumokuākea , with Kosaki ring it their “ sentimental and aesthetic favorite . ”
Fish school at Rapture Reef in French Frigate Shoals in Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument prior to Hurricane WalakaPhoto: Greg McFall/NOAA
Rapture did n’t sidetrack this world alone . The entire south side of the atoll seemed wiped clean by Walaka .
“ [ The reefs ] were entirely blend in , ” says Kosaki . “ It must have been a dire amount of vitality that was unleashed on French Frigate Shoals . ”
The team wanted to survey the Shoals ’ magnetic north side , but the unnerving discovery of trespassing alga mats elsewhere in Papahānaumokuākea led to a rigorous quarantine for the ship ’s tax return stumble .
NOAA research diver Dr. Randy Kosaki collects specimens in a bed of Sargassum algae at 300 feet depth at Pearl and Hermes Atoll. The Sargassum beds are a newly-discovered coral reef habitat type in the monument.Photo: Rich Pyle/NOAA
Kosaki thinks the reef will find , in time . It ’s been 10 month since the hurricane , and there are already some midget , dime bag to quarter - sized corals growing on the loose , rubble stay of the old reef . But he ’s implicated about the impact of increasing frequency and severity of storm in the part from climate modification - driven sea heating . red coral have develop alongside hurricanes for eons , he says , but last yr was themost intense Pacific hurricane time of year on record , and the young coral at Rapture are very vulnerable to even a modest storm .
Kosaki said coral could have a hard time take a hop back from reduplicate storms because “ you have a partial recovery and then you get attain again , and another partial recovery , and you get shoot again . ”
Despite the release of Rapture Reef , the military expedition was not without any good news . Lisianski Island is on the mend , and some crucial scientific discipline will number out of supervise Rapture Reef ’s possible revival from the rubble . It ’s this message of hope , that even ruinous losses need not be lasting , that Kosaki wants to portion out .
“ You ’ve got to have Leslie Townes Hope , ” he said . “ Otherwise , you ’d just throw your hands up and quit . ”
Coral reef
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