Foreword and Onward
While sailing around the world in 1834, Charles Darwin was so impressed with the
pristine coral reefs that he observed in the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian oceans that
he devoted his first book, ‘‘The Structure and Distribution of Coral Reefs’’, published in 1842, to an analysis of how atolls, fringing and coast-hugging barrier
reefs were formed. In Voyage of the Beagle, he notes, ‘‘. . .travellers tell us of the
vast dimensions of the Pyramids and other great ruins, but how utterly insignificant are the greatest of these, when compared to these mountains of stone accumulated by the agency of various minute and tender animals!’’
If Darwin could magically retrace his voyage in the twenty-first century, he
would likely be shocked at how much has been lost of that lacey garland of reef
plants and animals that once spanned the shallow blue waters of the globe between
30° North and 30° South. But he would likely also be heartened by the technologies
that now exist that for the first time make it possible to accurately assess the nature
of the changes and to take actions to reverse the alarming trends.
This remarkable book,Coral Reef Remote Sensing: A Guide for Mapping,
Monitoring and Management for the first time documents the full range of remote
sensing systems, methodologies and measurement capabilities essential to understanding more fully the status and changes over time of coral reefs globally. Such
information is essential and provides the foundation for policy development and
for implementing management strategies to protect these critically endangered
ecosystems.
In Darwin’s time, the ocean seemed so vast, so resilient, that it seemed there
was little humans could do to alter its nature. Even more than a century later,
Rachel Carson in her 1951 Classic, ‘‘The Sea Around Us’’, imagined the ocean
was somehow too big to fail. ‘‘Eventually man . . .found his way back to the sea’’,
she wrote. ‘‘And yet he has returned to his mother sea only on her terms. He
cannot control or change the ocean as, in his brief tenancy of earth, he has
subdued and plundered the continents’’.
Now we know: unprecedented human activity is driving global warming,
climate change, sea level rise, pollution, acidification of the ocean, and loss of
species and entire ecosystems, including the focus of this volume—coral reefs.
v
While sailing around the world in 1834, Charles Darwin was so impressed with the
pristine coral reefs that he observed in the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian oceans that
he devoted his first book, ‘‘The Structure and Distribution of Coral Reefs’’, published in 1842, to an analysis of how atolls, fringing and coast-hugging barrier
reefs were formed. In Voyage of the Beagle, he notes, ‘‘. . .travellers tell us of the
vast dimensions of the Pyramids and other great ruins, but how utterly insignificant are the greatest of these, when compared to these mountains of stone accumulated by the agency of various minute and tender animals!’’
If Darwin could magically retrace his voyage in the twenty-first century, he
would likely be shocked at how much has been lost of that lacey garland of reef
plants and animals that once spanned the shallow blue waters of the globe between
30° North and 30° South. But he would likely also be heartened by the technologies
that now exist that for the first time make it possible to accurately assess the nature
of the changes and to take actions to reverse the alarming trends.
This remarkable book,Coral Reef Remote Sensing: A Guide for Mapping,
Monitoring and Management for the first time documents the full range of remote
sensing systems, methodologies and measurement capabilities essential to understanding more fully the status and changes over time of coral reefs globally. Such
information is essential and provides the foundation for policy development and
for implementing management strategies to protect these critically endangered
ecosystems.
In Darwin’s time, the ocean seemed so vast, so resilient, that it seemed there
was little humans could do to alter its nature. Even more than a century later,
Rachel Carson in her 1951 Classic, ‘‘The Sea Around Us’’, imagined the ocean
was somehow too big to fail. ‘‘Eventually man . . .found his way back to the sea’’,
she wrote. ‘‘And yet he has returned to his mother sea only on her terms. He
cannot control or change the ocean as, in his brief tenancy of earth, he has
subdued and plundered the continents’’.
Now we know: unprecedented human activity is driving global warming,
climate change, sea level rise, pollution, acidification of the ocean, and loss of
species and entire ecosystems, including the focus of this volume—coral reefs.
v