Hi Peter, Hi all,
We have all been shocked by the spectacular images we've seen from
Madeira. I hope all of you are recovering as much as you can from the
terrible storm.
However, your message produced some reactions here which I'll try to
summarize briefly.
Natural distasters are a bad experience to human beings, and will be
worse and worse as humans will pretend to tame "mother nature".
However, they are part of processes having shaped today's biodiversity
and it feels strange to some of us that anyone needs to "clean" their
effects, particularly in a national park.
Coming from an erosion-prone island such as Madeira, such attempts
seem incongruous, and I'm sure that on a timescale that, perhaps, is
not compatible with our own personal comfort, Nature will overcome
processes humans call disasters, but which are barely evolutionary
hiccups.
Garajau will certainly survive this current layer of mud, just wait
the next winter storm perhaps... The money will probably be best
allocated to people or causes in real need for it.
This being said, you know how attached I am to Madeira and Garajau in
particular, so I really hope Madeira's nature and human settlement
will soon recover from this extreme event.
My best to all.
Cheers
Pierre
Pierre Chevaldonné
Station Marine d'Endoume
Rue Batterie des Lions
13007 Marseille France
----- Message de peterwirtz2004 from yahoo.com ---------
Date : Sun, 11 Apr 2010 07:02:19 -0700 (PDT)
De : Peter Wirtz <peterwirtz2004 from yahoo.com>
Objet : [Annelida] removing mud from the seafloor
À : Annelida from magpie.bio.indiana.edu
> Dear colleagues,
>> after severe storms and mudslides at Madeira Island, the bottom of
> the (formerly rocky) marine National Park of Garajau is covered with
> a layer of mud several cm high. We are contemplating to try to clean
> at least some of the highest rocky areas so that new life may settle
> there.
> Does anybody know a case where something similar has been attempted
> and/or the contact address of an expert who might advise us ??
>> Thank you for your help,
> Peter
