Coral Reefs of the Southern Gulf of Mexico

Chapter 1. Research History

Research History John W. Tunnell Jr. The first scientific account of coral reefs in the southern Gulf of Mexico was made by an expedition of scientists from the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia (now Philadelphia Academy of Sciences) in the early months of 1890. Expedition leader and academy director Professor Angelo Heilprin described the purpose of the expedition as “to investigate the natural history of the Yucatán Peninsula and Mexico.” Publications resulting from the expedition related for the first time the tropical nature of marine biota of the southern Gulf of Mexico (corals and coral reefs, Heilprin 1890; echinoderms, Ives 1890; mollusks , Baker 1891; crustaceans, Ives 1891). Professor Heilprin (1890) suggested that other scientists had not previously searched the area for coral reefs for two reasons. First, Darwin’s classical work (1842) on the structure and distribution of coral reefs failed to mention reefs in the southern Gulf of Mexico. Second, scientists had feared contracting yellow fever in the Gulf. Heilprin discusses seven of the reefs and islands off the city of Veracruz, mentions 12 species of corals and 1 gorgonian, notes the “vast quantity of coral” used in construction (piers, seawall, and ancient houses), and includes figures of two old maps showing the reefs, dated 1806 and 1885 (Figs. 1.1 and 1.2). The magnificent old 16th-century castle, Fort San Juan de Ulúa, also made of coral, sits on the western (leeward) side of Gallega Reef, a nearshore reef now attached to the mainland by a land bridge (earthen fill). Ganivet (1998) listed six species of massive scleractinian corals used to construct the Fort San Juan de Ulúa: Siderastrea radians, Porites astreoides, Diploria spp., Colpophyllia natans, Montastraea annularis, and M. cavernosa. In the southeastern Gulf of Mexico, the first biological accounts were of nesting seabirds on the islands of Alacrán and on Triángulos reef by the early English adventurer William Dampier (1699), who first visited the area in 1675. More than a century passed before others mentioned the vegetation, seabirds, sea turtles, and West Indian monk seal associated with these and other Campeche Bank islands (Smith 1838; Marion 1884; Ward 1887; Agassiz 1888). In 1912, Joubin published a map of coral reefs that included the Gulf of Mexico (Fig. 1.3), but not until the 1950s was further research conducted on reefs in the southern Gulf. Smith (1954) utilized Joubin’s (1912) map, Heilprin’s (1890) work, and other unpublished sources and nautical charts (Table 1.1) to prepare an updated coral reef distribution map and list of coral species. Blanquilla Reef, the most northerly emergent reef in the western Gulf of Mexico, was briefly visited in 1955 by Donald R. Moore (1958). He described some of the invertebrate fauna of the reef, listing 44 species, including 11 stony corals, 3 gorgonian corals , 17 gastropods, 7 bivalves, 3 echinoids, 1 asteroid, and 1 holothuroid. In a much larger and collaborative effort, Kornicker et al. (1959) studied Alacrán Reef, the most northerly reef on the Campeche Bank, which is just north 1 A4339.indb 5 A4339.indb 5 7/6/07 11:18:40 AM 7/6/07 11:18:40 AM 6 tunnell of the Yucatán Peninsula. With funding primarily from the National Science Foundation, scientists from a number of different institutions participated in a productive expedition that quickly made Alacrán Reef one of the best-known Gulf reefs. The main focus of the expedition was the geology of Alacrán Reef, but a number of biological studies were published also, including descriptions of algae, island vegetation, foraminiferans, mollusks, fish, and birds (Tables 1.2 and 1.3). In 1956, Emery (1963) sampled sediments offshore from the city of Veracruz and compared those reefs to reefs he had studied in the Pacific. His work was published in both English and Spanish in an international journal, raising the level of scientific interest in this unique geographic and geologic setting for coral reefs. During the 1960s, interest and research on southern Gulf of Mexico coral reefs expanded to reefs throughout the Gulf. Researchers conducted field studies of coral reef systems during extended expeditions to remote locations. In their Figure 1.1. Historic navigation chart (1806) of the port city of Veracruz, Mexico (from Heilprin 1890). A4339.indb 6 A4339.indb 6 7/6/07 11:18:40 AM 7/6/07 11:18:40 AM Research History 7...