New ReefBase Website

[Jamie Oliver]

Dear coral listers,

A new version of the ReefBase website & database is now online at
http://www.reefbase.org .  This is a totally revised site with a great deal
of new information which we feel will be valuable to managers, policy makers
researchers and genera reef users.

We would like to point out some of the highlights of the ReefBase website:
- an attractive homepage with daily "fresh" coral reef news items from
international media
- easy to use navigation system allowing you to find any information for any
country in less than 3 clicks
- easy access to coral reef status reports, as well as the Reefs at Risk
reports
- online GIS: view interactive coral reef maps online! (this one is fast!)
- a search facility  for coral reef photos in our photo gallery containing a
growing number of new high resolution images
- a search facility  for coral reef references (>12 000 records, including
over 350 online documents!)

The key text-based information in ReefBase is organized by country, and
covers the following themes:
- Description of Coastal and Marine Resources
- Status of Coastal and Marine Resources
- Threats to Coastal and Marine Resources
- Management of Coastal and Marine Resources

As the central repository of the Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network
(GCRMN), the core of ReefBase's content originated from the various national
coral reef status reports produced under the GCRMN. In addition, substantial
data and information has been contributed by UNEP-WCMC as well as the World
Resources Institute (WRI). We are continuously adding more information as
reports become available to us.

A number of online forms allow you to contribute information, and assist us
in making ReefBase a great repository for all of us with an interest in
coral reefs. Currently, you can:
- upload coral reef related documents, reports and other types of
publications
- upload coral reef photographs
- submit a coral bleaching report (in collaboration with NOAA-NESDIS)
- submit a coral bleaching questionnaire

We hope you will give the new ReefBase website a try:
http://www.reefbase.org and give us feed back either by return email or
using the online feedback form.

Best regards,

Dr. Jamie Oliver                                                Mr. Marco
Noordeloos
Project Leader, ReefBase                                Manager, ReefBase
Project
ICLARM - The World Fish Center                          ICLARM - The World
Fish Center

PS. A  website is never a finished product. Although we are confident that
most of you will be pleased with the new interface of ReefBase, I do need to
advice that we are currently still working on a few issues to improve
performance in Netscape browsers, as well as on Apple Macintosh platforms.
People using IE under some form of Windows environment, and should not
experience any difficulty using the ReefBase website.

===============================
Jamie Oliver
Senior Scientist (Coral Reef Projects)
ICLARM - The World Fish Center
PO Box 500, Penang 10670

Phone: (604) 626 1606
Fax: (604) 626 5530

email:  J.Oliver at cgiar.org
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