[Coral-List] New Worldwide Coral Reef Landsat Archive Created

[Curtis Kruer]

Dear Coral-List,

I also looked into the NASA coral reef site 
(http://eol.jsc.nasa.gov/Reefs/) and was suprised at the effort being 
made by this part of the U.S. Government but also noted at one Partner's 
link (http://imars.marine.usf.edu/corals/index.html) the following 
self-congratulatory statement regarding their part of NASA's effort:

"....to provide an exhaustive worldwide inventory of coral reefs using 
high-resolution satellite imagery by the summer of 2004."

Quite a statement.  I find these types of claims equally as risky as 
they may tend to make people believe that coral reef ecosystems have 
been adequately mapped and inventoried and it's time to move on.  IF 
changes are to be made to the characterizations in NASA's (and it's 
Partners) otherwise excellent Coral Reef web sites I would suggest 
modifying that claim as well - unless the Univ. of South Florida can 
prove me wrong.

Thanks.

Curtis Kruer



http://imars.marine.usf.edu/corals/index.html


CORALations wrote:
> Dear Coral - List:
>  
> This quote appears on the below referenced home page for NASA.  I want to stress that it does not seem to be from Julie Robinson, although appears just before a quote from her about remote sensing.   Given the severity of reef degradation around the globe, I am hoping that this beautiful publicly funded web site from NASA could amend this one sentence so as not to indicate in any way shape or form that more data is needed in order to document that change is indeed occurring on our coral reefs.  I think that there is potential for the general public to misunderstand and would hate to see this perception generated from such a credible scientific source as NASA.  
>  
> QUOTE:
>  
>  The current knowledge about the total area and locations of coral reefs worldwide is not adequate to see changes that occur in them. "Remote sensing of coral reefs has been a rapidly developing research area," said Julie A. Robinson, the scientist who managed the project for the Earth Observations Laboratory at the NASA Johnson Space Center (JSC), Houston, Texas.
>  
> Many thanks, 
> 
> 
>  
> 
> "ROBINSON, JULIE A. (JSC-SA15) (NASA)" <julie.a.robinson at nasa.gov> wrote:
> We are pleased to announce the availability of a collection of 1,490 Landsat
> 7 scenes of coral reefs in an Internet-based library for the Millennium
> Coral Reef Project. It was created in a partnership with NASA, international
> agencies, universities and other organizations to provide natural resource
> managers a comprehensive world data resource on coral reefs and adjacent
> land areas.
> 
> To view the NASA press release, see
> http://www.nasa.gov/vision/earth/lookingatearth/coralreef_image.html
> 
> For an overview of NASA's collaborations, projects and products on global
> remote sensing of coral reefs, visit: http://eol.jsc.nasa.gov/Reefs/ 
> 
> To directly access the Millennium Coral Reefs Landsat archive, visit:
> http://seawifs.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi/landsat.pl
> 
> For more information on the Institute for Marine Remote Sensing (IMaRS)
> Millennium Coral Reef Mapping Project at the University of South Florida,
> visit: http://imars.usf.edu/corals/index.html 
> 
> 
> Julie
> 
> Julie A. Robinson, Ph.D.
> Program Science Representative
> International Space Station
> NASA Johnson Space Center
> 2101 NASA Parkway, Mail Code SA15 
> Houston, TX 77058
> (281)483-5582 FAX (281)244-5109
> julie.a.robinson at nasa.gov
> 
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> 
> 
> 
> Mary Ann Lucking 
> Director 
> 
> CORALations 
> P.O. Box 750 
> Culebra, PR 00775 
> www.coralations.org 
> 1-877-77CORAL / 1-877-77(2-6725) 
> (o) 787-556-6234  (f) 1-530-618-4605
> e-mail: maryann at coralations.org
> 
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