[Coral-List] Education of the Masses

[Gene Shinn]

Alice and Antares, I just returned from spending 3 weeks on Florida's 
reefs. Every mooring ball on every reef  (Carysfort to Sand Key off 
Key West) I visited was occupied by at least one boat..sometimes two. 
Reefs were being loved to death. It would have been  difficult to 
convince those those people that the corals were mostly dead. Clear 
water, topography, and lots of brightly colored fish still draw huge 
crowds. Shifting baselines" is alive and well and the odor of coconut 
flavored sunscreen was everywhere.  And oh yes... on August 2, 
African dust was so thick in the afternoon that one could not see 
from one end of the seven mile bridge to the other.  Gene
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No Rocks, No Water, No Ecosystem (EAS)
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E. A. Shinn, Courtesy Professor
University of South Florida
Marine Science Center (room 204)
140 Seventh Avenue South
St. Petersburg, FL 33701
<eshinn at marine.usf.edu>
Tel 727 553-1158---------------------------------- 
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