[Coral-List] Bleaching Response - CoralWatch Coral Health Monitoring

[Dave Logan]

Dear Listers,

Thank you to researchers and NOAA for recent predictions, warnings and
reports of coral bleaching events taking place.  CoralWatch provides a
way to respond to these events, providing a rapid coral health
assessment tool measuring coral colour.

Contact CoralWatch info at coralwatch.org for a free Do It Yourself Coral
Health Monitoring kit which contains a chart, datasheet and more
information on the program, or learn more at www.coralwatch.org
<http://www.coralwatch.org/> .

Divers can sign up with Project AWARE www.projectaware.org
<http://www.projectaware.org/>  to regularly monitor local coral reefs,
and receive Project AWARE's CoralWatch Kit developed specifically for
divers and dive operators. 

Please ensure your efforts contribute to global research by entering
your data on the CoralWatch website or send to CoralWatch via e-mail,
fax or post.

CoralWatch makes monitoring coral reefs easy. The CoralWatch chart uses
a series of colours representing different stages of bleaching and
recovery. Just match the colour of the coral with a corresponding colour
on the chart and record the colour code along with coral type on the
data sheet. Data collected from monitoring activities is then entered
online and analysed to answer questions on coral bleaching and recovery
patterns as well as the severity and duration of bleaching events.

 The Coral Health Chart provides an accessible alternative for
researchers, divers, tourists, students or community members to
contribute to monitoring, research and education. The data collected
complements other data sets gathered via remote sensing surveys like
Coral Reef Watch and in situ surveys such as BleachWatch and Reef Check.


We will be passing on any bleaching reports to existing CoralWatchers
and encouraging them to register for NOAA's Coral Reef Watch alert
e-mails http://coralreefwatch-satops.noaa.gov/email_alert_request.html

CoralWatch also distributes Reef Education Packages and our new
publication, Coral Reefs and Climate Change: The guide to education and
awareness, will be available at the start of 2009.  CoralWatch is a
non-profit organisation, based at the University of Queensland,
Australia.

Please do not hesitate to contact us with any queries on coral health
monitoring or the CoralWatch program.

Get involved today, tell everyone you know and all the best with your
monitoring!

Dave

Dave Logan
CoralWatch Project Manager

Sensory Neurobiology Group (SNG)
School of Biomedical Sciences 

University of Queensland
Brisbane Queensland 4072 Australia

Tel: +61 7 3365 4080

Fax: +61 7 3365 4522
www.coralwatch.org <http://www.coralwatch.org/> 

www.uq.edu.au/ecovis <http://www.uq.edu.au/ecovis> 

 

Please consider the environment before you print anything!