[Coral-List] Gene for president

[Szmant, Alina]

There was a student from the Eckerd College area who tried to culture Diadema before we did.  She managed to raise 2-3 urchins if I recall, but I don't remember her name...


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Dr. Alina M. Szmant
Professor of Marine Biology
Coral Reef Research Program, Center for Marine Science
University of North Carolina Wilmington
5600 Marvin K. Moss Lane
Wilmington NC 28409
Tel:  (910)962-2362; fax: (910)962-2410;  cell:  (910)200-3913
http://people.uncw.edu/szmanta
**********************************************
________________________________________
From: coral-list-bounces at coral.aoml.noaa.gov [coral-list-bounces at coral.aoml..noaa.gov] On Behalf Of Les Kaufman [lesk at bu.edu]
Sent: Tuesday, March 02, 2010 2:56 PM
To: coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov
Subject: [Coral-List] Gene for president

I vote for Gene.  Right on!

The Diadema thing early on also included Alina Szmant, Judy Lang, and
me among others.  We gathered our sheckels together for Tom to do the
first rearings.  Actually the second rearings, Bob Carpenter did the
first.  One individual, but the first!

Basically there are quite a few about learning by trial and error how
to build miniature limestone sand castles (locally intensive reef
stewardship) that might survive the coming tide.  We (inclusively)
may easily be mistaken for fanatics tilting at windmills.  However,
the world looks very different and very interesting when you are tilted.

Les

Message: 2
Date: Mon, 1 Mar 2010 15:07:41 -0500
From: Eugene Shinn <eshinn at marine.usf.edu>
Subject: [Coral-List] expanded listing of       coral   species
To: coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov
Message-ID: <a06230903c7b17b82c1d0@[131.247.137.127]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" ; format="flowed"

Martin Moe, I was a little hasty with my comment that there is little
we can do to save Acropora or the  82 species now being pushed
forward for ESA listing.  As you know my basic concern has been the
futility of regulating something when we don't know what to regulate.
I had forgotten about your basically  self-funded (with some help
from state sources) research into culturing and raising Diadema. We
who have spent a lot of time in the water all know that Diadema kept
the reefs clear of turf algae before 1983. Growth of algae
accelerated and corals, Caribbean-wide, began to decline much more
rapidly after the original crash of 1983-1984. I commend you and Ken
Nedimyer for taking it upon your selves to do the experimentation
that is showing positive results. I fear that what may happen is that
other coral scientists will ramp-up the  questioning of t"he ethics
of this manipulative research and resort to increasing esoteric
sophistry such as  bottom up or top down concerns." Such questioning
can thwart innovation and delay funding for important work if we
continue to "talk it to death." Fortunately you knew that so you went
ahead with the work anyway.
      Acropora was put on the threatened list and critical habitat
areas were created. These actions alone have not led to a comeback of
Acropora. Laws will not make coral grow! The money and effort would
have been better spent supporting the kind of work you are doing if
for no better reason than to increase our knowledge of the coral
ecosystem.
I would hope that those pushing for listing of the additional 82
species would take heed and put some real money into the kind of
innovative research you have been doing. Instead what we see over and
over on the list  are advertisements for coral and marine management
jobs. We need more of the kind of hands-on research you two are doing
and less time sitting in air conditioned offices manipulating data on
computers and dreaming up new activities to regulate. Gene

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