[Coral-List] Identity of blue octocoral off NC??

Mon Feb 19 18:41:14 EST 2007

Joe:
I believe this is Blue Octocoral, Anthelia edmondsoni (Verrill, 1928).
It is endemic to Hawaii but is highly used in the aquarium trade (Blue Xenia?).
Hope this helps in leading Marc in the right direction.

My best to the faculty of my old alumnus!!

Aloha:
-Charlie Fasano-

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Today's Topics:

   1. Grand Bahama reef assessment (Thomas Goreau)
   2. Identity of blue octocoral off NC?? (Pawlik, Joseph)

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Message: 1
Date: Sun, 18 Feb 2007 12:03:52 -0500
From: Thomas Goreau 
Subject: [Coral-List] Grand Bahama reef assessment
To: RHovington at aischool.org, coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov
Cc: Erik Gauger , Ed Sims
 , jenks Jenkins , Jeffrey
 Houdret , Fred Smith ,
 troy albury , Pat Weatherford
 , Gary Simmons 
Message-ID: <9A575988-685B-4C4D-85D2-305085EEAE6D at bestweb.net>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; delsp=yes; format=flowed

Dear Rachel,

I'm just back from looking at coral reef restoration needs in Grand  
Bahama and Abaco. There are only a few small patches of healthy  
corals left on the south side, Most coral has died in recent years  
and are overgrown with algae. Some of my colleagues there have  
recently taken video of the former reefs off the West End of Grand  
Bahama and plan to take more. It is pretty depressing, but the local  
divers know the waters well and can show you both the best, worst,  
and typical sites, all of which need to be included for the results  
to be representative.

My own view is that quadrats are a waste of time because they cover  
too little area, unless you do thousands of them like my father did  
in the 1960s when he pioneered the method. However the best method is  
to do very  long video transects perpendicular to and parallel to the  
major environmental gradients covering as much as possible of the  
entire range, not the short little transects that are currently  
popular but which are statistically inadequate in most cases to  
represent the environment being surveyed, much less recognize change.

I'm forwarding this to a Grand Bahama diver, Gary Simmons, who has  
spent his lifetime in the water there and is shocked at the changes.  
We are very interested in seeing such surveys made in locations that  
will allow us to best inform the Bahamas Government and developers  
about the steps needed to stop sewage pollution of the waters, so I  
urge your student to contact Gary and ensure that his results will be  
in the most useful locations for making policy suggestions to clean  
up the waters and restore the reefs. My Bahamian colleagues will be  
glad to work with you. There are still some small fairly good areas  
in the Abacos that also need to be worked on, and I suggest you  
contact Troy Albury of Guana Divers and Save Guana Cay Reef if there  
is a chance to do some work there. Bruce Purdy is also a gold mine of  
information on long term changes in the Bahamas (I have not yet  
unpacked his card with email, but Gary can get it to you).

Best wishes,
Tom

Thomas J. Goreau, PhD
President
Global Coral Reef Alliance
37 Pleasant Street, Cambridge MA 02139
617-864-4226
goreau at bestweb.net
http://www.globalcoral.org

Date: Fri, 16 Feb 2007 13:57:16 -0500
From: "Hovington, Rachel" 
Subject: [Coral-List] Bahamas Research
To: 
Message-ID:

Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

I am a teacher supervising a research project of a student who wishes to
compare coral health in reefs around Grand Bahama. He has a research
plan that involves transects and quadrats but I wondered if anyone could
point me in the direction of a good source for information regarding
quantification of reef fish community structure using a visual census
method.

Rachel Hovington
Atlanta International School
rhovington at aischool.org
404 8413881

------------------------------

Message: 2
Date: Sun, 18 Feb 2007 12:22:13 -0500
From: "Pawlik, Joseph" 

Subject: [Coral-List] Identity of blue octocoral off NC??
To: 
Message-ID:

Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

Coral-listers,

Can anyone help with identifying this light-blue recumbent octocoral
from the offshore reefs of North Carolina?  The request and photos are
from Marc Neill with the North Carolina Aquarium at Ft. Fisher.  Here
are the photos:

http://i118.photobucket.com/albums/o93/FishBait_photos/PC272938mod1.jpg

http://i118.photobucket.com/albums/o93/FishBait_photos/PC272931mod1.jpg

http://i118.photobucket.com/albums/o93/FishBait_photos/PC272930mod1.jpg

Thanks for the help!

Joe
**************************************************************
Joseph R. Pawlik, Professor 
UNCW Center for Marine Science 
5600 Marvin K Moss Lane 
Wilmington, NC  28409   USA 
pawlikj at uncw.edu; Office:(910)962-2377; Cell:(910)232-3579 
Website: http://people.uncw.edu/pawlikj/index.html 
PDFs: http://people.uncw.edu/pawlikj/pubs2.html 
************************************************************** 

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End of Coral-List Digest, Vol 44, Issue 18
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If I don't live my life right the first time, when will I find the time to go back and live it over? 
-Fulghum-

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