[Coral-List] Call for requests/comments: Mega database network

RainbowWarriorsInternational southern_caribbean at yahoo.com
Tue Mar 20 14:22:46 EDT 2007


Dear all,
   
  We have already had contact with Virginie and Didier and think they have an idea that can be worked on!
   
  Look at the page:
  http://www.bodc.ac.uk/data/information_and_inventories/edmed/search/
   
  If we can propose to help design and build something similar to deal with the Wider Caribbean region to cater to the island states and developing coastal nations in this region we will be able to find  the European Union ready to help funding such joint efforts, because the expertise built in creating the EDMED can be used to replicate to help create systems for other parts of the world.
   
  Rainbow Warriors Core Foundation set up its SouthernCaribbean.org project among other things with participation in the creation of such a system in mind.
   
  As Rainbow Warriors Core Foundation we are willing to cooperate and help seek and secure support and possibly funding from specialized agencies in the Netherlands and the European Union.
   
  The Dutch Kingdom is already in the process of creating basic datasets for its NODC.NL site for the five islands of the Dutch Antilles (Saba, St. Eustatius, Dutch St. Martin, Curacao and Bonaire).
   
  I think there are excellent opportunities within the framework of the White Water to Blue Water Initiative Partnership and all other partnerships in the Caribbean dealing with corals, marine parks, marine transport etc. to evaluate such a Caribbean wide initiative.
   
  The Netherlands, the United Kingdom, France, Sweden and Germany and the USA can be approached to help steer such a project in conjunction with steering groups (comprising a.o. government agency, academia and research institutes) representing areas of specialization and technical/academic expertise in the Wider Caribbean.
   
  A meta database will typically have to define and offer uniformly accepted standardized dataset input and editing forms (many UN and intergovernmental bodies and treaties already prescribe these).
   
  Between the EDMED and the numerous meta databases controlled in the USA a.o by the NOAA, we can come up with some basic format to start out with and create the option of scalability, i.e. adding more standardized dataset components as national information databases are made available and accessable in digital standardized dataset formats across the Caribbean.
   
  One thing is certain, for many parts of the world even finding comparable data in neigbouring countries is difficult.
   
  Anyone out there willing to help draft a funding request proposal for preliminary (inventory, definition and design feasibility) studies for the design and creation of such a Wider Caribbean scalable meta database?
   
  NOAA, the academia in the USA, any research institutes in the Caribbean?
   
  As Rainbow Warriors Core Foundation we are interested in helping building such a megaportal and components to which it links.
   
  The functionality that Virginie and Didier are seeking is typically outside the realm of the EDMED system, and we can sum this up by "providing information about tools, equipment and technologies, associated with "appropriate technology transfer" to developing countries.
  This functionality can be added and the newly created Human Dimensions program (www.hd.gov) of the US government can provide some insights into which types of information need to be considered (sustainable development is about mitigation of human impacts on biodiversity and designing human activities to lower the impact on natural resources and local, regional and global ecosystems).
   
  I think Virginie and Didier as outsiders (Swiss citizens) bring a fresh look at some issues that have been tackled by many others.
   
  Building such a meta database in itself is worthy of creating a sub-partnership of WW2BW to deal with its definition, design and creation specifically and will once built and maintained definitely fulfill some goals and objectives of the WW2BW itself in terms of information exchange, collaboration and research in the Caribbean.
   
  Milton Ponson, president
  Rainbow Warriors Core Foundation
   


Virginie Fruh <v_fruh at hotmail.com> wrote:  
I've noticed that many of you make postings looking for a wide range of 
databases. Would you find it useful if a network of all databases would be 
put in place? Especially one which inlcudes results of research efforts? 
Basically to prevent people reinventing the wheel?

I'm working on such a network and would be pleased to have your 
comments/requests so that I can include them as best I can before setting it 
up.

My main goal, as being a mapping network or large database of current 
research-education with
results results results.. show people what is actually happening or why it 
isn't.. The idea is to create an online database where there can be an 
exchange of resources/information for research centers and universities.. 
let's say a research center in indonesia needs a certain piece of equipment 
that they can't afford... by searching on our database they can get into 
contact with a lab which has such a piece of equipment. We also hoping to 
create enough information distribution for promotion of appropriate 
technology transfer.

This would of course be focused on marine research to start with, but I'm 
hoping to extend it to efforts in water and waste management as well.

Basically, I'm at the brain storming stage right now and this is why 
information like yours is extremely valuable!

This is a call to unite all our efforts!
All the best,
Virginie Fruh

----Original Message Follows----
From: coral-list-request at coral.aoml.noaa.gov
Reply-To: coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov
To: coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov
Subject: Coral-List Digest, Vol 45, Issue 15
Date: Fri, 16 Mar 2007 08:05:06 -0400

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Today's Topics:

1. $$ value of coral reef fish ornamentals (David Feary)
2. Scientific Diver Needed (Brian Zgliczynski)
3. Reef Check Declaration of Reef Rights (Christian Wild)
4. Re: Reef Check's Declaration of Reef Rights (Todd Barber)
5. Re: Info Needed: Impacts to corals outside of protected and
managed areas for the US (Dr. Stephen Jameson)
6. Re: Reef Check Declaration (Cori Kane)
7. Study on 2005 Caribbean bleaching event
(Simon D Donner (sddonner at Princeton.EDU))
8. scientists are not we should be most worried
(Sara Allyn Mavinkurve)


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

Message: 1
Date: Thu, 15 Mar 2007 14:13:22 +1000 (EST)
From: David Feary 
Subject: [Coral-List] $$ value of coral reef fish ornamentals
To: coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov
Message-ID: <20070315141322.ACT37636 at mirapoint-ms2.jcu.edu.au>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii

Hi all,

I am looking for a reliable source of information on the $$value of 
ornamental coral reef fish. What I am trying to put together is a list of 
species ranked by their $$ value (either import or export)

Cheers

David Feary
PhD Candidate
ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies and School of Marine and 
Tropical Biology, James Cook University, Townsville, 4810, Australia.
Ph: +61 74781 4151, Fax: +61 74725 1570, Mb: 0416362204

http://www.jcu.edu.au/school/mbiolaq/
http://www.coralcoe.org.au/people-students.html
http://www.mahonia.org/


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

Message: 2
Date: Wed, 14 Mar 2007 18:16:28 -1000
From: "Brian Zgliczynski" 

Subject: [Coral-List] Scientific Diver Needed
To: coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov, dpence at hawaii.edu
Cc: Christian McDonald ,
uhhmop at hawaii.edu, students at sio.ucsd.edu, kflanaga at hawaii.edu
Message-ID: <45F8C89C.1010204 at noaa.gov>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed

Scientific Divers,
The NOAA Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center (PIFSC) in Honolulu,
Hawaii is seeking a scientific diver to participate on a research cruise
April 1st - 20th. The research cruise is in support of the Coral Reef
Ecosystem Division's assessment and monitoring activities at Wake
Atoll. Applicant's duties would include participation on the rapid
ecological assessment team conducting surveys of the fishes found at
Wake Atoll. Interested parties should be familiar with belt transect and
stationary point count survey methodologies as well as with the
identification of fishes from the Central and West Pacific. Applicants
must be a NOAA certified diver or be able achieve NOAA reciprocity
through an academic, state, or federal institution that follows the
standards outlined by the NOAA Dive Program and the American Academy of
Underwater Sciences. If interested please contact Brian Zgliczynski at
the e-mail listed above.



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

Message: 3
Date: Thu, 15 Mar 2007 10:50:32 +0100
From: "Christian Wild" 
Subject: [Coral-List] Reef Check Declaration of Reef Rights
To: 
Message-ID: <001401c766e7$5f4c6870$6233548d at palaeo.geo.unimuenchen.de>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"

Dear coral list readers,



During the last days I received the ?Reef Check Declaration of Reef Rights?
from various sources mostly joined by a more or less imperative command to
sign. I am wondering if it is really that easy. Did everyone who signed the
declaration thoroughly think about the contents?

If yes, that would among several other consequences in particular mean:



a) that these people now set their cars aside, especially if they are
living in a city with public transport

b) that these people now choose to travel short- and medium distances
via train or bus instead of using airplane, even if the latter is much
cheaper

c) that these people now almost stop to eat marine fish and seafood,
because it is very hard to find well-managed stocks caught in a sustainable
manner



Please don?t misunderstand me; it is not my intention to blame this good
initiative, but I think we all should question ourselves before pledging and
signing such statements, otherwise it is rather two-faced.



Cheers,

Christian





Dr. Christian Wild

Head, Coral Reef Ecology (CORE) Working Group

GeoBio-Center

Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich

Luisenstr. 37/Room 228

80333 M?nchen

Germany



Phone: 0049-(0)89-2180-6706

Fax: 0049-(0)89-2180-6601

E-mail: c.wild at lrz.uni-muenchen.de

Homepage: 
www.geobio-center.lmu.de/core







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

Message: 4
Date: Thu, 15 Mar 2007 08:19:55 -0400
From: Todd Barber 
Subject: Re: [Coral-List] Reef Check's Declaration of Reef Rights
To: hreyes 
---------------------------------
, coral-list at aoml.noaa.gov
Message-ID: <008e01c766fc$3db01490$6501a8c0 at reef8c359cb049>
Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed; charset=iso-8859-1;
reply-type=original

I think people may be over reacting, this is a fairly simple issue. For
example at the Reef Ball Foundation we have a large set of internal ethics
for handling corals but at the end there is a small disclaimer that says,
"except in the case of bona fide research being overseen by a principle
investigator where scientific practices and principles shall dictate"

I don't think the intent of Reef Check's declarations is to take away
scientific ability to study or work with corals. If it is really a sticking
point then perhaps a similar "disclaimer" could be added.

Thanks,

Todd R. Barber
Chairman, Reef Ball Foundation
3305 Edwards Court,
Greenville, NC 27858
941-720-7549 Cell
252-353-9094 Direct
Skype Toddbarber or Skype In (252) 557-1047, United States (+1)
MSN messenger reefball at hotmail.com
reefball at reefball.com (email address)



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

Message: 5
Date: Thu, 15 Mar 2007 09:56:57 +0000
From: "Dr. Stephen Jameson" 
Subject: Re: [Coral-List] Info Needed: Impacts to corals outside of
protected and managed areas for the US
To: Steven Lutz ,

Message-ID: 
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="ISO-8859-1"

Dear Steven,

Thanks for the coral-list note regarding:

> I am looking for information about anthropogenic impacts to corals 
outside
> of protected and managed areas in the U.S.

For examples of the impacts to Florida west coast corals and to Florida
corals north of the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary from the:

- 2002 "Blackwater Event"; and

- land based sources of pollution coming from the Mississippi River
watershed, the west and east coast watersheds of Florida, and
atmospheric-based airshed stressors coming from African dust and global
climate change factors see -

Jameson SC, Tupper MH, Ridley JM (2002) The three screen doors: can marine
?protected? areas be effective? Marine Pollution Bulletin 44(11):1177-1183

at .


PS. To conserve our coral reef resources "in and outside" of managed areas
we need to fight for stopping the root causes of stress using a wide variety
of mechanisms. See the recent (3 Nov 2006) Science Magazine Policy Forum
on "How Protected are Coral Reefs" for more details:

Jameson SC (2006) How protected are coral reefs? Science 314:757-760.

Please keep this "root cause" thought in mind when fighting for changes to
existing legislation and new legislation.

>We are dealing with a cancer patient and band-aids are not the cure.

Time is running out! See the latest (29 March, 2007) Science Magazine
Climate Change Policy Forum:

Broecker WS (2007) CO2 Arithmetic. Science 315:1371.


Best regards,

Dr. Stephen C. Jameson, President
Coral Seas Inc. - Integrated Coastal Zone Management
4254 Hungry Run Road, The Plains, VA 20198-1715 USA
Office: 703-754-8690, Fax: 703-754-9139
Email: sjameson at coralseas.com
Web Site: http://www.coralseas.com

and

Research Collaborator
Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History
Washington, DC 20560


> Dear Coral-List,
>
>
>
> As you may know, the Coral Reef Conservation Act is up for 
reauthorization.
> Rep. Faleomavaega (American Samoa) introduced language to reauthorize 
this
> Act just last month (2/27). I believe we are presented with an 
opportunity
> to give meaningful conservation "teeth" to this legislation.
>
>
>
> I am looking for information about anthropogenic impacts to corals 
outside
> of protected and managed areas in the U.S. - Direct impacts such as 
vessel
> groundings, treasure prospecting (with dynamite), destructive fishing
> practices, eutrophication due to pollution and nutrients, etc. Recent
> newspaper articles would be much appreciated.
>
>
>
> Steven Lutz
>
>
>
> Steven Lutz, Ocean Policy Analyst
> Marine Conservation Biology Institute
> 600 Pennsylvania Ave, SE, Suite 210
> Washington DC 20003 USA
> 1 202 546 5346 (office)
> 1 202 546 5348 (fax)
> Steven.Lutz at mcbi.org
> www.mcbi.org
>
>
>
> Protecting Ocean Life Through Science and Conservation Advocacy
>
> ___




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

Message: 6
Date: Thu, 15 Mar 2007 09:59:19 -0700
From: "Cori Kane" 
Subject: Re: [Coral-List] Reef Check Declaration
To: 
Message-ID: <000e01c76723$46576f40$0502a8c0 at ReefCheck2>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

To respond to all the scientist concerns on the Declaration of Reef Rights:

We at Reef Check are all scientists; the Declaration is not intended to halt
science as a whole or to position ourselves to be against scientific
collecting. If you take a step back and look at the bigger picture, the
scientific diving community is miniscule compared to the recreational
community. The purpose of the declaration is to aid a grassroots movement
among recreational divers to become aware of things that they are doing that
may harm the reef. As a result of this declaration, the hope is to raise
awareness and simple efforts people can do on their next fun dive to
minimize impact and help conserve the reefs they are paying to dive on.

Scientists in general are very particular about the collection processes and
the specifics of what they are collecting. If we went about trashing the
reef we wouldn't have jobs for much longer. And for the small amount of
organisms we take, we are trying to bring about knowledge for the future
conservation of these organisms. But the majority of recreational divers do
not have that knowledge, and may not think anything of grabbing chunks of
staghorn, standing on a plate acropora, or collecting rare species because
they are aesthetically pleasing. I mean, do any of you go around collecting
corals or fish or inverts to simply place on your bookshelf or desk while on
a recreational dive? These are the kinds of impacts we are attempting to
minimize by circulating the Declaration.

Corinne Kane
REEF CHECK FOUNDATION
Program Manager
PO Box 1057, 17575 Pacific Coast Highway
Pacific Palisades, CA 90272-1057
Office: 1-310-230-2371
E-mail: ckane at reefcheck.org
www.ReefCheck.org



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

Message: 7
Date: Thu, 15 Mar 2007 21:31:50 -0400
From: "Simon D Donner (sddonner at Princeton.EDU)"

Subject: [Coral-List] Study on 2005 Caribbean bleaching event
To: coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov
Message-ID: 
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=windows-1252

Coral-List readers might be interested in our study on coral bleaching in 
the Caribbean:

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA, 10.1073/pnas.0610122104
http://www.pnas.org/cgi/content/abstract/0610122104v1

Model-based assessment of the role of human-induced climate change in the 
2005 Caribbean coral bleaching event

Simon D. Donner*?, Thomas R. Knutson?, and Michael Oppenheimer*?

Episodes of mass coral bleaching around the world in recent decades have 
been attributed to periods of anomalously warm ocean temperatures. In 2005, 
the sea surface temperature (SST)
anomaly in the tropical North Atlantic that may have contributed to the 
strong hurricane season caused widespread coral bleaching in the Eastern 
Caribbean. Here, we use two global climate models to evaluate the 
contribution of natural climate variability and anthropogenic forcing to the 
thermal stress that caused the 2005 coral bleaching event.

Historical temperature data and simulations for the 1870?2000 period show 
that the observed warming in the region is unlikely to be due to unforced 
climate variability alone. Simulation of background climate variability 
suggests that anthropogenic warming may have increased the probability of 
occurrence of significant thermal stress events for corals in this region by 
an
order of magnitude. Under scenarios of future greenhouse gas emissions, mass 
coral bleaching in the Eastern Caribbean may become a biannual event in 
20?30 years. However, if corals and their symbionts can adapt by 1?1.5?C, 
such mass bleaching events may not begin to recur at potentially harmful 
intervals until the latter half of the century. The delay could enable more 
time to alter
the path of greenhouse gas emissions, although long-term ??committed 
warming?? even after stabilization of atmospheric CO2 levels may still 
represent an additional long-term threat to corals.



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

Message: 8
Date: Thu, 15 Mar 2007 22:23:02 -0400
From: "Sara Allyn Mavinkurve" 
Subject: [Coral-List] scientists are not we should be most worried
To: coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov
Message-ID:
<181a32480703151923v28fbf030ke6beffc8ccdd27b3 at mail.gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed

Dear Prof. Kaufman,

In defense of my fellow aquarists, we do prefer to purchase captive
propagated corals (and have come a long way in developing methods for
fragmentation and propagation). Not only that, but several of my
fellow "hobbyists" (we like to put "hobby" in quotes since it's so
much more than that to most of us), have contributed significantly to
knowledge of captive coral reproduction. Please take a moment to look
at the DIBS project (www.projectdibs.com/). You might be impressed.
Dave Lackland, works daily to save the endangered Acropora palmata. He
is both a scientist and an "hobby" aquarist. At least as much as we
aquarists may be a part of the problem, I believe we can be more a
part of the solution.

I apologize if I seem defensive, but I just wanted to point out that
home aquarists have contributed much more than just awareness. We
have a unique opportunity that many purely-scientists don't have. We
have corals in our homes. We watch them for hours at a time, care and
feed them day in and day out. We know a lot about corals that, dare I
say, many scientists don't (and vice versa). We all have a lot we
could teach each other and help each other if we can manage to mend
the wounds and rebuild the bridges. Again, this is part of my goal
with ASIRA.

Thank you,
Sara

P.S. We don't use halogen lamps... we use metal halide lamps. ;-)


> Date: Tue, 13 Mar 2007 13:05:09 -0400
> From: Les Kaufman 
> Subject: [Coral-List] scientists are not we should be most worried
> about
> To: coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov
> Message-ID: <0161A1BA-B119-4514-A8AD-3371870451F0 at bu.edu>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=WINDOWS-1252; delsp=yes;
> format=flowed
>
> Re: the message below, please let us do what we can to maintain a
> perspective on scale, and also to take every opportunity to teach
> about scale to the public. What responsible scientists may do in
> terms of inflicting harm on reef organisms in the course of learning
> about them, is trivial as compared to what academics along with a
> worldful of their more affluent conspecifics are doing to reefs as
> resource consumers and generators of atmospheric CO2. Furthermore,
> reef aquarists who purchase from responsible sources are probably
> promoting conservation more than harming reefs...at least until we do
> the math on the CO2 generated in to keep a halogen sun lit half the
> day on each of their reef aquariums. Then there are playoffs
> between the benefits of an aware, politically active electorate
> versus the costs of these people acquiring their environmental
> concerns and maintaining their disposition towards activism through
> the inspiration provided by their slimy charges.
>
> The absolute harm inflicted by scientists is hopefully a non-issue,
> but the symbolic harm of a citizen seeing a scientist collect or
> experiment upon corals still deserves attention. It requires a lot
> of contact with the community of people who live beside a reef to
> succeed in sharing a bigger, more sophisticated picture of those
> factors determining the future of that reef, than the simple,
> superficial sentiments that would knit the observer's brow who
> happens to witness a scientist popping a coral branch tip into a tiny
> vial of alcohol.
>
>
> ***
> Jenny and list,
>
> This may sound silly to some, but how can we coral reef scientists
> pledge
> "not to disturbe, damage or collect corals and other reef organisms"
> when,
> paradoxically, often that is exactly what we have to do to study
> coral reef
> organisms in order to understand how these systems work and to produce
> knowledge useful for their better conservation and management?
>
> Fernando
>
> Les Kaufman
> Professor of Biology
> Boston University Marine Program
> and
> Senior PI
> Marine Management Area Science
> Conservation International
>
> ?I know the human being and fish can coexist peacefully.?
> George W. Bush
> Saginaw, Michigan; September 29, 2000
>



--
________________________________________________
~Namaste~


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

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