[Coral-List] Announcing the Coral Finder Toolkit

[John McManus]

I highly recommend the "Indo Pacific Coral Finder". I field tested it this
summer in Palawan. It is very accurate and does a great job of covering the
major genera and some dominant species. Every dive operation in the
Indo-Pacific should have at least one (I could hardly keep it away from the
resort staff), and it will help alleviate the 'overwhelmed head-aches'
experienced by many Caribbean researchers when they first visit these
high-diversity areas. It is not as comprehensive as Veron's encyclopedic
"Corals of the World" on which it is based, but is infinitely easier to
carry into the field!

John

John W. McManus, PhD
Director, National Center for Coral Reef Research (NCORE)
Professor, Marine Biology and Fisheries
Coral Reef Ecology and Management Lab (CREM Lab)
Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science (RSMAS)
University of Miami, 4600 Rickenbacker Causeway, Miami, 33149
jmcmanus at rsmas.miami.edu      http://ncore.rsmas.miami.edu
 Phone: 305-421-4814   

  "If I cannot build it, I do not understand it."
              --Richard Feynman, Nobel Laureate

 

-----Original Message-----
From: coral-list-bounces at coral.aoml.noaa.gov
[mailto:coral-list-bounces at coral.aoml.noaa.gov] On Behalf Of Russell Kelley
Sent: Tuesday, December 07, 2010 7:05 AM
To: coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov
Subject: [Coral-List] Announcing the Coral Finder Toolkit


Dear All

The Coral Identification Capacity Building Program (CICBP) is pleased to
announce the launch of the Coral Finder Toolkit - a suite of resources for
building capacity in coral identification and data sets that rely on same.

The Coral Finder Toolkit is based on the Indo Pacific Coral Finder (a unique
underwater visual decision tool -  www.byoguides.com) and the Coral Hub
website  - www.coralhub.info -  which provides free coral identification
resources.  The Coral Finder Toolkit allows the motivated person to teach
themselves how to identify Indo Pacific coral genera regardless of the
myriad growth forms expressed by their species.  

Stage 1 of the Coral Hub delivers the Learning Centre which has about 2
hours of free coral identification video training and self testing /
revision resources based on real world application of the Coral Finder.  

Stage 1 of the Coral Hub also features the Termigator - a set of 6
interactive visual glossaries (see the tabs) - in 2011 these will be
supported by an extensive library of support articles. Also coming in 2011
will be Stage 2 of the Coral Hub -  a comprehensive genus index.  The genus
index pages will serve as a bridge between the real world of coral
identification as experienced underwater and the formal knowledge framework
that leads to coral taxonomy.

You can see some examples of how the genus pages translate real world
observations made using the Coral Finder to the formal knowledge here:  

http://www.coralhub.info/cf/a-z/acanthastrea/

http://www.coralhub.info/cf/a-z/leptoseris/

http://www.coralhub.info/cf/a-z/acropora/ 

Anyone interested in incorporating coral identification into their teaching,
resource management or conservation activities might also be interested in
the coral identification capacity building workshops we run.

Kind regards

Russell
 


Russell Kelley
russellkelley at mac.com

Program Director
Coral Identification Capacity Building Program.
P.O. Box 1859, Townsville, 4810, AUSTRALIA
ABN 66208215206
Int. + 61 (0) 7  47804380 ph.

Int. + (0) 419 716730 mob.

GMT + 10 hours

Skype: wireruss

Free capacity building resources  at  the Coral Hub...
www.coralhub.info







and...

BYOGUIDES
www.byoguides.com
Home of the Indo Pacific Coral Finder 



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