[Coral-List] Educational Video Explaining Coral-----

[MelissaE Keyes]

Jeremy,
Thank you for finding and posting the coral video.  I do have some criticisms, but will try to refrain because there is so little known amongst too many.
After being a curious diver, and buying every book I could on the subject of the seas, and fishes and corals, I finally bought the Peterson Guide to Coral Reefs, by Eugene H. Kaplan.  I felt it would be too amateurish for a big fancy seasoned diver/educator like me, but I was astonished to find a simple explanation to how the coral lives and grows, that I'd not known before.
Later, I was grouching to a PhD about how the tourist guides say that the coral polyps hide down in their little holes during the day, which would give the impression that they could be touched, or bumped, without harm.  The good doctor said, "Well, they do hide in their holes, don't they?"  I was floored.  Finally my friend admitted to having majored in algae.
The entire diving industry has let down a lot of nice people by not giving even one page in their instruction books about how corals function.  Few know that coral polyps are all connected, and share food, fluids, and problems with their neighboring polyps.  And that they are like a rug spread over the surface of the coralline structure, not living "down in little holes".   OK, that's one of my criticisms about the video, the polyp is seen as an individual, not one of many, all connected "at the waist" so to speak, or literally.
All divers should be required to read at least the first chapter of this book.
Cheers,
Melissa.


 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Melissa E. Keyes St. Croix, U.S.Virgin Islands