[Coral-List] Another Upcoming OCTO-EBMTools Webinar

[Raye Evrard]

Hi Coral List,

On Thursday, June 13, OCTO and the EBMTools Network will be hosting a
webinar discussing the damage caused to coral reef ecosystems through giant
clam shell harvesting. The focus of this webinar, however, will be on the
proposal for a "peace park" that will protect the unique environments from
further harm or destruction. The webinar will be an hour long (40 minute
presentation and 20 minute Q&A) and a recording will be available
afterwards on openchannels.org/webinars as well as Youtube and Vimeo . More
information on the webinar below.

*Webinar: **Massively Destructive Coral Reef Damage from Giant Clam Shell
Digging in the South China Sea: Birth, Death and Rebirth*
<https://zoom.us/webinar/972219261>

*Presented by:* *John McManus of the University of Miami*
*Date/Time:* *Thursday, June 13, 1 pm US EDT/10 am US PDT/5 pm UTC*
<https://zoom.us/webinar/972219261>

*Description:* The South China Sea supplies approximately 15% of the
world’s fish and helps support ~272 million coastal residents. Part of this
production system includes more than 3,800 square kilometers of the world’s
most diverse offshore coral reefs. Since 2011, many of the reef flats have
been severely damaged by small boats from China digging up giant clams for
the billion-dollar shell carving trade. This practice was not widely known
until 2016 when negative publicity led the Chinese government to ban this
activity. For the past few years, there have been only occasional reports
of the practice continuing. As of 2019, however, a modified version of the
practice has emerged in the Pratas Islands and Scarborough Atoll. This talk
will describe the current situation and present a proposal for a peace park
for the globally-unique Scarborough Atoll to help ensure its protection.


*Co-sponsors:* OCTO (OpenChannels, The Skimmer, MPA News) and the EBM Tools
Network (co-coordinated by OCTO and NatureServe)

*Register: **https://zoom.us/webinar/972219261*
<https://zoom.us/webinar/972219261>


Best,

Raye

-- 
Raye Evrard, MMA
Project Manager
OCTO | Open Communications for The Ocean
https://www.octogroup.org | https://www.openchannels.org
raye at octogroup.org
Seattle, Washington, USA (UTC-7)