New virtual stations and remote sensing resources from NOAA Coral Reef Watch

From the Coral-List listserve:

NOAA Coral Reef Watch is pleased to announce two new products now available on our website: an experimental expansion of our Satellite Bleaching Alert system, and a webpage that links to remote sensing datasets for coral reef managers. Both are available at: http://coralreefwatch.noaa.gov/satellite/current/experimental_products.html.

Adding to our 24 operational sites, 33 new experimental Virtual Stations have been implemented. These include many locations in the Florida Keys, plus the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico. Special focus was given to the Centre of Excellence sites designated under the World Bank/GEF Coral Reef Targeted Research Program: Zanzibar, Tanzania; Puerto Morelos, Mexico; Heron Island, Australia; and Bolinao, Philippines. Each of these sites now has its own webpage, with zoomed-in views of the CRW satellite bleaching data products and time series graphs. For all of the new sites, users can sign up for Satellite Bleaching Alert e-mails, automatically warning them when bleaching conditions change in their location. These new Virtual Stations are currently in an experimental phase, while we continue to expand the network.

A new website has also been developed as a data portal to remote sensing datasets that are freely available over the web. The focus is on global, near-real-time data that would be useful for coral reef managers and researchers around the world: e.g. sea surface temperature and thermal stress, ocean surface winds, sea surface height anomalies, precipitation, sea surface currents, etc. We tried to include a variety of data formats, including easy-to-use imagery, to meet a variety of user needs. This project is part of the Coral Reef Targeted Research (CRTR) Program?s Remote Sensing Working Group. The new resources are [also] available at: http://coralreefwatch.noaa.gov/crtr/data_resources.html

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C. Mark Eakin, Ph.D.
Coordinator, NOAA Coral Reef Watch
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
Center for Satellite Applications and Research
Satellite Oceanography & Climate Division
e-mail: mark.eakin@noaa.gov
url: coralreefwatch.noaa.gov

E/RA31, SSMC1, Room 5308
1335 East West Highway
Silver Spring, MD 20910-3226
301-713-2857 x109
Fax: 301-713-3136

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Recognizing individual turtles

Though focused on Hawaiian green turtles (called honu), Turtle Trax explains how to identify individual turtles, which presumably would work for unique identifation of turtles world wide:

One of the first questions that occurs to people hearing about our turtle experiences is, "How do you tell them apart?" This question is of the utmost importance to us. If we could not tell them apart, we could not document the changes in a each turtle's tumors from year to year.

The answer is in the faces. Although some turtles are readily identifiable by some obvious characteristic, such as Noke's missing flipper, many turtles look alike at a casual glance--but not if you examine the turtle's "mug shots" closely.

Like people, turtles have individual faces. Most honu have 15-20 darkish scales on their cheeks, although some have more and some less. Regardless of number, the shape and arrangement is constant and in our experience, unique. This provides a way to tell honu apart.

While we can't prove definitively that no two turtles share the same facial pattern, we have collected plenty of documentation to show that within the Honokowai population, turtle profiles are a reliable way of identifying individual turtles.

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New Caribbean coral ID guide available

From the coral-list listserve:

An identification guide to corals, octocorals and sponges of Caribbean reefs is available. It is called Coralpedia v 1.0. It is free (its development was paid for by the OTEP fund of the UK government, to assist conservation work in the UK Overseas Territories).

Version 1 contains images and descriptions of about 64 Caribbean stony corals, 74 reef sponges and 41 octocorals (and a few other groups). Altogether over 1000 images are included. Its operation is designed to be by simple clicks only. Options are that species of each group may be ordered taxonomically (default) or by 'shape', and language options are English (default) or Spanish.

The Notes file (English and Spanish) gives many of the sources, other databases, and other taxonomic information and, most importantly, it contains the credits for all those who participated taxonomically, photographically, or both. The Notes file also explains that this can be regarded as work in progress, with feedback and additions welcome. (Other groups may be added, if someone is keen to add another Caribbean reef-dwelling group, or another major Caribbean language, given a volunteer translator). This Notes file is located in the main folder and is accessible both from the software itself or directly by a word processor.

Another file 'Readme.txt' is in the primary folder, for installation instructions and how to run it.

There are three ways to obtain it.

1. The primary source is a cd, available from Prof. Charles Sheppard. Send an email to charles.sheppard@warwick.ac.uk (with a mailing address in the text which is easy to copy and paste, please).

2. Download the cd as a .zip. For this, send me your email address (in the text of the message for easy copying, please), and I then get my University 'files' site to send you the link to download the zip file (it is 200 mB). This (when unzipped) is the cd content.

3. A web based version is available: http://coralpedia.bio.warwick.ac.uk
Its format is, as near as we can make it, a 'match' with the cd, although because of differences in how pages are loaded, families are ordered differently (alphabetically). Obviously, viewing images of sufficient resolution means that the web way will work slower. The British Virgin Islands' National Parks Trust will be hosting this shortly as well.

We hope it is useful.

Best wishes
Charles
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Professor Charles Sheppard
Department of Biological Sciences
University of Warwick
CV4 7AL, UK
charles.sheppard@warwick.ac.uk
(+44) (0) 2476 524975

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Fla. loggerhead turtle nests lag in 2007, green and leatherback are up

From an Associated Press story:

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - The number of loggerhead turtle nests was substantially lower in 2007 than in past years, according to preliminary numbers from scientists statewide.

Scientists found 28,500 nests from 19 surveyed beaches, down from almost 50,000 last year. The number was so low that this could be the lowest nesting year on record for loggerheads, said Blair Witherington, a research scientist with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. The turtles' nesting numbers have declined in at least four of the past seven years.

Green and leatherback turtles, however, surpassed scientists' expectations and may have made a record number of nests this year on Florida's Treasure Coast.

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Green turtle nesting sites discovered in Senegal

From the WWF:

Dakar, Senegal – A WWF survey has discovered several marine turtle nesting sites on the beaches of Senegal, prompting calls from conservationists to improve protection of the endangered species.

The survey — conducted by WWF staff, Senegalese wildlife officials and the local community between July and September — discovered nine new green turtle nests on the beaches of Joal-Fadiouth in the Saloum Delta south of the capital, Dakar.

Turtle tracks in the sand left by female turtles were also discovered at nearby Palmarine Beach as well as at Langue de Barbarie at the mouth of the Senegal River in the northern part of the country.

“The nests confirm that these beaches are important nesting sites and must be protected,” said Dr Mamadou Diallo, WWF Senegal’s programme manager for species.

“Even beaches with tracks but no nests are important to protect as they are potential nesting sites.”
In Joal-Fadiouth, where the nine nests were found, each was marked and enclosed with wire mesh to protect them from predators.

Thanks to a broadly supported public awareness campaign, illegal turtle capture and consumption has dropped by over 80% in Joal-Fadiouth.

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Mote Marine Lab announces grant RFP for Florida-based groups

From the Mote Marine Laboratory:

Mote Marine Laboratory is proud to announce a Request for Proposals (RFP) for the Protect Our Reefs License Plate grant funding for 2008.

Approximately $450,000 will be available from 2007 license plate receipts for use in 2008.

Elibible organizations shall be based in Florida and engaged in reef research, education and/or conservation.

Proposal are due; December 14, 2007.

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Parrotfish on menu putsCaribbean coral at risk

From an article in Nature, as reported by on Underwater Times:

Exeter, U.K. (Oct 31, 2007 20:17 EST) Coral reefs could be damaged beyond repair, unless we change the way we manage the marine environment. New research by the Universities of Exeter and California Davis, published today (1 November 2007) in Nature, shows how damaged Caribbean reefs will continue to decline over the next 50 years.

Coral reefs conjure up images of rich, colourful ecosystems yet an increasing number of reefs are becoming unhealthy and overrun by seaweed. The research team wanted to test whether reefs that are overgrown with algae could return to good health if the original causes of the problem, such as fishing or pollution, were addressed. This could mean, for example, reducing fishing or introducing better sewage management. The study revealed that the answer is ‘no’ because coral reefs can become permanently unhealthy.

In the 1980s, reefs in the Caribbean were hit by the devastating impact of the near-extinction of the herbivorous urchin, Diadema antillarum, with devastating results. Along with parrotfish, this grazing urchin kept seaweed levels down, creating space for coral to grow. Parrotfish are now the sole grazers of seaweed on many Caribbean reefs, but fishing has limited their numbers. With insufficient parrotfish grazing, corals are unable to recover after major disturbances like hurricanes and become much less healthy as a result. The team discovered this result by creating and testing a computer model that simulates the effects of many factors on the health of Caribbean reefs.

Professor Peter Mumby of the University of Exeter, lead author on the paper said: “The future of some Caribbean reefs is in the balance and if we carry on the way we are then reefs will change forever. This will be devastating for the Caribbean’s rich marine environment, which is home to a huge range of species as well as being central to the livelihood of millions of people.”

Photo (c) Wolcott Henry 2005, Marine Photobank

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