In today’s day and age, there is not much we cant do from behind our computer screens. You can see the whole world at the stroke of a key. Now you can see the underwater world as well. Google Street View allows you to go all over the world, from the comfort of your couch. You can now see some of the most amazing coral reefs in the world. Recently, they added 40 new locations. Google Maps has joined forces with XL Catlin Seaview Survey, NOAA’s Office of National Marine Sanctuaries and the Chagos Conservation Trust to release Street View imagery of more than 40 underwater spots around the World. Divers take SVII cameras on their dives to catch just amazingly breathtaking footage. Some of the locations you can watch include  Bali, the Cook Islands, the Bahamas and the Great Barrier Reefs. Google is focused on conservation and awareness.By adding imagery which shows the state and health of our coral reefs now, we can be more aware of the devastating effect of human impact, like global warming, climate change, over fishing and pollution, just to name a few, on our reefs.  MORE… More:

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A new study led by scientists from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute (WHOI) has presented evidence stating coral reefs may not be as susceptible to ocean-acidification as once was thought. Examining coral reefs from the naturally acidic waters of Palau archipelago, researchers made some valuable findings. “Surprisingly, in Palau where the pH is lowest, we see a coral community that hosts more species and has greater coral cover than in the sites where pH is normal,” states Anne Cohen, co-author of the paper.
Upon comparing these findings with other naturally acidic reefs around the world, researchers found that the only common thread across these reefs was bio-erosion, and “because we don’t see a correlation between skeletal density and pH” [in the Palau reefs] lead author Hanna Barkley thinks there is something specific to Palau that might unlock the ocean-acidification code. Read more here!  … More:

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It’s long been a theory of mine that corals exchange zooxanthellae within our aquariums to combat environmental stressors, and a new study proves this theory to be true in controlled systems as well as in the wild. The University of Miami (UM) Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science led the study, which simulated ocean-acidification in controlled tank environments. “Since ‘symbiont shuffling’ occurs in only some cases, we wanted to understand what drives this process and whether it could help corals adjust to climate change,” said Ross Cunning, lead author of the study. Researchers then allowed these specimens to recover in different temperatures to gauge which clades of zooxanthellae they adopted, and with a firm theory here, Cunning suggests temperature could be a controlling factor when it comes how and what symbionts are exchanged: “We discovered that partner switching in Caribbean star corals is dependent upon the severity of the bleaching event and the temperature during recovery.” Two similar studies were also conducted in the Coral Reef Futures lab at UM. “Together, these studies suggest that that the rate of warming, timing between bleaching events, and severity of each bleaching event, will play an important role in determining coral survivorship. We need to better understand these changes in order to accurately predict coral reef futures.” add’s Andrew Baker, UM Rosenstiel School associate professor of marine biology and ecology at UM.  Read more here!… More:

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In 1988 French immunologist Jacques Benveniste published a study in Nature magazine, stating that he and his team had learned that water had a memory. What did this mean? During the study, Benveniste diluted antigens to such a level, that by all accounts no physical traces of the antigens were still present in water. Yet, when the diluted water was injected onto a bacteria the antigen would destroy, to Benveniste’s shock, the bacteria was assimilated, just as if hit with the original antigen. Did this mean that water could remember the chemical structure of everything that entered it? If it did, could water be used to treat illness or correct elemental shortcomings, much like a phone line transmits voice data? In ancient accounts it was noted that water from silver vessels was often used to heal wounds or treat illness. Was this evidence of water memory?  Since Benveniste’s original findings, many scientists and organizations have tried to replicate his experiment’s outcomes. Nature magazine, who originally published the water memory paper, later failed at replicating the original experiment’s results. Although, in recent years, using cutting edge microscopes to view water, scientists are learning that the core of Benveniste’s 1988 experiment may suggest that water does in fact have a memory. The idea behind water memory:The idea that water functions much like a data line or even as a conduit of communication for molecular structures seems like science-fiction. The theory goes as far as to suggest that an antigen could be placed in water, diluted and then transformed into electrical energy and transmitted, allowing a replication of the antigen to be created in water thousands of miles away. While mainstream science ignores water memory, pockets of scientists continue to study it. Not long ago, Oasis Nature chronicled a Dutch lab, using high tech electron microscopes to look at the structure of water. What they found was revolutionary, in that water from different “batches” had a unique structure, similar to the way no two snowflakes are alike. Even more shocking, if a flower, element or substance was placed in the water, the water structure changed, even after dilution. This suggested that the water retained a memory of anything that entered it. One of the researchers explained it like this. If water is flowing down a river, water at the mouth of the river has a vast memory of everything that it passed over or any element that entered it.… More:

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Sadly, over the weekend, a 13 year old girl and a 16 year old boy, lost their limbs after vicious shark attacks along the North Carolina Coast. Both attacks occurred within just two miles of each other, approximately 45 minutes after the first attack. Many people are comparing these attacks to Jaws, adding to the media frenzy and the heightened fear of swimming along this beach. Each child, whose names have not been released, have sadly lost their limbs in this traumatic event. However, these sorts of attacks on humans, are extremely rare and unusual. The last similar event, with multiple attacks in the same area, occurred in Florida and Egypt, many years ago. It is quite possible that this attack is from the same shark, researchers speculate it could be a bull or tiger shark. This information is still unknown at this time. Let’s hope no one else gets hurt this summer. MORE… More:

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Researchers from the University of Miami are perfectly placed to collect their recent findings supporting the need for human intervention when it comes to climate change and coral reefs. “For many years we have known that some types of symbiotic algae can convey climate change resilience to corals,” said co-author Chris Langdon, UM Rosenstiel School professor and chair of marine biology and ecology. “This study shows that behavioral and possibly physiological differences in the animal, which is half of the coral-algal symbiosis, can also convey resilience and not just to climate change but also to ocean acidification.” The study found that by simulating a bleaching event, and then providing an increased amount of bio-available organics, coral was able to mitigate the effects of bleaching much more easily. “In this study we found that the threatened coral, Acropora cervicornis, was able to increase its feeding rate and stored energy reserves when exposed to high CO2 conditions at 26°C or 30°C and mitigate reductions in calcification that caused significant decreases in growth rate in unfed corals,” according to the authors. “Our study shows a pathway to resilience previous unknown for this particular species, which was once a dominant species in South Florida. This has implications for how we care for and where we out-plant Staghorn corals back onto reefs to give them the best chance for resilience possible in the future.” -UM Rosenstiel School Ph.D. student Erica Towle, lead author of the study. Read more here!… More:

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Coral CoE is at it again trying to understand how human impact can effect change on coral reefs around the globe. Studying marine reserves in and around the Great Barrier Reef scientists “surveyed more than 80,000 corals around the Whitsunday Islands for six different diseases that commonly harm reef corals around the world.” -Lead researcher, Dr Joleah Lamb from Coral CoE. What they found was that areas protected from human activity (no-take marine reserves) had a much lower amounts of indigenous disease, and that coral actually have increased rates of health.“We found three coral diseases were more prevalent on reefs outside no-take marine reserves, particularly on reefs with high levels of injured corals and discarded fishing line. Fishing line not only causes coral tissue injuries and skeleton damage, but also provides an additional surface for potential pathogens to colonize, increasing their capacity to infect wounds caused by entangled fishing line,” added Dr Lamb. “No take marine reserves are a promising approach for mitigating coral disease in locations where the concentration or intensity of fishing effort is relatively high,” says Professor Garry Russ from the Coral CoE. Read more here!… More:

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Technology is ever-present in the lab as well as the hobby of reef keeping but scientists from Europe are now going to be taking their instruments directly into the field, or reef I should say. To better understand coral metabolism and respiration researchers from Denmark will be deploying remote operated vehicles (ROV) and high-resolution cameras to help them deploy lab equipment and take measurements. “Traditionally the metabolism of cold-water reefs are typically investigated by collecting animals and analyzing them in a laboratory. Preferably, however, researchers would like to do the opposite, and bring the laboratory to the seabed, where the reef can be studied in its own environment. Since cold water reefs grow incredibly slowly — about 5 mm per year — and are fragile habitats, we were looking at novel techniques that could be used on a reef to asses metabolism with little impact on the reef structures,” says Dr. Lorenzo Rovelli, Scottish Association for Marine Science (SAMS), visiting researcher at the Nordic Center for Earth Evolution (NordCEE), Department of Biology, University of Southern Denmark. Employing a method termed ‘Aquatic Eddy Covariance’ the team will be able to simultaneously measure oxygen content and flow. “We are particularly interested in finding out how much carbon is being turned over by a reef — and by that I mean the whole reef community. The community consists of the corals, which are the engineers behind the reef structure, as well as all the other organisms that inhabit the reef: from large crabs to microscopic organisms. Currently, we still do not know if and to what extent such reefs are contributing to the global carbon budget.” Read more here!… More:

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I hate to perpetuate the growing public paranoia over shark attacks. However, the unusually high number of sharks attack which resulted in serious number have been high profile this summer. After the extremely sad story of two teenagers in North Carolina who both lost limbs last week, another 10 year old child was attacked in Florida this week. Yesterday, around 1pm, a 10 year old boy was attacked while swimming in shallow water in Daytona Beach. He was visiting Daytona Beach from Georgia. Thankfully, he only suffered minor injuries to his calf, and was treated and released on the same day. Last year, Florida had the most shark attacks in the U.S. Lets hope that these unfortunate attacks stop so we can let the unneeded fervor die down. MORE… More:

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As an avid collector of Acropora species I have noticed in the last couple of years that rainbow hued acropora seem to be popping up everywhere. So it gets me to pondering where were all these rainbow sticks a decade ago? Of course rainbow montipora was probably the first and most well known, multi-hued hard coral to come into the hobby. A few years later when maricultured acropora started to come in more frequently and rainbow hued millepora colony were made an infrequent appearance. Sadly most of these would turn into a solid or two-tone colored coral under metal halide and T5 lighting. Since then and especially in the past few years we have seen a growing number of brilliant colored sps corals appear. These corals of course are highly collected and most go for a pretty penny, like the beautiful Walt Disney acropora which fetches $800 – $1000 per fragment. Mike Biggar says his Walt Disney acropora maintains the best rainbow coloration under royal blue leds. I asked two different Facebook groups that specialize in sps loving hobbyists and there are a variety of opinions why more rainbow colored corals are showing up nowadays. Some people think corals are being collected from new areas with collector’s being more educated about what sells best, newer lighting is capable of maintaining colors that we never could before, trace element supplementation has improved and we are better able to tweak water chemistry now, and a few reefers think that these corals are all just photoshopped and don’t really have rainbow colors. Maybe corals like plants have learned that we tend to spread more colorful species over propagation brown or grey types. Whatever your opinion is, its obvious that fantastically colored corals are here to stay. I wonder in another decade if all of the corals in our aquariums will be rainbow hued? … More:

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Ain’t no party like a spawn party, ’cause a spawn party don’t stop! You read that right: spawn party. Here at the Long Island Aquarium & Exhibition Center we have a spawn party about once a month. What’s a spawn party, you ask? It’s exactly what it sounds like. We sit around with some pizza and drinks and watch the fish have sex. We do this a couple of days after the full moon when spawns are the highest.

  This last spawn party was a special treat. If we are lucky, we usually see only one or two species spawn. This time, however, we saw three species of anthias, yellow tangs, a Genicanthus species, and some flame angels all spawn. I was also able to catch some of the sexiness on video to share with all of you! Watch all of the videos below carefully, spawning is very quick. You could blink and miss it happen.  As the lights slowly turn off, more species start mating.  You’ll notice in the back of the reef tank that there is a plankton net. This is to try to collect some of the eggs from the spawn. In the morning, I take the net out and move the eggs to rearing tanks. I try to spit up the eggs into different types of tanks to experiment several different techniques.  The video above this paragraph may not be the best quality (it was taken with my iPhone through the lens of a microscope) but it gives you an idea of what the larvae generally look like after they hatch out. This larva isn’t technically a larvae yet, it is actually a prolarva, which means it has yet to develop some of the attributes of a standard larva. Since this prolarva is only 3 days post hatch, it has yet to develop a mouth. The mouth will begin to form around day 4-6 when they start to feed on live foods. It also has yet to form eyes but instead has just acquired proto eyes. Proto eyes can only sense light and dark, they are not able to “see” yet.  Spawn collections can greatly vary. On average, I can collect anywhere between 1,000 to 18,000 eggs. Not all of the eggs hatch and even more hardly make it past the first few weeks. Some larvae are easily identified a few days post hatch but a majority of them look similar and aren’t distinguishable for a few weeks.… More:

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The northern sennet, a close relative of the great barracuda, is usually among the first warm-water species to appear on Long Island each year.

 After a long cold winter and amid disturbing reports that the North Atlantic may be entering a cool phase, I am very happy to report that the first tropical species of the year have made their appearance in Long Island waters.Yesterday, I was joined by an elite team of fish collectors (Noel Heinsohn from the Long Island Aquarium and my former marine biology student, Courtney Lamond), for an early season scouting mission at Oak Beach, one of the most popular fish collecting sites on Long Island. Our primary goal was to collect seahorses for Noel’s seahorse tank at the aquarium and for DNA samples for researcher, Adeljean Ho, however a seining trip is always an opportunity to collect data and specimens you didn’t even know you needed. In this case, the most valuable thing that came out of the trip was the observation that the tropicals have arrived. The first tropical fishes of the year usually arrive on or soon after the summer solstice, so although it is not surprising, it is certainly comforting to see them a few days early. The day’s catch included northern sennets, numerous post-larval groupers, and a planehead filefish as well as a number of local species. Here’s the complete list: Atlantic silverside, mummichog, white mullet, northern pipefish, lined seahorse, fourspine stickleback, grubby sculpin, cunner, tautog, northern sennet, assorted unidentified groupers, American eel, winter flounder, windowpane flounder, and planehead filefish. 

Planehead filefish

Post-larval scamp grouper

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Four years ago, I sang about tropical coral in one of the worlds driest climates. Somewhere near the Mexican border, a gang of us Southern California rabble rousers gathered to make music and have fun; it is one of my favorite memories from my time spent living on the West Coast. So sit back, relax, and enjoy Thor and I in this acoustically driven version of “Goniopora.” 
Bonus! Below is a short video of Goniopora eating Goniopower, showing a clear feeding reaction. The polyps reach out like big hands on noodley arms to grab the food. The whole polyp then retracts, drawing the food into their stomachs, and moving out of the way of other polyps. They’re alive!!! … More:

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A bit of a duality was discovered when researchers from the Universities of Exeter and Bangor in the UK studied light pollution around coastal settlements. What they found was that light pollution from human coastal settlements can effect change in the ecological flow of marine coastal environments by both inhibiting and inducing colonization of specific invertebrates. Dr Tom Davies from the Environment and Sustainability Institute at the University of Exeter’s Penryn Campus in Cornwall adds: “We know that artificial light at night alters the behavior of many marine animals but this is the first study to show that it can disrupt the development of ecological communities in the marine environment. Further research is urgently needed to assess what level of light can be considered ‘safe’ so that legislation can be put in place to minimize future light pollution from new and existing developments.” Read more here!… More:

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 The Tennessee Aquarium has been observing some of the seahorses in the tank who appeared to be pregnant. Whats interesting about this species is that Male Dwarf Seahorses are the ones who actually give birth. The Dwarf Seahorse, whose scientific name is ‘Hippocampus zosterae’,are among some of the smallest seahorse species, with full size adults growing up to only one inch in length. Since these species are so small, aquarium workers have kept their eyes out for the species/ Just last Thursday, Aquarium workers saw the tiny baby seahorses, about the size of a grain of rice, swimming in the aquarium tank. These tiny new babies come just in time for Fathers Day 2015. MORE… More:

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Good morning friends, how was your weekend?? This morning as I stumbled up the steps in search of coffee I said again, I can’t believe how fast these weekends go by” I never even get close to getting anything done anymore! For those of you asking our four little land tortoises are doing wonderful in their home! As you may or may not know, they went to a beautiful bed and breakfast over by Blue Bay and are in what we call, “turtle paradise”. I hear the guests are taking them out on the grass, letting them walk around and spaying them with a water hose, which they absolutely LOVE, we are so happy for them!

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A surprising conclusion was made by the Ruhr-Universität of Germany regarding the genetic diversity within a coral colony. Researchers found that genetically diverse polyps where living harmoniously within the same coral structure by studying five different species of coral and over 222 coral colonies. “However, this doesn’t mean we should expect that this variability can compensate for corals dying worldwide due to climate change,” says Maximilian Schweinsberg from the Department of Animal Ecology, Evolution and Biodiversity at Ruhr-Universität. “The ongoing climate change and the environmental change resulting thereof have an increasingly severe impact on coral reefs,” explains Schweinsberg. Biologists were able to find that within stony reef-building corals genetically diverse coral polyps can actually assist lesser adapted polyps in growth and metabolism activities, adding to their adaptability and possibly aiding in their survival rates. Read more here!… More:

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A non-native symbiont to live coral (Symbiodinium trenchii) is slowly invading the Caribbean reefs making it harder for corals to calcify, yet protecting against the warmer waters created by climate change. This non-native micro-algae hails from the Indo-Pacific but its presence on Caribbean reefs is a bit of a conundrum as “the results raise a potentially contentious issue about whether this invasion is relatively good or bad for the long-term productivity of reef corals in the Atlantic Ocean and the ecosystems they support,” said Todd LaJeunesse, associate professor of biology, Penn State. The presence of a new species of symbiont in Caribbean waters has researchers wondering when the introduction first occurred: “We found that the Caribbean population of S. trenchii contains very little genetic diversity and is highly inbred,” said Tye Pettay postdoctoral fellow at the University of Delaware. “In contrast, S. trenchii in the Indian and Pacific oceans is extremely diverse and contains far more genetic diversity on a single reef the size of a football field than it does in the entire Caribbean Sea. Our evidence indicates that the introduction of S. trenchii to the Caribbean was relatively recent. There has been no time for it to evolve any novel genetic diversity.” Read more here!… More:

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I’m continuously fascinated by all of the different things that live in our oceans. Sponges are the simplest of multicellular organisms and also among the oldest, with a fossil record extending back to the last part of the Precambrian, about 550 million years ago. When I go snorkeling at the fossil reef at Key Biscayne (my local reef) I see all types of sponges; bright red fire sponge, large brown barrel sponges, delicate blue encrusting sponges, etc. They inhabit turtle grass beds and coral reefs alike. Sponges filter the water while providing food and shelter for a myriad of creatures. 

Blue Layer Cake Sponge – Collospongia

Sponge close up

 For the past few years I have been growing Collospongia, commonly known within the hobby as layercake or blue photo sponge; it has bright blue coloration and grows very similar to Montipora capricornis, in thin spiraling plates. When kept on its own rock it has a stronger tendency to create layers instead of encrusting like other sponges. It is prized for its brilliant blue/violet coloration. Most reefers that see my colony in person mistake it for an sps coral upon first viewing because of its unusual growth pattern. 

Side view of the layered growth pattern

 This sponge thrives in moderately strong light and high flow. It will create layers much better in an area with good flow, whereas in low flow it will have a tendency to grow more flat and encrusting. This sponge is different from most other sponges in that you can expose it to air for short periods of time without damage. Some people complain about this sponge growing too fast or being invasive, but it is so popular with other aquarists getting rid of excess growth shouldn’t be a problem. I have nearly killed it with too high alkalinity in the past, but sponges have amazing regeneration capabilities and my colony grew back. If like me, you seek out the unusual, this sponge will definitely be rewarding to grow in your own reef. 

Violet Colony of Collospongia that is starting to plate more as it grows larger.

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Solar Radiation Management is a theory of approach towards stemming the effects of global warming, and its principle benefits are now the focus of a new paper published by the University of Exeter, with regard to coral reefs worldwide. Dr Paul Halloran, from the Geography department of the University of Exeter adds: “The study shows that the benefit of SRM over a conventional CO₂ reduction scenario is dependent on the sensitivity of future thermal bleaching thresholds to changes in seawater acidity. This emphasizes the need to better characterize how warming and ocean acidification may interact to influence coral bleaching over the 21st century.” Currently The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is considering and implementing many different approaches to reverse some of the effects of global warming. With this new study finding a more suitable approach towards coral reefs is possible as two hypothetical climate mitigation strategies were compared, and it was found corals have a much better chance of avoiding large-scale bleaching events under the SRM strategical approach. Professor Peter Cox, co-author of the research and from the University of Exeter states: “Coral reefs face a dire situation regardless of how intensively society decarbonizes the economy. In reality there is no direct choice between conventional mitigation and climate engineering but this study shows that we need to either accept that the loss of a large percentage of the world’s reefs is inevitable or start thinking beyond conventional mitigation of CO₂ emissions.” Read more here!… More:

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