It’s Friday, so there’s no better time to flick through some classic Reef Builders articles and videos and revisit some vintage Jake Adams. This video from six years ago pre-dates the building of the Reef Builders Studio, and we see…
NOAA designates 6,500 square miles of Critical Habitat to protect Caribbean Corals
NOAA Fisheries has published a final rule to designate critical habitat for five species of Caribbean coral under the US Endangered Species Act. Effective from September 8, 2023, 28 mostly overlapping areas in US waters will be designated Critical Habitat,…
Predatory Trumpetfish hide behind herbivores to get closer to prey
The West Atlantic trumpetfish, Aulostomus maculatus, is an opportunistic predatory Syngnathiforme that is often observed swimming vertically amongst gorgonians to conceal itself from prey. But camouflage isn’t its only predatory tactic, as it’s also known to use the bodies of…
Indonesian Acropora tenuis has been renamed Acropora bifaria
A team of 11 coral researchers has used phylogenomic techniques to resolve the taxonomy of the genus Acropora. Historically, coral taxonomy was based almost exclusively on skeletal morphology, resulting in the description of some 400 species of Acropora, with two-thirds…
New TRITON Research Vessel Gears up for Trace Element Investigation on the Great Barrier Reef
Four years ago TRITON created a new Science Division for seawater chemistry, located on the Great Barrier Reef in Cairns, Australia. Now, their brand new customized vessel “Calliste,” will allow for research into areas of Macro and Trace Elements based…
Flashback Friday: When Jake Talked About How To Increase pH Using Kalkwasser
If there’s one thing we should all do this weekend, it’s rewatch this brilliant video by the late, great Jake Adams. In the video and accompanying article, Jake nails some really fundamental points about pH, the numbers he aimed for…
Book Review: Many Things Under A Rock, by David Scheel
We don’t read anymore. Not like we used to, so I was delighted when I received a copy of the newly published book Many Things Under a Rock – the Mysteries of Octopuses – by David Scheel. Part of my…
Ancient Sea Predator Dunkleosteus Was Less Than Half Its Estimated Size
A researcher from the Case Western Reserve University has come up with a new way of guestimating the size of the ferocious-looking Dunkleosteus terrelli, which roamed the Devonian seas 400 million years ago. Dunkleosteus was thought to be one of…
The Five Best SPS Corals For Beginners
Small Polyp Stony Corals are some of the most popular aquarium corals, and the most populous on natural reefs, famed for their spiky branches, flat tables, or swirling plates. Not all SPS corals are the same, however, or as easy…
100% Coral Bleaching as Florida Sea Temperatures Rise Over 100 Fahrenheit
As if Floridian corals weren’t under enough environmental pressures, this past week, temperatures hit triple digits in Florida Bay and the Keys causing 100% coral bleaching events in some areas. A world record-breaking sea surface temperature of 101.1F (38.4C) was…