Earlier this year we had the opportunity to visit Raja Ampat in the West Papua province of Indonesia. We were absolutely amazed with the diversity of corals and abundance of fish. This week the American nonprofit Conservation International has launched…
CORALPALOOZA, An Annual Event To Save Coral Reefs
To help ring in World Oceans Day, the Coral Restoration Foundation hosted their second annual reef restoration event, CORALPALOOZA. The international event took place on June 4th spanning 11 reefs in South Florida, and the Caribbean Islands of Bonaire and Curaçao. Over…
Reefs In Decline
I have been lucky in my life to have had the opportunity to dive in some of the prettiest and most diverse underwater habitats on earth. Without exception, the nicest dive sites are far from civilization, which stands to reason.…
Jungles of stony coral on the shallow reefs of Raja Ampat (video)
There’s not too many places in the world where corals are so abundant and diverse that they form a veritable Jungle of living corals. Sure, many places have exceptional living coral reefs where the shallows are approaching 90 to 100%…
Dive marshals to protect coral reefs in Sipadan
Four dive marshals from Malaysia have been appointed Sipadan’s first underwater enforcers. The team has been put in place to monitor divers and ensure they do not destroy or damage the coral reefs around the world-famous Sipadan Island. Sipadan is a…
Transport yourself to a natural coral reef ‘aquarium’ in Indonesia
As reefers we stare at our corals in our home aquariums with an idea of what natural coral reefs are like. There are lots of notions about what our corals actually look like on the reef, where they live, and…
Kristen Marhaver’s TED Talk on reef-building with baby corals
We recently came across this great TED talk which presents some pretty interesting research about coral larval behavior, and what it may take for baby corals to survive and thrive in a changing ocean environment. “How we’re growing baby corals…
The Marine Aquarist as Environmental Scapegoat
Some years ago, I read a rather unflattering feature article in a local newspaper about the reefkeeping hobby and its impact on the natural reefs. To say this piece was biased, wretchedly researched, and wholly unsupported would be putting it…
Antique coral reef illustrations will tickle your fancy
Antique coral reef illustrations In centuries past—an era absent the wonders of Google’s image search—curious naturalists were reliant on published reports for knowledge on the obscure creatures living in the far corners of the world. The scientists of this period…
Fragment of Hope sees outplanted reef spawning after two short years
The Fragment of Hope, a coral reef restoration program in Belize, has seen one of its reef nurseries spawning in 2012 that was planted back in 2010. There were samples taken and examined by Dr. Esther Peters has shown three different…
