Happy New Year! Here’s our first edition of the Friday Smorgi for 2017 and we’re hoping you enjoy reading along. We have a few interesting stories including an underwater drone for fishing…
Prognathodes basabei, or orange margin butterfly, now officially described
Although known to exist for over 20 years and even referenced quite a few times here at Reef Builders, a new species of deep-water butterflyfish from the mesophotic reefs of the Papahanaumokuakea Mari…
Follow along on this incredible expedition of the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands
Research divers get to see amazing sights below the surface, but there is a lot that goes on behind the scenes to make it all possible. Thanks to Richard Pyle, we are able to follow along on an exciti…
Newly discovered glowing jellyfish is eerily stunning
NOAA’s Okeanos Explorer is exploring the Mariana Trench and has uncovered some pretty amazing new creatures including this eerily stunning jellyfish that could easily be inspiration for a scifi film. …
Casper the friendly cephalopod?
A curiously cute new octopus was recently discovered whtn NOAA’s exploration ship Okeanos Explorer took a dive off the Hawaiian Archipelago. This charming and ethereal cephalopod was captured on video…
Clownfish could be declared an endangered Species
That’s according to a new report from National Marine Fisheries Service that Clownfish (Percula) may warrant protection under the U.S. Endangered Species Act because of threats from global warmi…
New endangered coral ruling threatens your right to grow corals
In 2012, the NOAA made it known that they were considering listing 66 stony coral species as threatened. After receiving extensive public comments to the tune of 42,000 letters and emails along with a…
Florida reefs get Google Maps love
Google Maps took its Street View below the sea a few years back mapping the Great Barrier Reef in Australia and now the technology is coming to Florida’s reefs as US scientists are learning to u…
Friday Smorgasbord: Fish Tank Kings, help save a species and more
Happy Friday to you all and since there are still is a few hours to go before its officially happy hour (although it is 5 o’clock somewhere), we have some interesting short posts to share to sta…
Breaking: NOAA announces the proposal to list 66 stony coral species as endangered or threatened
Just hours ago NOAA and the National Marine Fisheries Services (NMFS) made public their intention to move forward with the proposal to list 66 species of stony corals under the Endangered Species Act …