Last updated at 9:19 AM on 22nd December 2011
It certainly is a Christmas card with a difference.
A marine scientist has produced this incredible Christmas card made from his own pictures of plankton.
Dr Richard Kirby has created a festive scene including a decorated Christmas tree, bells, angels and even the Star of Bethlehem.
Caribbean Reef Octopus (Octopus briareus) source: wikipediaThe
Coral Reef Fact:
Caribbean Reef Octopus (Octopus briareus) can change its appearance from crimson to green, and bumpy to smooth.
Learn more: http://en.wikipedia.or/wiki/Caribbean_Reef_Octopus
Help protect our amazing marine world today donate at http://reefrelief.org/act/donate
The University of Oregon’s Institute of Marine Biology announces the on-line release of marine science lessons developed as part of its National Science Foundation Graduates in K-12 grant.
The following link http://pages.uoregon.edu/oimb/Academics/GK12/ leads you to:
1. Background on OIMB’s GK12 program
2. Lessons sorted by habitat
3. Resources including links to additional curriculum, photo and video libraries, ocean literacy standards, on-line marine education communities, etc.
Although our GK12 program targeted k-6th grades, many of these lessons are adaptable for older students.
Learn more about ocean literacy
NOVEMBER 15, 2011
Watercolors is a compelling and riveting true story about the rescue of JJ the Whale, a day old gray whale that was found abandoned in Marina del Rey, California. Tamminen tells an educational, moving, and remarkable story as he takes us through his incredible journey and the set-backs he encountered. But most importantly, this book is a call to action: although we may not all have the chance encounter of meeting and directly saving a baby whale, our actions and decisions that we make on a daily basis are affecting these mysteriously beautiful creatures.
Help support Reef Relief by purchasing Terry Tamminen’s latest book Watercolors: How JJ the Whale Saved Us, a compelling and riveting true story about the rescue of JJ the Whale. For each book purchased through the Watercolors website, $5.00 will be donated to our organization.
Visit www.watercolorsthebook.com/Purchase.html and be sure to choose our organization from the drop down menu.
Makes a great holiday gift!
Coral Camp for Kids for this past summer was a huge success as we saw our classes filled to capacity every week beginning in June and ending on Friday, August 19th. We saw a 30% increase in the number of Coral Campers this year as opposed to last years numbers. Coral Camp for Kids was also invited to present its programs and activities to the National Marine Educators Association conference that was held in Boston, MA, on July 1st.
The program is growing every year as parents from all over the lower keys recognize the value in educating our young minds about the challenges that our coral reef ecosystems are facing and the fact that these kids will be the ones that inherit these challenges as they grow into adulthood. With the invitation to the conference mentioned above, Coral Camp for Kids is now recognized nationally as a unique and comprehensive program for the education of kids aged six through twelve years of age in the marine sciences.
We feel that it is vitally important to reach these kids at a young age so that are aware of the challenges facing all of us with regards to climate change, over fishing, and pollution—the Big Three, so to speak, in terms of the major stressors affecting coral reef ecosystems the world over along with others. Their synergistic effects is what is killing corals the world over, and these stressors must be mitigated or corals will begin to become less abundant with the possibility of extirpation in certain areas including the Florida Keys. The cascading effects of the loss of coral reefs through other interconnected ecosystems will be profound and could result in the first mass extinction event ever witnessed by modern humans!
The need to protect these vital ecosystems is urgent and the time is now!
This is the one of the main reasons that we feel that Reef Relief’s Coral Camp for Kids is vitally important and results in an appreciation and awareness on the part of these young minds. Through our activities and field trips the kids become more self-confident; they come away with better self-esteem, and they come away with the knowledge of the importance of coral reef ecosystems and the need to protect and conserve them for future generations of Coral Campers!
This summer the kids enjoyed a variety of new activities: we dissected a barracuda and found a jack in its stomach; we dissected a jack and found an octopus in its stomach! Now, the kids love that kind of activity but, they also learn the importance of stomach content analysis and its use as a scientific tool when we look at food chains, food webs, and predator/prey interactions. Too much for a six year old? Just ask the kids, they learn from it believe me.
We were able to purchase a microscope as the result of being awarded a grant because of Coral Camp for Kids. We looked at sand grains from all over the world and translated that into high energy vs low energy environments. We looked at the plankton community and saw microscopic moon jellies (the bane of this summers snorkeling activity on a few occasions) and others such as copepods and diatoms and their importance in marine food webs. The kids were amazed that the largest living animals on Earth feast on copepods and other small organisms such as krill and sand lances.
We demonstrated coral reproduction, specifically, broadcast spawning by using bubbles and the wind that acted as our ocean currents. The kids learned how corals reproduce and at the same time dispersal mechanisms and the importance of coral larvae recruitment to other areas of the reef tract.
We took the kids on field trips everyday and we cannot thank enough the sponsors that helped out this year with Coral Camp for Kids and we are hoping to work with them again next year and they include:
Sebago Watersports with Captain Eric and crew, they enjoy having the kids and are a great help to our mission; Fury Watersports and Captain Andy and crew; the Key West Aquarium and their staff; the Key West Wildlife Center and Tom and other staff members; Mr. Kyle at the Key West Butterfly Conservatory; Fort Zachary Taylor State Park and their staff for allowing us to teach proper snorkeling techniques to the kids before taking them out to the actual reef tract; NOAA’s Eco-Discovery Center and the staff there along with the Mote Marine lab exhibit, both vital educational tools for the kids and a lot of fun too!
We could not give the kids the unforgettable experience of Coral Camp without our sponsors and we thank all of you very much for helping us here at Reef Relief and for helping our community has a whole through your generosity and understanding of the need to educate our kids.
We also owe a debt of gratitude to Pastor John of the Glad Tidings Community Church that provided us with transportation to these various venues that made up our fieldtrips. Key West Transportation also helped with transportation of the kids and we thank them as well.
And last, but not in any sense the least, we want to thank our summer
intern Samantha Rose for her work with the kids. Samantha (Sam) was essential to the program this year as she provided her knowledge and her warmth and kindness to the kids and she is missed not only by us at Reef Relief but by all of the kids as well. She had a very positive influence on all of them and they all were very sad when she had to leave.
Next year is looking even better and we will begin signing up kids a little earlier as we anticipate even more kids coming to camp next summer.
Parents, Reef Relief’s Coral Camp is an experience that the kids will never forget and for those of you considering enrolling your child or children next year, rest assured it is an unforgettable experience and the kids learn so much and at the same time they have an absolute blast, except in the presence of those evil moon jellies, on the other hand, I guess we should thank them as well, as the kids learned a valuable lesson from them too!
See you kids next year!
Rudy and Mill
by GREENWISE on JULY, 2011
This is a guest post by Lydia-Quibbin Jones
Children nowadays are becoming less in-tune with the environment. With modern technology crammed in every aspect of their lives, it’s so easy for the little ones to get sucked into a vortex of indifference and completely forget about nature.
This is sad news to think that a couple of years down the road, our kids will inherit what we have propagated. It’s already accepted that we (the adults) have done the environment more harm than good over the past couple of years, but pointing fingers will not change anything. What we can do now, as parents, is strive to raise a generation of earth savers.
There is no shortage of incidental lessons to learn at home if we only take time to join our kids in the learning process.
Here are ways we can encourage our kids to adopt a Green attitude.
by Blythe Copeland, Great Neck, New York
Sometimes it takes the simple clarity of a child to change the world as we know it.
Among all the social change, political maneuvering, and serious issues facing the environment today, there are plenty of savvy kids taking matters into their own hands: Coming up with plans to save countless gallons of water in their cities, tackling Mcdonalds, fighting to stop mountaintop removal mining, raising money for Gulf Coast relief efforts, and more.
1. Caitlyn Larsen
Ten-year-old Caitlyn Larsen of Orogrande, New Mexico, was just one of the locals who got an uneasy feeling when she saw a new hole, filled with mining equipment, in the side of a mountain — but she was also one of the most vocal.
Caitlyn sent out a press release to draw attention to the environmental devastation that the mining effort would leave in its wake. The release caught the attention of the director of the New Mexico mining and Mineral Division, who checked a little further into the operation and found that the company behind the mine was “less than above the board.”
The company was forced to withdraw and the mountain is still standing. Read the full story
