PLEASE SIGN THE NEAR-SHORE OIL DRILLING BAN PETITION TODAY (PRINT AND MAIL TO THE ADDRESS INCLUDED) Petition Form IMPORTANT INFORMATION: FLORIDA’S STATE WATERS EXTEND APPROXIMATELY THREE MILES INTO THE ATLANTIC OCEAN AND 10 MILES INTO THE GULF OF MEXICO. IF THE PETITION EFFORT SUCCEEDS, FLORIDIANS WILL BE ALLOWED THE CHANCE TO BAN OIL DRILLING IN […]
Coral Reef Fact: If a male lionfish (Pterois volitans) meets another male while hunting, the more aggressive male will turn darker in color and point its poisonous, spiny dorsal fins at the other individual who usually folds down its pectoral fins and swims away. Learn more Please support Reef Relief’s work to protect coral reefs.
Coral Reef Fact: Some sea slugs (nudibranchs) that feed on corals & sea anemones ingest the stinging cells of their prey without discharging them; these pass from the digestive tract to the ceratia (feathery structures) where they are used by the slug for its own defense. (watch video) Please support Reef Relief’s work to protect […]
Coral Reef Fact: Fluorescent coral absorbs light at one wavelength and emits it at another. Scientists have found that corals with fluorescent properties can handle the effects of coral bleaching caused by warmer waters better than other corals. Find out how this may, also, benefit us: Fluorescent Coral Could Aid Cancer Research (video) Join Reef […]
Coral Reef Fact: Hogfish (Lachnolaimus maximus) are protogynous hermaphrodites. Females, upon reaching larger size and through social dominance, can transform into fully functional males. Learn more at http://reefguide.org/carib/index7.html Join Reef Relief today to support coral reef conservation. www.reefrelief.org/donate
ScienceDaily (Jan. 12, 2011) — Geologists at Brown University and the University of Washington have a cautionary tale: Lose enough species in the oceans, and the entire ecosystem could collapse. Looking at two of the greatest mass extinctions in Earth’s history, the scientists attribute the ecosystems’ collapse to a loss in the variety of species […]
Coral Reef Fact: The cuttlefish has three hearts, with two pumping blood to its large gills and one circulating the oxygenated blood to the rest of its body. The blood itself is blue-green in color because it possesses hemocyanin, a copper-containing protein typical in cephalopods—cuttlefish, octopuses, and squids. For more info http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/camo/ See cuttlefish on […]
Conserving these corals may offer hope for shallower, degraded reefs January 4, 2011 NOAA-funded scientists have found extensive and biologically diverse coral ecosystems occurring at depths between 100-500 feet within a 12 mile span off the southwestern coast of Puerto Rico. With the overall health of shallow coral reefs and the abundance of reef fish […]
Wednesday, 12 January 2011 06:29 Written by CBC News “We’ve estimated that for every species we know about, there’s probably another three or four that we don’t know, that have never been sampled by science,” said Paul Snelgrove, a professor at the Memorial University of Newfoundland’s Ocean Science Centre who led the group that compiled […]
Reef Fact: Consumption of Barracuda may be more harmful to humans than any potential of attack by them in the water. People often become ill from ciguatera fish poisoning after ingesting barracudas, perhaps because the reef fish that barracudas eat themselves consume algae that may contain high levels of the toxin. Learn more at http://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/fish/gallery/descript/greatbarracuda/greatbarracuda.html