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Oldest Known Living Coral On Display In Florida Keys
A permanent exhibit featuring the oldest known living coral in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary is now on display at the Fossil Reef State Park on Windley Key. Called the "Bicentennial Coral, this 415-year-old "Redwood of the Sea" is a Mountainous Star Coral, (Montastrea annularis). The Florida Keys Sanctuary park manager and professional designers worked over the past year to help create the exhibit. A section of the coral will be used to design a similar and more elaborate display for the Nancy Foster Center in Key West. A replica of the entire coral is planned that will illustrate the complex interactions of these magnificent structures with the coral reef ecosystem. For more information contact Billy Causey.
NOAA and Mexico Undertake Joint Hydrographic Charting Effort
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) ship THOMAS JEFFERSON will soon conduct a joint hydrographic survey with Mexico in the Mexican waters of the Gulf of Mexico. This is the first time that the United States and Mexico have undertaken a joint survey. During a reception April 24 to commemorate the event, Capt. Roger L. Parsons, director of NOAA’s Office of Coast Survey and the U.S. National Hydrographer, and Mexico’s National Hydrographer Capitan de Navio Fernando Angli Rodriguez will reaffirm the commitments made in the charting agreement. For more information, contact Meg Danley.
Water Quality a Common Theme in Coastal Services New Edition
The May/June edition of Coastal Services, the national trade journal for coastal resource managers published by the NOAA Coastal Services Center, will be available April 26. The cover story looks at how South Carolina coastal resource managers are proactively addressing overloaded and unmaintained septic systems. Other articles explore how California is taking an annual “snapshot” of the rivers and streams flowing along the state’s coastline, as well as information on how Wisconsin and California coastal managers partnered to bring water quality information to Latino and other underserved communities. This edition also includes an article on how Delaware’s quest for science-based management is beginning to pay off. For more information, contact Hanna Goss.
April 9, 2004
Restored Coral Reef Site To Be Marked
NOAA’s National Marine Sanctuary Program will place a geodetic marker at the site of a recently restored coral reef in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary on June 17, 2004. Tim Keeney, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Oceans and Atmosphere, will represent NOAA. The event will take place off Key Largo where the Wellwood, a 122-meter Cypriot-registered freighter, ran aground in 1984. It crushed 5,805 square meters of living corals. Sanctuary divers will place the marker at the site as ceremony participants watch from a glass-bottom boat. A press conference will be held to deliver the message that responsible boating is paramount to protecting our resources. For more information, contact David Hall or Angela Calos.
Marine Protected Areas Web Site Enhanced
NOAA's Marine Protected Areas (MPA) Center has added Web pages on training and geographic information systems/remote sensing to the Information and Tools section of the redeveloped MPA Web site (http://mpa.gov). The MPA Center’s Charter, the MPA Federal Advisory Committee agenda for the April 6-8 meeting in Key Largo, Florida, and 17 marine managed area sites in Oregon were also posted. For more information, please contact Dana Topousis.
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