Recent content by Reef Check HQ

Hi folks, Good point. The line in the Declaration regarding collecting is aimed at individual waders, divers and snorklers. Obviously RC has been publicly supporting sustainable collection of reef organisms for many years, in particular for the marine aquarium trade and having a Board member...

Thanks for all the good comments. No one has done the experiments on post-larval growout and release until now. So we really don't know how well rehabiliation will work on a large scale. But the small-scale experiments have been promising and Rex can tell you more about them. From an...

Folks, The post-larvae can be grown out under various conditions and they will retain their skills in negotiating with the world. Obviously, there are two potential streams for the juvenile fish. 1) Allow the local fishermen to sell them directly as an additional income source, and/or 2) Use...

Hi guys, Sorry for the absence. I am very impressed with the mainly positive and informative nature of the posts over the past two weeks. I would like to share that over the past few weeks I have visited several MPAs that are not so widely known but are quite successful. Reef Check began...

Hi folks, Sorry to be so quiet and we do appreciate the supportive comments about our communications here. As noted previously, we all have "day" jobs and many of the staff are regularly out of email range for field work so cannot participate as regularly as we would like to. But we are still...

Kalk, You are my hero! Few people actually sit down and take the time to figure out the scale of the issue under discussion. Your calculations, even if not perfect -- reveal the true scale of both the problem facing reef conservation and required solutions. Despite this huge scale -- the sad...

Peter, Good question! Yes, the RC volunteer program was designed to collect information on reef health whereas MAMTI was designed to collect data on reef fish and invert populations and their structure. By collecting both data sets it is possible to make those comparisons. As noted...

Wayne, Yours is exactly the kind of positive suggestion that we are looking for on this thread.... and in fact that is one of the basic assumptions of MAC ... that we need to find a way to cover the costs of taking better care of the reefs that are providing the basis for the industry -- even...

Well, we are in luck folks coz I found a cafe here in Margaritaville. I also apologize if some of my posts seem arrogant and that might be because between myself and my staff ... we have spent more time in the water surveying coral reefs and working directly with CN fishermen over the last 25...

Folks, We seem to be getting into a lot of negative territory here. I must admit that it is fun. But the real reason I wanted Reef Check to get involved in this forum was to discuss positive ideas for collaboration between the trade, scientists and non-profits such as Reef Check. I believe...

I think I made it clear in my previous posts that this was my opinion and all of you are free to disagree with it. But I am afraid that citing #s of hits on web sites is not the way science works. The claim is being made that CN is damaging reefs on a large scale by many of those you cite. I am...

Hi Mark, You continue to take up a lot of space to beat around the bush and I am not going to re-address questions that I have already answered. I guess some people have a lot of free time on their hands? Since we are in a mood of "transparency and openess" I assume this works in both...

Peter, Please give me the citation for a peer-reviewed journal article that demonstrates that CN kills reefs by the mile. There are literally tens of thousands of square miles of reefs in the Philippines let along Indonesia. Testing a fish in the lab is not evidence that coral reefs are being...

Naesco(?) asks, "1. What steps you took to stop the fishermen that were illegally harvesting fish with cyanide? 2. What is your organization doing to stop the rampant use of cyanide in the Philippines and the destruction it causes to the reef and the critters that live thereon." ********** In...

We all know that CN is a poison to both vertebrates and invertebrates including corals as it interferes with the cytochrome system. "(it is thought to exert its ultimate lethal effect of histotoxic anoxia by binding to the active site of cytochrome oxidase thereby stopping aerobic cell...