Reef Conservation UK (RCUK) was formed to promote multidisciplinary conservation, public awareness and education about coral reefs, as well as to ensure that all reef related activities are conducted in a responsible manner.
Reef Conservation UK - 16th Annual Meeting - Organised by Rebecca Short, David Curnick (Zoological Society of London), Alastair Harborne (University of Queensland), Simon Harding, Emma Kennedy (Exeter University), Heather Koldewey (Zoological Society of London), Kristian Teleki (Global Ocean Commission), Caroline Walsh (University of Kent) and Elizabeth Wood (Marine Conservation Society)
Following the success of RCUK’s annual meetings and the positive response to continue with a yearly meeting the RCUK committee is pleased to announce that RCUK 2013 meeting will be held once again on 7th December 2013 at the Zoological Society of London. This meeting is held to promote the mission of RCUK by opening the lines of communication through a series of presentations, posters and providing opportunities for networking. Aside from the scheduled programme on the day, this meeting is an excellent opportunity to meet fellow UK reef workers and enthusiasts to discuss ideas and activities on an informal basis.
This meeting will continue to highlight the need for multidisciplinary studies of coral reefs and adjacent environments, as linked to the RCUK themes of conservation, management and education. Therefore, students, researchers and professionals, from a wide range of backgrounds and disciplines who are involved with coral reef activities, are encouraged to participate. The meeting is intended to raise awareness of an individual’s or organisation’s work and interests to the wider UK coral reef concerned community.
Reef Conservation UK - 16th Annual Meeting - Organised by Rebecca Short, David Curnick (Zoological Society of London), Alastair Harborne (University of Queensland), Simon Harding, Emma Kennedy (Exeter University), Heather Koldewey (Zoological Society of London), Kristian Teleki (Global Ocean Commission), Caroline Walsh (University of Kent) and Elizabeth Wood (Marine Conservation Society)
Following the success of RCUK’s annual meetings and the positive response to continue with a yearly meeting the RCUK committee is pleased to announce that RCUK 2013 meeting will be held once again on 7th December 2013 at the Zoological Society of London. This meeting is held to promote the mission of RCUK by opening the lines of communication through a series of presentations, posters and providing opportunities for networking. Aside from the scheduled programme on the day, this meeting is an excellent opportunity to meet fellow UK reef workers and enthusiasts to discuss ideas and activities on an informal basis.
This meeting will continue to highlight the need for multidisciplinary studies of coral reefs and adjacent environments, as linked to the RCUK themes of conservation, management and education. Therefore, students, researchers and professionals, from a wide range of backgrounds and disciplines who are involved with coral reef activities, are encouraged to participate. The meeting is intended to raise awareness of an individual’s or organisation’s work and interests to the wider UK coral reef concerned community.
12th International Coral Reef Symposium 2012
Every four years the International Society for Reef Studies (ISRS) sanctions a major international scientific conference which provides the latest knowledge and leading edge technologies about coral reefs worldwide. In July 2012, over 2000 of the world's leading natural scientists, resource managers, conservationists, economists, educators and graduate students met together in Cairns to progress coral reef science, management and conservation at the International Coral Reef Symposium (ICRS).
The research and findings presented at ICRS 2012 are fundamental in informing international and national policies and the sustainable use of coral reefs globally. Key focuses of the Symposium include the challenges that link between climate change, coral bleaching and disease, and ocean acidification; sustaining coral fisheries that support millions worldwide; the effectiveness of Marine Protected Areas; and the social and economic benefits of coral reef management.
Fore more information about the Symposium, visit www.icrs2012.com, or stay connected via Twitter and Facebook.
Dr Michael Sweet and Professor John Bythell presented two talks on their work in coral disease and immunology.
Dr Sweet's, reviewed the present knowledge of disease research and highlighted the need of reef scientists to look 'outside of the box' when it came to 'bacterial' diseases of corals. Although the work he presented is largely controversial, it appeared to do the trick and researchers were taking notice of what he had to say on the matter. Hopefully, they will take this information back to their home countries and implement the information in their own research. John and Mike challenged that researchers who aimed to assess coral disease using a well known microbial technique called Koch's postulates (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koch's_postulates) must account for other potential pathogens such as ciliates when analyzing their samples.
Professor Bythell highlighted in his talk, that the Surface Mucus Layer, known simply as the SML, is not a breeding ground for bacteria as many suggested but a highly dynamic and motile layer, sloughing off the coral in minutes rather than hours or days. He suggested bacterial communities associated with this layer are ever changing and do not represent the true bacterial communities associated with the coral tissues themselves. This has important implications with respect to how researchers sample their coral and this again depends on what questions particular researchers are attempting to answer.
During 12ICRS, we recorded a TV program for ABC News 24, entitled Can Coral Reefs Survive the 21st Century? The one-hour episode is now available online at;
http://www.abc.net.au/news/abcnews24/programs/future-forum/
The recording features an international panel of coral reef of experts and practitioners who answered questions in front of an informed audience.
The key issues discussed were: How can we ensure the continued survival of the remaining coral reefs? What role do marine parks play? And while the world's population continues to expand, how can we meet the growing food and energy demands while still protecting coral reefs?
The research and findings presented at ICRS 2012 are fundamental in informing international and national policies and the sustainable use of coral reefs globally. Key focuses of the Symposium include the challenges that link between climate change, coral bleaching and disease, and ocean acidification; sustaining coral fisheries that support millions worldwide; the effectiveness of Marine Protected Areas; and the social and economic benefits of coral reef management.
Fore more information about the Symposium, visit www.icrs2012.com, or stay connected via Twitter and Facebook.
Dr Michael Sweet and Professor John Bythell presented two talks on their work in coral disease and immunology.
Dr Sweet's, reviewed the present knowledge of disease research and highlighted the need of reef scientists to look 'outside of the box' when it came to 'bacterial' diseases of corals. Although the work he presented is largely controversial, it appeared to do the trick and researchers were taking notice of what he had to say on the matter. Hopefully, they will take this information back to their home countries and implement the information in their own research. John and Mike challenged that researchers who aimed to assess coral disease using a well known microbial technique called Koch's postulates (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koch's_postulates) must account for other potential pathogens such as ciliates when analyzing their samples.
Professor Bythell highlighted in his talk, that the Surface Mucus Layer, known simply as the SML, is not a breeding ground for bacteria as many suggested but a highly dynamic and motile layer, sloughing off the coral in minutes rather than hours or days. He suggested bacterial communities associated with this layer are ever changing and do not represent the true bacterial communities associated with the coral tissues themselves. This has important implications with respect to how researchers sample their coral and this again depends on what questions particular researchers are attempting to answer.
During 12ICRS, we recorded a TV program for ABC News 24, entitled Can Coral Reefs Survive the 21st Century? The one-hour episode is now available online at;
http://www.abc.net.au/news/abcnews24/programs/future-forum/
The recording features an international panel of coral reef of experts and practitioners who answered questions in front of an informed audience.
The key issues discussed were: How can we ensure the continued survival of the remaining coral reefs? What role do marine parks play? And while the world's population continues to expand, how can we meet the growing food and energy demands while still protecting coral reefs?
Events and Workshops
‘The Big UK Experiment’ at the Zoological Society, London; 26th May 2012
Coral Aquarist Research Network (CARN) was initiated by Philippa Mansell almost 3 years ago, with the main aim to create better links between research and industry, which has been successfully achieved, with excellent collaborations, workshops and projects as a result. One further main area, this project aimed to address their attention to was initiate the work of reserachers and the aquarium industry with the reefkeepers (you). The amount of knowledge that reefkeepers/hobbyists have is definitely an area to be tapped into but it was finding a way in which this could be accessed and used in such a way that all parties could benefit that was difficult.
This was therefore the main focus of CARN for the past year and through an industry collaboration with a company called MarineMad CARN has been working hard at launching a project that does exactly that. CARN and MarineMad have launched an Ipod application which is linked directly to an individual aquarium allowing the owner to manage all aspects of their system including water chemistry, coral growth, fish length and enable all of this information to be downloaded to a central database located within the CRRU. The aim of this experiment is to enable every reefkeeper to become directly involved with research activities within the CRRU with their personal tank becoming replication experimental systems with the UK-wide data being used by coral reef researchers to assist in the answering of key questions such as the types of species held, the trade of these species, their sensitivity, how corals adapt to change and their tolerance and resilience to environmental anomalies that as a research community we simply do not have the resources to confidently address.
The involvement with this project will not only engage the public in research but it will also have a two-fold benefit to industry providing important market research and providing MarineMad with an industry-wide marketable product, increasing customer engagement with their organisation and provide greater opportunities for MarineMad to engage with and under-take research development in collaboration with researchers and industry.
So I am delighted to announce that CARN/MarineMad/CRRU are launching ‘The Big UK Experiment’ at the Zoological Society, London on the 26th May from 10am (official start 11am) to 2pm with academics, industry, Government, media and reefkeepers in attendance. We will follow up on how this went below after the event. for more information see; http://carnuk.org/about.aspx
The Big UK Experiment — a hobbyists view of a great day!
As a hobbyist that has had limited success with keeping hard corals, I was really excited by the opportunity to attend the launch of “The Big UK Experiment”. I hoped to learn about some of the mistakes I’ve made previously, and how I can avoid them in the future.
The opportunity to listen to talks by the academic experts on the subject of coral research, discuss new innovations within the hobbyist market with some of the industry leaders, find out more about the “Big UK Experiment”, and to crown it all, the opportunity for a “behind the scenes” tour of the reef aquariums at ZSL made this a “not to be missed” day for me.
The day had a great atmosphere, with lots of discussion between all groups that attended; academia, industry and hobbyist all together to learn from each other. With an audience of perhaps 60-80 people, there were sufficient attendees for a wide range of views to be expressed, but was still small enough for people to feel comfortable walking up to the experts and starting discussions with them.
The MarineMad iPhone app (or the browser-based alternative for us Android users…) looks to have the potential to provide even closer links between the academic and the hobbyist communities, and, if it succeeds, will be of great benefit to both groups. Offering the scientists the opportunity to get data from potentially hundreds, if not thousands, of reef tanks in the homes of hobbyists up and down the country, and also a way for the results of these scientific studies to be disseminated back into the hobbyist community presents a “win-win” situation.
As with lots of things in life, and to reflect the mantra of one of the first fish-keeping forums that I joined when I started in this hobby about 10 years ago, “only bad things happen quickly in this hobby”; we will have to wait awhile for the full benefits to start making them known. However, as first steps go, this has the potential to be the start of great things to come.
Many thanks to Pippa, CARN, MarineMad, the people from CRRU, Newcastle University, the Horniman Museum, the trade representitives and also to ZSL for organising and running the day, and to all those from all sides of the aquarium who took part in making this such a successful day!
Andrew Westfold — West London Reef Club member
Coral Aquarist Research Network (CARN) was initiated by Philippa Mansell almost 3 years ago, with the main aim to create better links between research and industry, which has been successfully achieved, with excellent collaborations, workshops and projects as a result. One further main area, this project aimed to address their attention to was initiate the work of reserachers and the aquarium industry with the reefkeepers (you). The amount of knowledge that reefkeepers/hobbyists have is definitely an area to be tapped into but it was finding a way in which this could be accessed and used in such a way that all parties could benefit that was difficult.
This was therefore the main focus of CARN for the past year and through an industry collaboration with a company called MarineMad CARN has been working hard at launching a project that does exactly that. CARN and MarineMad have launched an Ipod application which is linked directly to an individual aquarium allowing the owner to manage all aspects of their system including water chemistry, coral growth, fish length and enable all of this information to be downloaded to a central database located within the CRRU. The aim of this experiment is to enable every reefkeeper to become directly involved with research activities within the CRRU with their personal tank becoming replication experimental systems with the UK-wide data being used by coral reef researchers to assist in the answering of key questions such as the types of species held, the trade of these species, their sensitivity, how corals adapt to change and their tolerance and resilience to environmental anomalies that as a research community we simply do not have the resources to confidently address.
The involvement with this project will not only engage the public in research but it will also have a two-fold benefit to industry providing important market research and providing MarineMad with an industry-wide marketable product, increasing customer engagement with their organisation and provide greater opportunities for MarineMad to engage with and under-take research development in collaboration with researchers and industry.
So I am delighted to announce that CARN/MarineMad/CRRU are launching ‘The Big UK Experiment’ at the Zoological Society, London on the 26th May from 10am (official start 11am) to 2pm with academics, industry, Government, media and reefkeepers in attendance. We will follow up on how this went below after the event. for more information see; http://carnuk.org/about.aspx
The Big UK Experiment — a hobbyists view of a great day!
As a hobbyist that has had limited success with keeping hard corals, I was really excited by the opportunity to attend the launch of “The Big UK Experiment”. I hoped to learn about some of the mistakes I’ve made previously, and how I can avoid them in the future.
The opportunity to listen to talks by the academic experts on the subject of coral research, discuss new innovations within the hobbyist market with some of the industry leaders, find out more about the “Big UK Experiment”, and to crown it all, the opportunity for a “behind the scenes” tour of the reef aquariums at ZSL made this a “not to be missed” day for me.
The day had a great atmosphere, with lots of discussion between all groups that attended; academia, industry and hobbyist all together to learn from each other. With an audience of perhaps 60-80 people, there were sufficient attendees for a wide range of views to be expressed, but was still small enough for people to feel comfortable walking up to the experts and starting discussions with them.
The MarineMad iPhone app (or the browser-based alternative for us Android users…) looks to have the potential to provide even closer links between the academic and the hobbyist communities, and, if it succeeds, will be of great benefit to both groups. Offering the scientists the opportunity to get data from potentially hundreds, if not thousands, of reef tanks in the homes of hobbyists up and down the country, and also a way for the results of these scientific studies to be disseminated back into the hobbyist community presents a “win-win” situation.
As with lots of things in life, and to reflect the mantra of one of the first fish-keeping forums that I joined when I started in this hobby about 10 years ago, “only bad things happen quickly in this hobby”; we will have to wait awhile for the full benefits to start making them known. However, as first steps go, this has the potential to be the start of great things to come.
Many thanks to Pippa, CARN, MarineMad, the people from CRRU, Newcastle University, the Horniman Museum, the trade representitives and also to ZSL for organising and running the day, and to all those from all sides of the aquarium who took part in making this such a successful day!
Andrew Westfold — West London Reef Club member
