• Did you know that the Coral Reef Alliance has turned 15? Wow time flies when you are doing positive things. You can also donate to their causes by clicking here.
• Coral Reef Alliance, Greenpeace USA, WWF, Sierra Club & SeaWeb Urge for Strong Protection – a coalition of 44 marine conservation and stakeholder groups and more than 100 marine scientists has formed to ask the White House and U.S. Congress to undertake measures to support coral reef conservation. The rest could be found here.
• Experts Discuss Enhancing Coral Resilience – In Guam, a group of coral reef managers have gathered to discuss potential ways to help coral become more resilient to environmental changes. For more, click here.
• Coral Crisis in the Caribbean -  A recent study showed declines in coral reef fish along the entire Caribbean. The study, which pooled data from over 300 reefs and 273 fish species, shows declines in both fish we catch and those we don’t. For more, click here for an exclusive interview with Michelle Paddack, Ph.D.
• Florida Artificial Tire Reef Cleanup Team Receives Coastal America Award Recognition from Obama - Well, there is some positive news in the reef world. The Florida Department of Environmental Protection was recognised for working together to protect and enhance the Florida’s coral reef system. The rest of the article is found here.

Do you have any great conservation websites or links you want to show us, send us an email at info@fragd.it

“You feel lucky punk? Well, do you?”

I still dream of having my own cuttlefish army one day.  Until that happens, I’ll settle for making weird hand gestures at the aquarium.

After a couple minutes, one smallish cuttlefish turned red, grabbed a shrimp that was in the tank as a snack for the cuttles, and pushed the shrimp up against the glass in front of my hands. It seemed to be offering it to me. Then a larger cuttlefish turned white, grabbed the shrimp from the smaller one, and the big cuttlefish then repeated the effort to push it through the glass to me! The small cuttlefish turned gravel patterned, shot a jet of water out, and went to hide behind a tank decoration.

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Disturbing news about the state of the coral reefs in the Carribean.  They’re flat:

You know those underwater pictures of pretty branched coral rising up from reefs in the Caribbean? Well that lovely coral is all but gone. Not disappearing, gone—on more than 75 percent of coral reefs in the Caribbean.

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“OK people. Nothing to see here”

This is the best story I’ve ever read about reefing.  I’m sure every reefer who’s sold frags in a parking lot out of the back of his car has felt the same way.  I’m still waiting for the police helicopter to land in my backyard ready to bust me for my ‘grow house‘.

When I told the cop about “reefers” my meaning was not related to marijuana or date-rape drugs. Really, my friend and I were only involved with the reef-keeping community, which is an upstanding and rewarding hobby! The cop stared at me blankly and then stuck his radio near his mouth.

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• DaniReef: “The Surgeonfishes” – A great article by our favorite reefer out of Europe, Danilo. Covers many common Tangs that we may see in captivity. A great read!
• Design and Reef: “Second Nature by Tokujin Yoshioka” – Art and aquariums. Just read on, as art speaks for itself.
• Glassbox-Design: “Sustainable Sea Food & Traditions Collide” – A very interesting perspective on how different people have different uses of things in the ocean. Boy, those cucumbers are expensive!!
• Glassbox-Design: “ATB Deluxe Skimmers- First Photos” – Thought the skimmer craze has died down? I’ll take “No” for 100$ Alex. ATB tries to muscle itself as the leader of the skimmer pack.
• Marine Depot: “Zeolite Filtration in Reef Aquaria” – Cloudy about all of this Zeo talk? This article puts things in clear order. Read on.
• Coral Morphologic: “Unidentified Floridian Algae #1” – Rarely identified blue Floridian algae, was spotted and photographed by two awesome marine biologists Colin and Jared. Did I already say that they are great underwater photographers?
• My Coral Adventures: “Good Morning Singapore” – Our good friend from the East, Eddie Hanson, continues his great stories of his travels. His new entry has him spotted in Singapore, looking for great eats and colorful corals. Read, read!
• Ocean At Home: “Uber-Rare McCulloch’s Clownfish Cought Mating On Film” – Black and white tomato-like clownfish? The only pair seen in North America. Check it out!
• Reef Builders: “New Deep Blue Chromis Found” – More new fish found in deep water, this time a Blue Chromis. Ngemelis island, Palau is the location for our new fish, and article.. read on.
• Stony Reef: “Aquacultured Black Photon Clowns” – Dr. Sanjay Joshi was a father to an unusual clownfish breed, which he tubbed Black Photon. For more on this story, check out the rest of Logan’s article.

Now you are all caught up. Enojy the rest of your day.

If you didn’t know, we here at Fragd.it like to bring you all up to date on many happenings around the world. Today’s post will summarize what has been happening at Coral Reef Alliance (CRA). Here are some of the quick snippets:

• Large Sponges May Be Reattached To Coral Reefs – an article explaining how sponges can be reattached due to human destruction. The full article could be read here.
• New Protections for Coral Reefs and Dwindling Fish Species in Belize – new bills have been passed to protect the most pristine North American reefs, located in Belize.  Read on.
• Photos: Relocation of Coral Reef in Chabahar, Iran – a new conservation experiment is being conducted in Chabahr, Iran. It seems that around 50 colonies are being transported into a protected area by Bandar Beheshti port. The rest of the article can be read here.
• Indonesia Wishes to Be Seat of Coral Triangle Initiative Secretariate – the CTI (Coral Triangle Initiative) might be hosted in Indonesia sooner than later, a report says. Around 4900 participants are expected to attend CTI. Full article.
• “Super Reefs” Fend off Climate Change – East African reefs show the world that corals are much more resilient than us humans give it credit. These reefs are showing signs that even through temperature changes, they have the ability to pull through and continue to grow. The rest is read here.

Now you are all caught up, for now. Up next, an interesting update on the coral food post. Stay tuned.

Lets see what our friends at CRA found newsworthy, in this edition of Roundup!

• Taiwan Coral Reefs ‘Turn Black’ with Disease: it seems like humans race did it again. A study found that toxic sewage waste was deposited into the ocean near the islands of Chen Chao-lun causing obvious acidification of the nearby coral reef. More can be found here..
• Beating Poverty Could Save Coral Reef Fish: according to the reports made by researchers near the West Indian Ocean, poverty plays a huge role in overfishing. It would make sense as every person tries to survive by any means necessary. I just hope we interject and show them how they all can benefit if they all work together, rather against each other. The rest of the article could be found here.
• The Tiny, Slimy Savior of Coral Reefs: Andrew Baker, a scientist at Miami’s RSMAS, has engaged in a project that will try to show how the symbiotic relationship between the polyps and the zooanthellae (definition) can withstand higher temperatures of heat. Very interesting stuff.

As always, please support our friends at CRA. They do a lot of good around the world to help our reefs. You can click on the link on our side panel (under conservation links).  We can all help one step at a time!

From time to time, we like to publish some newsworthy tidbits from our friends at CRA (Coral Reef Alliance). Here are the lastest issues:

• US Pacific Waters Protected - thanks to many CRA readers, president Bush actually did something positive. He designated over 194 000 square miles on the west coast as national marine monuments. Follow the link above for the rest.
• Cave Sponges Cruical to Surival of Coral Reef – A very eye opening research done by Jasper De Goeij on how sponges have a cruical role in the coral reef’s food cycle. Think of it as a reef’s intestinal tract.
• Sea Squirts, Coral Reefs and Other New Marine Life Discovered in Tasmanian Waters – New marine life has been discovered by a team of researchers headed by Jess Adkins of the California Institute of Technology. Some of discovered included 10,000 year old corals.

Eddie at My Coral Adventures writes about the effect of the economic downturn on the industry.  One of his favourite distributors closes its doors.  Hopefully the owners can get back on their feet soon.  I love the pictures of the facility.

Eddy has this to say about it:

The Bay Area has three large wholesalers and several small guys. One big player has already folded. And sorry to say that the biggest wholesaler, Aquatic Specialties and Pets, is the next victim of the downturn of the economy. Robert Rodriguez is the owner and a dear friend of mine and I am very sad to see him go. Well, not quite. Robert has decided to forgo his lease on his monster warehouse and downsize his operation.

CNN highlights the effect of the booming Chinese economy on shark-finning.

Over the last decade, the exploding middle class in China has changed the fate of the shark. With an unprecedented number of people making more money than ever, the demand for all things that signal an improvement in status is gargantuan. The ability to serve and consume shark fin soup is among the most revered of activities, because it signifies that one has made it.

Shark fin soup can be expensive. A bowl of imperial shark fin soup can cost upwards of $100. These days, shark fin soup is so fashionable that it’s becoming commonplace. Buffets serve versions of it for as low as $10 a bowl. The irony is that shark fin is flavorless — its cartilage has a chewy consistency. Tens of thousands of sharks are being killed for a gelatinous thing in a soup.

Even though it’s over 10 years old, it’s new to me: the Big Bloop.  Be sure to listen to the sped up version of the Bloop.  From the article:

Scientists have revealed a mysterious recording that they say could be the sound of a giant beast lurking in the depths of the ocean.

Researchers have nicknamed the strange unidentified sound picked up by undersea microphones “Bloop.”

While it bears the varying frequency hallmark of marine animals, it is far more powerful than the calls made by any creature known on Earth, Britain’s New Scientist reported on Thursday.

Speaking of giant cephalopods, XKCD, normally a comic strip for nerds, shows the dangers of killer cephalopods.  It just makes sense.

Did you know that there are fish out there which can emit a red fluorescent glow? According to this article, there are upwards of 32 reef fish that are found to be within this description. Certainly makes you wonder if there are corals that are just as brilliantly red in those depths.

About.com did a feature on the Flowerpot coral (Goniopora) and created a slideshow to show its magnificence. Maybe that calls for a Species Profile article…. hmmm.

To the land of the early sun, Australian officials are listening to the urges from many scientists to ban fishing in a one million square meter area in the Coral Sea. This would create the worlds largest heritage park, bigger than the Barrier Reef. Stay tuned for the developing stories, or read the full article.

And finally, Port Stephens (Australia, again) scientists are embarking on a world first project. They are trying to nurse unborn wobbegong sharks (Nurse Sharks) in artificial wombs. They claim that due to many animal’s cannibalistic nature, it is hard to raise (naturally) species that are near extinction. There are fewer than 500 left around the coasts of Australia. This project’s details can be found in this article.