SECORE 2007 Images

[OUsnakebyte]

Hey all -

 

Back from secore workshop and thought I'd share a few pics. If you want to read up on the workshop and how we did (way too much to write here), you can visit secore.org. Click on the 2007 workshop, and there is a day-to-day blog that one of the members set up while we were there.

 

 

Anyway, here are a few pics (I won't post all of them - too much and too boring after a while... )

 

 

These first few are of our setup on the beach - flow-through system, holding kreisels, etc.

 

 

 

 

The location:

 

 

 

 

 

 

The reason we are here - threatened Acropora palmata. Wow were there ever some impressive, HUGE stands of palmata still remaining here. It really makes you wonder what it all use to look like and very sad to think about where we are today.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Manifolds:

 

 

 

 

 

They really work, I swear!

 

 

 

 

 

The kreisels, aka Larval Stirring Devices...

 

 

 

 

 

LSD in action...

 

 

 

 

 

Bottle 'o gametes after night dive

 

 

 

 

 

Larval soup

 

 

 

 

 

A. palmata frags

 

 

 

 

 

SURGE!!! Eric set up one of his "Borneman Surge Devices"

 

 

 

 

 

 

And finally two newly-settled A. palmata primary polyps here at Inverts. We inoculated with A3 zoox, but it is difficult to tell in this pic whether they have acquired any or not. However, you can see the septa starting to develop beneath the flesh.

 

 

 

Cheers

Mike

[dschflier]

Wow very interesting. I am looking forward to reading the website. What type of work do you do?

[Almon]

Totally awesome! It looks extremely successful so far this year. Awesome work.

[toastiireefs]

hey mike!!!! this is sara (from zoo)

the project is truely really awsome-

 

it was soo cool actually seeing the.. what stage are they in? under the scope!!! anyways.. they are quite visible by the eye now (i believe) which is sooo cool!!!

 

-sara

[dbartco]

Looks like you got lazy this year and did not have 2 hours shifts stirring the gametes! Lack of dedication!

 

[jason the filter freak]

looks fantastic, keep it updated

[Rascal]

Truly awesome.

 

On behalf of my children, thanks to you and all involved in projects like this.

[dschflier]

I agree with Rascal, I just looked through the blog and it is very inspiring to see this going on. How did you get involved in this? What is your background outside of being a hobbyist?

[dbartco]

More info on the zooxanthellae strain?

[OUsnakebyte]

What type of work do you do?

 

I'm your friendly neighborhood National Zoo employee! I work with Tamie (Cowrie) here at Inverts - and Sara is one of our faithful volunteers (does all of my work...)! I guess technically I am an aquarist...

 

 

it was soo cool actually seeing the.. what stage are they in? under the scope!!! anyways.. they are quite visible by the eye now (i believe) which is sooo cool!!!

 

-sara

 

They are primary polyps.

 

 

Looks like you got lazy this year and did not have 2 hours shifts stirring the gametes! Lack of dedication!

 

 

I missed out on last year's workshop due to lack of funding - and looks like I missed the pain involved last year as well. However... the 2-hour rotations of stirring larvae were not missed this year. As a backup to the LSDs (this was their maiden voyage with palmata) we did the old school bin of water, stir, water change, etc. - just for insurance. We still did 24-hour rotations of checking the LSDs, cleaning out the filter, etc. Nothing quite like staring at a bowl full of rotating pink dots to keep you awake from 3-5am...

 

 

I agree with Rascal, I just looked through the blog and it is very inspiring to see this going on. How did you get involved in this? What is your background outside of being a hobbyist?

 

The Smithsonian is a member of secore, so my involvement is through work. However, it's not just me from the Smithsonian. We also have a reproductive scientist who is working with cryopreservation of coral sperm who initailly got involved with this project last year - although they did not do any freezing last year. It was very cool to be there for the "first time on Planet Earth" science that was being done in a makeshift lab on the beach this time.

 

What we are trying to do here at this exhibit and at other zoos and aquariums around the country and in Europe is establish an ex situ conservation program with A. palmata.

 

Secore is trying to bring together scientists, aquarists, administrators, etc. to really focus on coral conservation in the Caribbean.

 

 

More info on the zooxanthellae strain?

 

A3 is the type of zoox found in palmata. I need to check my notes, but I'm pretty sure that Clades A-D and F are the clades the you find in corals. Again, I need to double check that. If you remember from Mitch's talk, they inoculated with Indo-Pacific zoox last year b/c they did not have permits to take fragments. This year we had those permits, and we took frags of palmata to extract the zoox. from so we could give it to the larvae.

 

I have more pictures of this stuff, but I didn't want to go overboard with pics on the thread (as I have done with my past dive vacations... )

 

 

Thanks for all the interest everyone! You are more than welcome to stop by and see them any time. However - and here is my disclaimer... Remember that only one institution (Mitch at Omaha) had any survive to be adults after one year. Everyone else lost 100%, and we were working with MUCH higher numbers last year - 900,000 larvae reared opposed to 150,000 this year. We had a split spawn, and most of the colonies didn't spawn or released very little. It is very possible we are working with clones this year, and that will likely reduce survivorship.

 

We have had 158 settle onto tiles here at the zoo. I will be simply astounded, amazed, happy, excited, whatever if anything greater than zero is alive after a year.

 

 

Cheers

Mike

[Gatortailale]

Nothing quite like staring at a bowl full of rotating pink dots to keep you awake from 3-5am...

 

- were you running your mouth about how you used to have to stay up and work the 3-5am shift during panda watch. Or was it the fact that they put the rookie on the 3-5 shift.

 

[Caribbean Jake]

Rincon... it brings back so many memories...

did you get to see the sand sharks going after the yellow tunas? or was most of the work on shore?

[lanman]

I'm your friendly neighborhood National Zoo employee! I work with Tamie (Cowrie) here at Inverts - and Sara is one of our faithful volunteers (does all of my work...)! I guess technically I am an aquarist...

 

We have had 158 settle onto tiles here at the zoo. I will be simply astounded, amazed, happy, excited, whatever if anything greater than zero is alive after a year.

Cheers

Mike

So when do we get some frags?

 

Grats and keep up the good work!

 

bob

[toastiireefs]

hahahaaa!

[OUsnakebyte]

- were you running your mouth about how you used to have to stay up and work the 3-5am shift during panda watch. Or was it the fact that they put the rookie on the 3-5 shift.

 

 

Ha ha... Yes, I did mumble a bit about the undeniable comparisons of the good 'ol overnight cash cow, 'er, Tai Shan watches. However, I would MUCH rather be in the company of coral larvae than reproductively inferior, grass-eating, rentable bears...

 

 

 

Rincon... it brings back so many memories...

did you get to see the sand sharks going after the yellow tunas? or was most of the work on shore?

 

 

The palmata stands were literally about 15-30 feet off shore and very shallow - 10-15 feet max. We would fill a bottle with gametes, shuttle it in asap, head back out, repeat. Other than that, the diving consisted of hauling cinder blocks, bags of cervicornis and palmata fragments, and other misc. items.

 

We did one collection dive off Bajo Gallardo to the south. That was a boat dive at another site of palmata stands. But again, it was a night dive and my focus was palmata.

 

I managed to squeeze in one dive (fun dive) while we had a break one day before we started collecting (and there were no larvae to tend). But it was a shore dive to only about 25 feet.

 

 

Cheers

Mike

[toastiireefs]

hey hows it going?

havent seen you round much since you got the saw and didnt see the chocolate glazed dunkin donuts- mmmm

 

hahaha

 

but whats the count so far? you can see them pretty well now