1) Reef Ball, C.O.R.L., John Walch, and Coral Life Malaysia presented our
research and results on "Coral transplant and propagation technologies using
Reef Balls" last week in Orlando at the Marine Ornamentals Conference.  The
paper was well received...the room was so full that many were forced to
stand in the back of the room!

The presentation reveled that using Reef Balls with our specialized coral
plug system is the most cost effective method to do wide scale coral
restoration projects.

2) Reef Ball has applied for a state wide (Florida) permit to obtain
imperiled corals, stabilize them with our coral plug system and transplant
them back onto Reef Balls in the same area.  Any Florida (or other project
if you have permissions) Reef Ball project will be able to participate in
this research project and help us to collect valuable scientific data on
coral species within your local area.  Contact us for more information.
(Note: Reef Balls within the Marine Sanctuaries are not eligible without
additional permitting).

3) From Jacksonville High School, "Things here are going extremely well,
too. We now have a total of 57 Reef Balls on campus (we just poured 6 more
this Wednesday), and am planning on doing 1-2 more pours before Christmas
break. That would bring the total to 69. Then, I plan on doing 2 pours per
month beginning in January, so we'll have around 100 all told by April/May.
If you want, I'll get a digital photo of them with the students sitting on
them and send it to you to post on the website...We are scheduled to deploy
in May (probably). I have an assurance from Mobro Marine that they will take
them out...."  Alex reports that JHS is going to participate in the Florida
Reef Ball Coral Transplant Project.

4) We found this interesting, "animations (simulated) growth and form of
sponges and corals"
 http://www.science.uva.nl/~jaapk/Growth_example

5) New Coral Data Sheets added at www.artificialreefs.org under Scientific
Resources-->Coral Transplant Data

6) Monitoring of Reef Balls in Sarasota....
Reef Ball teams monitored the M-4 Reef Balls offshore of Sarasota which are
being affected by a 3 month long Red Tide event.  Fouling community growth
on the Reef Balls has been reduced by 20% (whereas the concrete culverts on
the same site lost 65% of their growth...probably attributed to better
water circulation within Reef Balls).  About 20% of the hard corals are
experiencing some bleaching.  Pelagic bait is abundant, however resident
bait, such as tomtates is almost non-existent even though they are normally
abundant.  Gag grouper populations seemed normal, most appeared to have very
fully bellies which is why the fishing might be a bit slower (Reported
fishing effort was 1 legal grouper per hour fished with 2 lines) as was
reported by fishermen on the site.  Visibility was about 10-15 feet,
temperature was 72 degrees F. Dead fish were observed on the bottom, mostly
in the 2-4 inch size category at a rate of 1-2 every 100 square feet. We
observed much higher rates of dead fish on the surface in Sarasota Bay on
the way out...in some areas 10-15 fish every 100 square feet.



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