Coral Update

Leave precious coral where it belongs. Temple St. Clair was spot on. Adding coral to jewelry industry's conservation efforts does have a powerful effect on the marketplace. These precious animals should be left where they belong--in the ocean.

Useful links:
www.tooprecioustowear.org
www.cites.org

Coral Update

According to a news release from ocean conservation organization SeaWeb, the vote to protect red and pink coral failed to receive the necessary two-thirds majority at the 15th Conference of Parties of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES). Sixty-four countries voted in favor of protection, 59 against it and 10 abstained. Definitely a step backward for the long-term survival of red and pink coral, really.

Useful links:
www.seaweb.org
www.cites.org
www.tooprecioustowear.org

Olivia Judson Viewpoint

Olivia Judson's opinion piece in the New York Times about flagellas was educational and insightful. I didn't know that they made coral reefs possible. Thanks Olivia.

Useful link:
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/author/olivia-judson

Coral Report

Victoria Gomelsky's viewpoints in the New York Times about coral jewelry and the enviornmental effects was interesting. To wear or not to wear - that's the question.

Useful links:
www.tiffanyandcofoundation.org
www.seaweb.org
www.mauidivers.com
www.tooprecioustowear.org
www.cites.org

Coral Update

Megan Gambino's story in the Smithsonian about coral spawning was educational and insightful.

To me, coral spawning is like a total eclipse of the sun. You should see it once in your life.
- Nancy Knowlton

Useful links:
http://sio.ucsd.edu/Profile/nknowlton
http://cmbc.ucsd.edu

Jewelry Coral

Dave Federman's viewpoint on jewelry coral was interesting. Let's promote fair commerce.

Useful links:
www.tooprecioustowear.org
www.seaweb.com
www.cites.org
www.noaa.gov
www.artinitiatives.com

Coral Conference 2009

Check out this upcoming conference on Coral in New York on October 30 - 31, 2009 at the Graduate Center, CUNY, Fifth Avenue at 34th Street.

Useful links:
www.tiffanyandcofoundation.org
www.thehenryfoundation.org
http://coralreef.noaa.gov
www.themagazineantiques.com

World's Coral Reefs

Global warming has all but sealed the fate of the world's coral reefs. Follow Guardian's interactive guide of reefs to see before they die. It's educational and insightful.

Useful links:
www.coral.org
http://coralreef.noaa.gov

Coral Update

I found Wolf Hilbertz's technique for growing corals very interesting. A team of researchers on Vabbinfaru island in the Maldives submerged a huge steel cage called the Lotus on the sea floor. The 12-metre structure, which weighs 2 tonnes is connected to long cable which supplies a low-level electric current. The electricity triggers a chemical reaction, which leads to calcium carbonate coming out of solution in the water and being deposited on the structure. Corals seem to find that irresistible, perhaps because they use the same material to grow their protective skeletons, and the Lotus has been so thoroughly colonised by coral that it is difficult now to make out the steel shape beneath all the elaborate shapes and color. Really amazing!

Useful links:
www.wolfhilbertz.com
www.mrc.gov.mv

Coral Update

The Coral Reef Alliance + Greenpeace USA + SeaWeb + Sierra Club + the World Wildlife Fund + other conservation organizations, along with more than 100 marine scientists, have sent signed letters to the U.S. Congress and the White House urging lawmakers to reauthorize the U.S. Coral Reef Conservation Act of 2000, legislation that was designed to support research and management of coral reefs. Check out the link www.coral.org

Useful links:
www.greenpeace.org
www.seaweb.org
www.sierraclub.org
www.worldwildlife.org
www.tooprecioustowear.org
www.cites.org
www.tiffanyandcofoundation.org

Coral Update

Tiffany & Co today unveiled store windows worldwide with an 'Under the Sea' theme to raise awareness about the damage coral harvesting inflicts on critically important marine ecosystems. Check out the link www.tiffany.com

In 2002 we discontinued selling coral jewelry, concluding that in a world where corals and reef communities are under siege, we could not be complicit in their destruction. It is our hope to raise consumer awareness of this important issue and to urge fellow jewelers to join us in refusing to sell coral jewelry.
- Michael J. Kowalski, Chairman/CEO, Tiffany & Co.

Useful links:
www.tiffanyandcofoundation.org
www.tooprecioustowear.org
www.seaweb.org
www.cites.org
http://coralreef.noaa.gov/crca.html

That's one small step for man; one giant leap for mankind.
- Neil Armstrong

Just do it.

Vulcano Torre del Greco

Vulcano Torre del Greco is a newly established all-in-one trading center supplying coral, gold jewelry, and cameo in Torre del Greco in Naples, Italy. A great place to do business.

Useful links:
www.vulcanotorredelgreco.it
www.palombacoralli.it

Coral Lab

'Coral lab' offers acidity insight
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7939452.stm

Useful links:
www.globalcoral.org
www.biu.ac.il/faculty/finema
www.iui-eilat.ac.il

I think mass coral extinction is possible due to acidification + global warming + lack of action.

Coral Reinterpreted

Coral Reinterpreted
http://www.tooprecioustowear.org/_storage/0_CoralReinterpretedRelease2009_02_23.pdf

Useful links:
www.seaweb.org
www.tooprecioustowear.org
www.charitybuzz.com
www.tiffanyandcofoundation.org
http://kingfisherfoundation.org
http://nmsfocean.org
www.oceanfdn.org
www.cites.org
www.livingoceansfoundation.org

I completely agree. There are numerous alternatives to real coral, and jewelry designers should educate consumers via their works-of-art the need to protect corals from extinction.

Coral Conservation

As one of the world’s leading jewelers, Tiffany & Co has been at the forefront supporting research focused on coral reef systems. I think consumers and retailers (still sadly unaware of the global destruction of coral) need further education on the ecological and economic impacts of wildlife trade.

Useful links:
www.tiffanyandcofoundation.org
http://resourcescommittee.house.gov
www.coralreef.noaa.gov
www.reefrelief.org

Hats off to Tiffany & Co Foundation!

Coral Reefs + Economic Value

The World Resources Institute, in collaboration with government and NGO partners in St. Lucia, Tobago and Belize, has developed an economic valuation methodology to quantify the value of coral reefs in the Caribbean more accurately. The methodology supports the evaluation of trade-offs, thereby highlighting the management and development paths which protect coral reefs, and maximize the economic contribution of coral reefs to the economy.

Useful link:
www.wri.org

Knowledge + sustainable planning = Long-term economic potential

Too Precious To Wear Campaign

I think SeaWeb’s Too Precious To Wear campaign to create demand for coral conservation is a brilliant idea + I also believe one way to help save it is to reduce coral in fashion.

Useful links:
www.tooprecioustowear.org
www.seaweb.org
www.tiffanyandcofoundation.org
www.coralreef.noaa.gov
www.cites.org

Mass Spawning Of Corals On The Palau Archipelago

The BBC article on corals on the Palau archipelago in the western Pacific @ http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7358423.stm was brilliant. I learned something new.

Coral Reefs

I found the IYOR campaign about the value and importance of coral reefs and threats to their sustainability educational and useful.

Useful links:
www.iyor.org
www.wri.org

Raising Awareness And Helping The Coral

(via Bangkok Post, November 18, 2007) Corals are now like plants: cuttings can be grown in a nursery, then transplanted elsewhere. Transplanting coral is exactly what conservation-minded people will be doing at Phi Phi Lae on December 3 as part of the celebrations to mark the 80th birthday of His Majesty the King. Organized by the Phuket Marine Biological Center, the celebrations also include an exhibition on marine conservation, reef cleanup and rubbish collecting on the beach at Phi Phi Don, the only populated island in the Phi Phi group, off Krabi.

‘Coral reefs at Phi Phi Lae were among the worst hit by tsunami in 2004,’ Dr Nalinee Thongtham, who heads PNBC’s coral reef rehabilation programmes, said. ‘We grew tiny coral fragments in floating nurseries off Phi Phi Lae and now they are big enough to be transplanted. Volunteer divers from local diving companies will help us transplant them on December 3.

‘The advantage of growing coral fragments in nurseries and transplanting them on natural substrate is that you don’t introduce a lot of foreign matter to the sea floor. What’s more, taking small fragments causes little effect on donor colonies.’

Phi Phi Lae is a small, uninhabited island, popular with tourists because of its clear blue waters and coral reefs. ‘It’s not the first time that we are planting coral in the area to replace that destroyed by the tsunami,’ Nalinee said. ‘In October last year we transplanted 1200 fragments at Phi Phi Lae, again with help from local diving companies as well as volunteer divers from Bangkok and elsewhere.

‘Growing coral fragments in floating nurseries is part of a research programme we started two years ago. The transplanted coral that was part of that research programme is now thriving. Organizing the activities at Phi Phi Lae and Phi Phi Do n on December 3 is one way of getting the public involved in coral and reef conservation, and increasing environmental awareness.’

The PNBC will also transplant coral grown in nurseries at Panwa Bay at a later date. ‘It will be a pioneer project using a coral species that can better tolerate turbid waters and sediments,’ Nalinee said.