'Freezer Plan' Bid To Save Coral

BBC NEWS :

The prospects of saving the world's coral reefs now appear so bleak that plans are being made to freeze samples to preserve them for the future.

Read the whole story: BBC NEWS

Comments

[Sclerite]

To save coral reefs, coral cryopreservation was suggested to the GLOBE meeting prior to the COP as an option as reported in the recent BBC news article http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8324954.stmm).

I wanted to inform others that this futuristic possibility is already here. The laboratory of Dr. Mary Hagedorn, working in Hawaii and Puerto Rico, at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington DC has been developing and applying methods for coral cryopreservation for the past 5 years. We are the only organization in the world that is now doing this research. In collaboration with SECORE, a coral conservation consortium www.secore.orgg), we have preserved viable sperm from endangered coral species in the Caribbean and have stored it at three repositories around the world.

This conservation approach may be one of the best ways to ensure the long-term viability of our ocean’s resources.

However, we cannot do this work alone. We need a battery of post-doctoral fellows to expand and improve our research techniques and the funds to train individuals all over the world, so that they can create their own national coral banks. Given modest resources, we could make incredible inroads in the next 10 years to help prevent the extinctions of our coral reefs. I believe the Smithsonian Institution and SECORE are making a very positive contribution towards the future health and well being of our planet.

[Joethepauper]

Sorry, typo: They said that less than 1% of plant species had been studied for medical use. The same figure as 25 years later. No progress at all. I wonder if a single new plant has even been studied. Afterall, we have Viagra and Cialis. What else do you people want?

[Joethepauper]

You can collect all the specimens of coral in the world, but if we continue the same stupid, wasteful practices, there will never be a world that will accomodate those corals. When I was in high school, they said that less than half of the plant species in the Amazon Rainforest had ever been studied for medical use. Fast-forward 25 years later, and guess how many plants in the Amazon Rainforset have been studied for medical use??? Still less than 1%. (I've seen hundreds of thousands of pharmaceutical commercials for drugs that TREAT, but none that CURE. Maybe that's because they aren't studying the 99% of plant species in the Rainforest for CURES! I'll go down there and send specimens back if they will pay me to do it! WTF?) They also said that a football field-sized area of rainforest is burned or chopped-down every minute. Fast-forward 25 years, and there are huge patches of desert wasteland viewable via Gogle Earth. They said that 70% of the big fish had been fished out of the oceans......now (as of 2005) it's 90%. It's been 5 years, aren't we up to 95%?? You could collect all of the known and unknown DNA and store it methodically, but if you keep doing the things that caused their extinction, you will never be able to bring them back.

[robbyJ]

Say good bye because over population and over production is destroying our biosphere.

[FrankenPC]

Being a scuba diver...this makes me sad. OTOH, at least I got to see their incredible beauty first hand.

[Joethepauper]

Scuba (as well as swimming in general) should be required for everyone who wants to exist on this planet (of water). Not just because it's educational, but because it's awe-inspiring. It's like being in space! It will seem more like space if we make it devoid of all life. I like what they are trying to do, but if we never cease what we are currently doing, those coral polyps will never survive. Just like they can store all the seeds they want, but if Monsanto terminator seeds cross-pollinate with native species, those stored seeds will just become terminator seeds the following year. We have less than 100 years left as a species because we overpopulated and got too greedy and wasteful. What a shame for the most intelligent species in the known universe to go out like that. The Mayans were close...maybe right on target. 12/21/12 is coming soon.

[Catfish1968]

well, at least you got to see them, you're satisfied. Meanwhile Tuvalu, Hawaii, etc. is imperiled.

[lightningbolt]

There is very little hope of controlling climate change. Our government is working for the coal, oil and timber companies, and until we make bribery (aka private campaign finance) illegal, the government will continue working for them. In order to solve ANY of our problems, including climate change, we must FIRST make bribery illegal.

[jsarets]

It's not just campaign finance.

Politicians want cushy jobs waiting for them when they leave office, so they make friends.
Politicians want to be invited to cushy events and high-level meetings, so they make friends.
Politicians want to ignore the fact that they're dysfunctional sociopaths, so they make friends.

As long as politicians have power, they'll make powerful friends. That's the nature of the game.

Representative democracy is an ironic description of our form of government, because we don't elect politicians to represent us, we elect them to represent themselves.

The only way to really make representative democracy work is to give the people one power of direct democracy: the right to impeach representatives by public referendum at any time.