Message #143
1) The Bahamas Department of Fisheries has been given the green light to
establish five no-take marine reserves, Department officials announced
yesterday. Based on a scientific review, North Bimini, portions of the
Berry Islands and the Exuma Cays, South Eleuthera, and the Northern Abaco
Cays will be protected. Last year, the Department announced plans to
protect additional grouper aggregation sites as part of its Nassau grouper
project. Seasonal protected areas have been established in High Cay off
Andros, and in Long Island. The Bahamas already has no-take marine
reserves in the Exuma Land and Sea Park. Spokespeople for the project say
that for the full benefits to be realized, there must be a network of
NTMRs large enough to adequately represent the different habitats close
enough together for there to be linkages for marine animal and plant life
as they move through their life cycles. The Reef Ball Foundation and
BREEF are working together to support this effort.
2) Reef Ball Development Group plans on introducing a new Reef Ball
size...it will be dubbed the “Mini-Bay Ball” and is expected to weigh in
at around 150-250 pounds. This unit will be based on the simpler tether
ball method of hole construction (The same method used in making regular
size Bay Balls rather than the methods used for Lo-Pro and Oyster sizes
reef balls). This introduction is meant to better meet the needs of
school and educational programs to provide habitat for older juvenile fish
and other life forms in an easy to move size. The Mini-Bay Balls are
expected to be popular with the growing under dock market too.
3) From CORALations in Puerto Rico, “I thought you may like to check out
these pics. A little care goes a long way - look at the cervicornis...the
growth rates are amazing. It seems the stony coral transplants have taken
to the reefs balls. The plugs were taken from stressed reef, transplanted
to the balls and relocated to an area with good water quality. The study
was done by Antonio Ortiz, a graduate student at University of Puerto Rico
- Lajas. The Clivosa pic shows a close up of the transplant clearly
budding on the reef ball...Photographs of these transplants can be found
at www.reefball.com/coralations/transplant.htm
4) There is a ton of activity brewing in New Zealand….over 20 different
groups are getting together to organize a Reef Ball project.
5) Sarasota County and Manatee County joined forces yesterday and put out
for bid a joint project to place over 700 Reef Balls in Sarasota Bay. The
National Estuary Program has assisted the counties in funding and
coordinating this exciting project.
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