August 3, 2004

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NSU Scientists Participate in 10th International Coral Reef Symposium (ICRS) in Okinawa

Mahmood Shivji, Ph.D., Richard Dodge, Ph.D., and Barbara Dodge in the Exhibition Hall of the Okinawa Convention Center. This hall hosted the exhibits, served as dining hall for lunch and breaks, as well as home to the three poster sessions.	Exhibition Hall of the Okinawa Convention Center.

FORT LAUDERDALE, FL- Two dozen scientists, staff members, and graduate students from the National Coral Reef Institute (NCRI) and NSU’s Oceanographic Center traveled 8,500 miles on a 25-hour trip to Okinawa this summer to attend the 10th International Coral Reef Symposium (ICRS).

Approximately 1,500 coral reef biologists, ecologists, economists, environmentalists, geologists, biochemists, resource managers, and others working in coral reefs worldwide participated at this prestigious meeting. The International Society for Reef Studies (ISRS) sponsors the meeting every four years. The Symposium is hosted by a different country each time and provides a venue for sharing the latest knowledge and advancing coral reef science on a global scale.

Faculty and staff included Richard Dodge, Director of NCRI, his wife Barbara Dodge; Carol Fretwell; David Gilliam; Bernhard Riegl; Bernardo Vargas-Ángel; Kevin Kohler and Peggy Strumski; Sam Purkis; Joshua Feingold; and Mahmood Shivji.

NSUOC graduate students Pat Quinn, Kevin Helmle (and wife Melissa Helmle), Elizabeth Fahy, Jamie Monty, Lance Jordan, Vince Richards, Ryan Moyer, and Brian Walker. All made either oral and poster presentations at the conference. NSU OC Students Nicolle Cushion, Fred Ottman, Aya Shinohara, and Abe Smith also attended the week-long meeting from June 28-July 2.

“Coral reefs provide sustenance, recreation, and the economic framework for many tropical regions around the world. They also supply important refuge and food sources for various life stages of many ecologically and economically important marine species, and serve as important barriers against storm damage to coastal areas,” said NCRI’s executive director and dean of the NSUOC, Richard E. Dodge, Ph.D. “This conference provides an excellent opportunity for the National Coral Reef Institute and other organizations throughout the world to share their knowledge of these fragile and varied ecosystems, and to promote their conservation and protection.”

Dodge and one of NCRI’s staff scientists, David S. Gilliam, Ph.D., were two of the co-chairs of a two-day mini-symposium on Coral Reef Restoration and Remediation, featuring 22 oral presentations and 26 scientific posters authored by scientists from more than a dozen countries. In all, 14 oral and eight scientific poster presentations were given by the NCRI/NSU group, in 14 different mini-symposia, highlighting the local, national, and international scope of NCRI work.

The group also hosted one of twenty exhibit booths featured as part of the ICRS. The booth also served as a common meeting place to get updates about everything from the latest about the U.S. bid to host the next ICRS to meeting details for topic editors of Coral Reefs. Dodge is editor of the ISRS journal and topic editors are generally limited to ICRS meetings for opportunities to meet together.

Following participation in the ICRS, Riegl, Purkis, Moyer, Shinohara, Cushion, and Smith traveled along with Ken Banks (Broward County DPEP) to the southernmost group of islands in the Ryukyu chain, also known as the Yaeyama Islands. Using the island of Ishigaki as their home base from July 3-6, 2004, the group also visited the islands of Iriomote and Taketomi. The group visited the World Wildlife Fund’s Japan Coral Reef Conservation and Research Centre in Shiraho, where staff directed the group to a unique area with massive colonies of blue coral (Heliopora). The next day, the group snorkeled the blue coral site in the morning, and then in the afternoon explored a cave containing the well-preserved fossils of a Pleistocene coral reef. On Iriomote, the group visited a beach famous for its star-shaped foraminifera sand and snorkeled to its outer reef where they found a fore-reef area with nearly 100% coral cover in the genus Acropora. In Taketomi, the group experienced a small island that has managed to preserve its traditional culture and way of life, in spite of all the technology and electronics that Japan is famous for. MS student served as organizer, leader, guide, and interpreter for the excursion.

The National Coral Reef Institute at the Oceanographic Center has been chosen as the site of the 11th International Coral Reef Symposium, scheduled for July 7-11, 2008. It has been more than 30 years since the ICRS has been held on the U.S. mainland.