The Coastal Ecology program here at CCEHBR provides NOAA with a sound scientific basis to achieve important national strategic goals, such as: sustaining healthy coastal ecosystems, building sustainable fisheries, and recovering protected species.

As part of the ecosystem, coral reefs are an important descriptor of current conditions around them, so the science (biomedical approaches) behind studying their ideal environmental conditions and the stressors that afflict reef-building corals are an ongoing study.

That’s where the Charleston facility comes in – their unique areas of expertise include: advanced analytical and biomolecular technology used in harmful algal bloom, coral disease, marine mammal, and fisheries-related investigations, and several other fields way over my head; the important thing is that the NOAA facility here is more than just a masthead – they are conducting real science, and we all benefit from it.

Speaking of reefs, here’s an incredible video of an artificial reef created via sculpture!

And finally, here’s several pictures of dead coral, exactly how you don’t want it looking – thanks BP!

I watched this fascinating short a few weeks ago about deep sea tuna tagging, and am finally getting a chance to share with y’all. It’s from the popular TED series of informative videos curated by Chris Anderson (editor-in-chief of Wired, The Long Tail, etc).

You can hear the enthusiasm in Barbara Block’s voice about these tuna as she narrates the video. She shares with us how billfish, sharks, and tuna move around (and stay warm) in the open ocean. Knowing how these large predators travel through the open ocean will help us understand their role in the wider ocean ecosystem, she says – something many tuna hunting ships have apparently already mastered given the incentive they have for the high price obtained on the worldwide seafood market.

She describes, and indeed admires, tuna as ocean athletes — saying they are fast, far-ranging predators whose habits we’re just beginning to understand. As a marine biologist, she fits tuna with tracking tags (complete with transponders) that record unprecedented amounts of data about these threatened fish and the habitats they swim through.

Near the end of the video, you can see incredible animations of the migratory patterns for these tuna – pretty cool stuff!