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New Species of Soft Coral Discovered on PortMiami’s Seawall Contains a Powerful Anti-Cancer Drug

Tuesday, April 19th, 2016

These Palythoa sp. zoantharians contain a remarkably potent chemical, palytoxin, proven to selectively destroy cancerous cells.

Several years ago we were excited to report that our survey of Zoantharian soft corals from South Florida had resulted in the identification of several undescribed species. Today, we are even more excited to report that one of these Palythoa species zoantharians, collected off the PortMiami seawall, contains an extremely powerful compound with proven anti-cancer properties. Coral Biome, our partners in Europe, have officially received a patent for the chemical’s extraction and application in the treatment of cancer and other serious diseases. From Coral Biome’s inception in 2011 in Marseilles, France, we have been assisting them in the collection, identification, and aquaculture of soft corals that produce medically-valuable chemicals, a process known as ‘bioprospecting’.

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The Endangered Corals of Fisher Island & The Saga of The Deep Dredge (Pt. 3 of 3)

Thursday, May 21st, 2015

Fisher Island, Government & Norris Cuts.

A Nursery Solution:

The Deep Dredge of Government Cut has caused significant coral stress and mortality on the corals and reefs in and around Miami… including wide areas that the Army Corps predicted would not be affected. In particular, the dredging at PortMiami has resulted in vast sediment plumes that arc around the south-side of Fisher Island and out through Norris Cut where federally protected elkhorn corals are suffering.

As mitigation against this coral die-off and stress, Coral Morphologic proposes the construction of an ‘urban coral research nursery’ along the edge of South Pointe Park where the public can be directly engaged with the marine ecosystem of Miami. This coral nursery will be built primarily to house and grow fragments from the variety of Acropora corals living around Fisher Island. The coral nursery will be a proactive mitigation response to a shameful coral transplantation effort on Fisher Island and the siltation-related mortality of coral around Miami.

In order to test the resilience of these Fisher Island Acropora corals, it is imperative that these colonies are grown and cloned into as many individual colonies as possible. Not only will this allow for exhaustive in-situ research projects, but it will also result in additional fragments useful for restoring reefs around Miami after the Deep Dredge is completed. Because the Fisher Island Acropora corals are so unique, the only way to properly test their resilience is to fragment them repeatedly over time to create enough cloned test subjects. Because the hybrid Acropora corals are not conferred federal protection, their clones are ideally suited for life in educational public aquarium reef displays around the globe where they will become fluorescent icons of adaptation and resilience for both Miami and coral-kind.

Coral Morphologic proposes that such a coral nursery should be deployed just inside Government Cut along South Pointe Park which provides ideal water conditions for growing all of the Miami’s ‘urban coral’ species; especially the Fisher Island Acropora corals. The South Pointe coral nursery will provide coral biologists with a low-cost, easily-accessible platform in which to pursue unique coral research projects that only Miami affords. Close access to land-based electrical and internet infrastructure will allow an array of tools that offshore nurseries can’t count on such as 24/7 live streaming underwater web cameras, flow meters, and water chemistry monitoring probes. A continuous stream of open-access data on the water quality moving into and out of Biscayne Bay with every tide will be necessary to provide the City with the most accurate information possible in which to predict future sea level rise and pollution. Furthermore, the addition of interactive signage will engage and educate citizens and tourists about the overlooked marine ecology of Miami Beach.

This coral nursery project will cost in the tens of thousands of dollars and require a long list of permits and permissions from agencies at the city, county, state, and federal level. While the levels of bureaucratic protection for corals are meant to be helpful, it also presents considerable roadblocks for those wishing to cultivate them for restoration and research. While an initial $10,000 Accelerator Grant from the Miami Foundation has kickstarted the planning process in earnest, we will be requiring more grant funding and donations to complete the project. We look forward to updating everyone on this project as we move forward to grow the rare and resilient ‘urban corals’ of Miami and Fisher Island!

The Endangered Corals of Fisher Island & The Saga of The Deep Dredge (Pt. 2 of 3)

Thursday, May 21st, 2015

Fisher Island Hybrid Fused Staghorn Coral (elkhorn morphotype) pre-dredge/ mid-dredge health survey.

The most remarkable aspect of the health of the corals growing on Fisher Island, is the success story of two hybrid fused-staghorn corals (Acropora prolifera) that live along its shorelines. The story of the first hybrid coral is well documented through the TEDxMIA talk Colin conducted in 2011. This hybrid coral appears to be much more palmate in its growth morphology which typically means that its mother was a staghorn and its father an elkhorn. This coral has proven to be the most remarkably resilient of the Fisher Island Acropora corals. While its growth has been somewhat slow, it has never demonstrated any evidence of significant die-off, white pox, or bleaching. It also features significant amounts of fluorescent green proteins which may confer it with an adaptive advantage over its non-fluorescent parent species.

However, there is another equally unusual hybrid fused-staghorn coral living on Fisher Island that we’ve also been observing since 2009. And it demonstrates a much more compact branching staghorn morphology, indicating that its mother was likely an elkhorn coral and its father a staghorn.

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The Endangered Corals of Fisher Island & The Saga of The Deep Dredge (Pt. 1 of 3)

Thursday, May 21st, 2015

Aerial view of Biscayne Bay and Government Cut. Fisher Island is encircled in the Army Corps’ Deep Dredge silt 4/14/15.

Over the past eighteen months, the Army Corps of Engineers’ Deep Dredge of PortMiami has continuously released dirty water throughout Biscayne Bay and onto our surrounding reefs. The dredging will continue through at least August 2015. Over the course of the Dredge project we have observed levels of suspended silt far beyond what is environmentally acceptable or healthy in a coral reef environment. Silt that is directly causing coral mortality in areas far beyond where the Army Corps predicted.

One of Coral Morphologic’s biggest ongoing concerns during the Deep Dredge has been the well-being of a hybrid fused-staghorn coral (Acropora prolifera) colonizing the Fisher Island side of Government Cut. This coral is what kickstarted our interest in documenting the extent of coral colonization within Miami’s coastal waterways, and was the subject of Colin’s 2011 TEDxMIA talk ‘A Hybrid Future – The Corals of Miami‘. The concerns we expressed to the State of Florida about this coral is ultimately what led them to provide us with permits to rescue corals from the dredging far offshore… but not for the hybrid itself (or any other corals on Fisher Island).

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‘Coral Morphologic TV’ @ Red Bull Guest House 2015

Wednesday, April 1st, 2015

Coral Morphologic TV debuted this past weekend at the Sagamore Hotel, on Miami Beach. The site-specific installation was commissioned by the Red Bull Guest House, and consists of 4 vinyl-wrapped outdoor televisions each playing the Coral Morphologic films Natural History Redux & Circumtropical on loop.

‘Coral Therapy’ @ Design Miami/ 2014

Monday, December 8th, 2014

The ‘Coral Therapy’ Design Curio at Design Miami/ 2014. 

For Design Miami/ 2014, we were honored to be asked to create a conceptual room in which we debuted Coral Therapy, a 360-degree virtual reality film experienced via the Oculus Rift. When viewing Coral Therapy, the viewer is enveloped by fluorescent corals and sea anemones; much like being inside a virtual planetarium theater. Coral Therapy is designed to convey a virtual out-of-body experience in which the viewer is transported to a tranquil tropical reef in outer-space. An original ambient score enhances the cosmic coral perspective while accentuating the peaceful and relaxing experience.

‘Coral Therapy’ in action via Oculus Rift VR. 

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Miami Coral Bleaching Report (September 7, 2014)

Sunday, September 14th, 2014

As we last reported, a combination of hot weather and sunny days in summer 2014 has resulted in very a bad year for coral bleaching in South Florida. In this dispatch, we surveyed the natural reef just offshore Fisher Island here in Miami. To make matters worse, the water is exceptionally silty from the Army Corps’ dredging of Government Cut less than half a mile away. The water is 10-15 feet deep here, and nearly all of the coral heads were bleached. However, the most alarming condition we observed was the prevalence of black band disease infecting many of the brain corals. While healthy corals can usually recover from a bleaching episode, a coral suffering from both bleaching and black band disease will probably die. As evidenced from the video, the dredge silt has settled on the corals, and is likely a culprit in causing this black band disease outbreak. Currently, the dredge ships are operating just outside the mouth of Government Cut jetties, resulting in plumes of silt that smother corals on the natural reefs in every direction.

Fortunately, we have seen the water temperatures steadily decrease since the start of September, so we are hopeful that the bleached corals throughout South Florida will begin to recover soon. However, up here in Miami with the Deep Dredge ongoing, our corals may be too stressed out, diseased, or smothered to survive. We will be monitoring the situation closely, and will continue to update as necessary.

Lower Keys Coral Bleaching Report (August 22, 2014)

Monday, August 25th, 2014

Having been preoccupied with the Miami Coral Rescue Mission this summer, we finally made our first excursion to the Lower Keys this summer on Friday August 22. Sadly, we found that a distressingly high percentage of corals living on the reefs in Hawk Channel are severely bleached. Most of the staghorn corals that we saw were severely bleached or actively dying, though there were a few hardy exceptions. Nearly all of the brain corals were bone white. All over the reef we observed an unhealthy mix of cyanobacteria and algae proliferating on previously dead coral skeletons. Even the normally hardy gorgonians, corallimorphs, and zoanthids showed significant bleaching on all three patch reefs we checked. The water temperature was an uncomfortable 89 degrees on the bottom. Without strong winds or storms to cool off the water, we are concerned that many reefs in the Keys will lose significant coral cover in the next several months.

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‘Flower Animal’ @ Miami International Airport

Saturday, July 26th, 2014

Flower Animal exhibition at Miami International Airport, 2014. Photos: Oriol Tarridas.

We are proud to share that Miami International Airport/ MIA Galleries has unveiled an 80-foot spread featuring selections from our local marine life photography collection, Flower Animal. The exhibition is comprised of eleven metallic-paper, diasec-mounted prints, and is located in the Concourse D.

Update 2018: As of 2018, Flower Animal now resides in Concourse E/ International Arrivals.

MIA-21

Miami Coral Rescue Retrospective & Urban Coral Hypothesis

Monday, June 9th, 2014

Meandrina meandrites Juvenile 1 SM

A hyper-fluorescent juvenile Montastrea cavernosa rescued from Government Cut.

After months of impatiently watching dredge ships working offshore Miami, Coral Morphologic and other researchers were finally granted a brief window of opportunity from May 26 until June 6th in which to rescue corals left behind from the legally-required relocation effort from the Army Corps of Engineers’ Deep Dredge of Government Cut. This was a much shorter length of time than we had been prepared for, and as such, we had to respond with considerable urgency in order to rescue as many corals as possible. Fortunately we had begun our detailed preparations in January 2014 by coordinating students and professors from the University of Miami to help in the effort. Collectively, the Miami Coral Rescue Mission removed over 2,000 stony corals that would have otherwise been destroyed in the process to make way for the larger ships that will pass through the soon-to-be-expanded Panama Canal.

The majority of the corals that Coral Morphologic removed from Government Cut have now been transplanted to an artificial reef about one mile south from where they originated, and where we will continue to monitor them to ensure their long-term survival. Some corals will be sent to the Smithsonian Institution for research. And the rest of the corals were brought back to our Lab, where we will document them via film and photography for a body of work titled ‘Coral City’, in which we will present them as fluorescent icons for a 21st century Miami.

While we could have rescued more corals with an extended deadline, the Miami Coral Rescue Mission is not over. It is now entering a longer-term monitoring phase in which we will continue to assess the health of surrounding coral reefs through July 2015, when the Deep Dredge project is finally slated for completion.

Read a New York Times article on the rescue mission and listen to an NPR story below covering a day out on the water. Click the link below the NPR story to read the remainder of this post.

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‘Natural History Redux’ (Trailer)

Monday, March 3rd, 2014

Coral Morphologic is proud to announce the digital release of the remixed and remastered Natural History Redux this Thursday, March 6, 2014. NHR compiles our original 23 ‘Natural History’ videos (that were previous only available online individually in 720p) into a digital 1080p collector’s edition.

‘Miami Coral Rescue’ Talk @ University of Miami

Tuesday, January 21st, 2014

Seen above is a fluorescence photograph of an ultra rare hybrid staghorn coral (Acropora prolifera) living in Miami’s Government Cut waterway. Colin first introduced this coral to the world at TEDxMIA in 2011. Now the Army Corps of Engineers’ “Deep Dredge” project to expand Miami’s port capabilities will necessitate the evacuation of this and thousands of other corals before their habitat is dynamited. It is Coral Morphologic’s mission to rescue them. Find out more 7:30pm Tuesday January 21st 2014 at the University of Miami Cox Science Building Room 145.

‘The Psychedelic World of Coral Morphologic’ @ Pratt Institute

Monday, November 11th, 2013

This Friday, November 15th at 7pm, we are enthusiastic to present ‘The Psychedelic World of Coral Morphologic’ at the Pratt Institute in New York City. The event features a Q + A on the Coral Morphologic ethos, pathos, and logos, as well as the screening of short films, including the debut of our first Google Glass-made fluorescent evening-tour of the Coral Morphologic Laboratory. ‘The Psychedelic World of Coral Morphologic’ is free and open to the public.

MIA X Coral Morphologic Limited Edition Skate Deck Series

Friday, May 24th, 2013

We are psyched to announce the release of a series of skateboard decks in collaboration with MIA Skate Shop featuring the photography of three different fluorescent corals that call Miami their home. The collaboration is a logical extension of our view of Miami as the Coral City. A city whose cement buildings are metaphorical monuments to the fossilized remains of an ancient coral reef that once ran through it. Skaters will now be able to skate through a city of coral (recycled as concrete) on boards that reflect its bio-geologic past, present, and future. Miami, a city where vertebrate and invertebrate life-forms are forever bonded through calcium carbonate. Calcium carbonate skeletons that were once enveloped with fluorescent coral tissue now form the foundation for a neon metropolis that mirrors its coral reefs. A metropolis with an Atlantean destiny, where corals will one day recolonize the streets and buildings as their own.

The limited edition decks (3 color-ways, hand numbered editions of 50) will be available starting Saturday, May 25 at the release party, and at both MIA shops in Miami Beach and Sunny Isles, Florida.

‘Into The Cosmic Flower Garden’ & ‘Painlevé Remixed’

Thursday, January 3rd, 2013

At last month’s screening of the FUTUREHISTORY program, we debuted Into the Cosmic Flower Garden, a triumphant ode to the sex cycle of the Phymanthus crucifer sea anemone, as well as a remixed compilation of Jean Painlevé’s seminal aquarium-based films. Enjoy!

FUTUREHISTORY

Sunday, December 9th, 2012

Join us this Thursday, December 13th for a night of underwater films at the New World Center’s SoundScape Park on Miami Beach. At 7,00 Square-feet, the NWS WallCast is the largest projection wall in North America, and is accompanied by a state-of-the-art immersive sound system. This night will feature the first-ever screening of our ‘Natural History’ series from 2009-2011 in its entirety, followed by the world premiere of a new film, Into the Cosmic Flower Garden. The event is outdoors and tickets are free – bring your sensory perceptions, and enjoy the experience.

‘Species Diversity of Shallow Water Zoanthids (Cnidaria: Anthozoa: Hexacorallia) in Florida’

Thursday, October 4th, 2012

Four Floridian zoanthids analyzed in our study. Clockwise from Top Left: 1) Undescribed Zoanthus aff. pulchellus 2) Undescribed Palythoa aff. variabilis 3) Zoanthus solanderi 4) Undescribed Terrazoanthus sp.

Recently, we spearheaded a study of the Zoanthids found in our local nearshore waters that has been published in the Journal of Marine Sciences titled ‘Species Diversity of Shallow Water Zoanthids (Cnidaria: Anthozoa: Hexacorallia) in Florida‘ with Dr. James Reimer and Yuka Irei of the University of the Ryukyus in Okinawa, Japan. This is the first comprehensive study of its kind, analyzing DNA to determine the taxonomic authenticity of our local zoanthid species. We discovered that there are as many as four species of zoanthids in South Florida that have been overlooked by scientists until now.

Despite their ubiquitousness in shallow tropical waters, zoanthids have been largely neglected by marine biologists who have otherwise been more focused on understanding reef-building stony corals, leaving the taxonomy of tropical zoanthids vague and out of date. This, combined with the natural morphologic variability of these animals, makes physical identification difficult for the casual observer. The advent of DNA analysis has allowed for an accurate picture to emerge, and it is clear that there is much more diversity than had previously been recorded.

Read ‘Species Diversity of Shallow Water Zoanthids (Cnidaria: Anthozoa: Hexacorallia) in Florida‘:

Colins-Zoanthid-Paper-2012

‘Aquacultural Transformation’

Monday, August 13th, 2012

‘Aquacultural Transformation’ Installation No. 1 at the Southeast Financial Center lobby, downtown Miami.

In the first installment of our Knight Foundation-funded public art series Aquacultural Transformation, we have been commissioned by the owners of the Southeast Financial Center in downtown Miami to curate the new HD video-wall in the lobby. The video-wall is comprised of twenty-five 55″ screens, measuring 23′ x 14′ in total size, making it one of the largest HD walls in Florida. We have produced a series of coral films for Aquacultural Transformation that will run during the morning hours of 7-10 a.m for the next six months. Our goal was to create a technicolor, aquatic ambiance in the lobby that engages and relaxes workers before the start of a hectic work day – therefore acting as an antidote against the 24-hour barrage of news and financial information that these workers are constantly subjected to. A primary component of the Aquaculture Transformation project is to convey that that the essence of the coral reef is literally infused into the concrete limestone infrastructure of every building in the Magic City. And thus the modern pop-cultural iconography of Miami is ultimately reflective of the neon diversity of our native coral reefs. This can be represented no better than the opening sequence to ‘Miami Vice’, in which the Southeast Financial Center is featured prominently in the last shot.

‘Anemone Spawn’

Thursday, May 31st, 2012

A fluorescent green flower anemone (Epicystis crucifer) releases sperm into the water column at the Coral Morphologic lab.

On May 24th we observed this fluorescent green flower anemone (Epicystis crucifer) spawning in our lab, and managed to film the event. The anemone continued to release sperm for nearly 30 minutes, while several other nearby flower anemones released significantly smaller amounts of gametes. This was the second time we have witnessed a flower anemone spawning event at our lab this spring. We first observed a synchronous spawn of more than a dozen anemones in an outdoor aquaculture system that receives natural sunlight on April 12th. After the jump are photos of anemones spawning during this event.

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‘Coral: Rekindling Venus’

Sunday, May 13th, 2012

We are excited to share that Coral Morphologic has contributed film and images to Coral: Rekindling Venus, a full-dome digital planetarium motion picture directed by artist Lynette Wallworth. Coral: Rekindling Venus explores the magnificence of the coral reef and its organisms in a high definition, 360 degree view with a score including Antony Hegarty and Christian Fennesz. The film premieres in twenty-four (24) planetariums around the world on June 5th, which coincides with the Transit of Venus. The movie’s title equates the significance of coral reefs in the 21st century to this historic astronomical event.

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Interview @ the Coral Morphologic Lab

Saturday, January 21st, 2012

During the week of Art Basel-Miami Beach 2011, we opened the doors of our aquaculture lab and welcomed guests to see our work and inspirations up close and personal. Jeff Jetton and Brendan Canty (of the band Fugazi) were two of our guests from Washington, DC, and we were psyched to give them a detailed look at our lab, our ethos, and how we managed to develop a DIY hybrid science-art concept into reality.

Miami New Times’ 2011 People Issue

Friday, November 25th, 2011

Catch us in the Miami New Times’ 2011 People Issue. Pick up a print edition on November 23rd.

‘(How To Grow) A Floating Forest’

Monday, October 3rd, 2011

In order to understand what’s going on in the video, you’re going to want to read the post below!

One of the most innovative, practical, and functional coral nurseries on the planet can be found just a few miles off the shores of Key Largo. The nursery consists of thousands of neatly organized colonies of the critically important staghorn coral (Acropora cervicornis) grown by the Coral Restoration Foundation (CRF) for the purpose of transplantation back to the reef. Staghorn corals have been decimated by disease and extreme weather here in Florida over the past 30 years, resulting in a seriously degraded reef ecosystem. Fortunately the CRF has developed methods that maximize the growth potential of these corals in their nursery, demonstrating that coral aquaculture is a realistic and effective way to restore beleaguered wild populations.

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Coral Morphologic @ ATP Curated by Animal Collective

Monday, May 9th, 2011

We are psyched to share that a selection of our Natural History films will screen on ATP TV during this upcoming weekend’s All Tomorrow’s Parties festival as curated by Animal Collective, in Minehead, UK. This will be the first international exhibition of our work; read more about the festival here.

‘Man O War’

Monday, May 2nd, 2011

‘Man O War’
Physalia physalis
Film and Aquarium: Coral Morphologic
Original Soundtrack: Geologist

In this special installment of our Natural History film series, Geologist soundtracks a macroscopic view of a Portuguese man-o-war’s beautiful, yet highly venomous tentacles.

The man-o-war is often mistaken as a jellyfish, but this is not the case. It does not swim, but is instead propelled by the winds, tides and currents across the ocean’s surface. In fact, a man-o-war is not even a single organism, but an entire colony of organisms called siphonophores, that live together as a singular unit. They are found floating across all of the world’s tropical and subtropical oceans. Even more impressive is that the man-o-war colony is comprised of four different types of polyps, called zooids, that each serve a different purpose to the overall functioning of the colony.

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Lil Daggers ‘Slave Exchange’ Single

Friday, April 15th, 2011

We are proud to announce the fifth release in our South Florida-centric 7″ vinyl series; ‘Slave Exchange’ b/w ‘Sweetwater’, from Miami’s Lil Daggers. The wax is a limited edition run of 100 copies in black vinyl, with a wheat-pasted photo on each individual sleeve affixed by the band. As usual, we have rubber stamped our corallimorph logo onto the b-side of the center-sticker and stamped/ numbered the a-side.

The release party will be held within a party: Saturday, January 16th @ the 2nd annual Sweatstock. Check out the set times for a bigger picture of the event – many amazing bands will perform, including Discosoma’s Lil Daggers, Beings, and Guy Harvey. The 7″ will be available at Sweat Records exclusively Saturday, which is also Record Store Day. After Saturday, you can pick up the record at Sweat as well as the Coral Morphologic store.

‘Artificial Reef’ Retrospective

Monday, December 13th, 2010

‘Cassiopeia 2’ | 407 Building | Lincoln Road | Miami Beach – Dec. 2-5, 2010

From December 2-5, we presented Artificial Reef, a series of large-scale video projections of corals, on three prominent buildings on Miami Beach. The concept of Artificial Reef was built around the premise that most of Miami’s infrastructure is comprised of fossilized coral reef limestone. The purpose of the project, (funded with a generous grant from the Knight Foundation) was to highlight this overlooked relationship of the city of Miami with its coral reefs. Our goal was to recolonize the city with a ‘living veneer’ of corals encrusted onto the artificial reef that is Miami Beach.

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‘Hang Four’ – WALLS

Sunday, August 22nd, 2010

We were recently commissioned to create the official video for the London/ Paris based electronic music collaboration WALLS, released by Kompakt Records in Berlin. ‘Hang Four’ was premiered on NME.com.

The yellow coral in the opening and closing shots is a sun coral (Tubastrea coccinae). The polyps are seen expanding in reaction to the addition of food to the aquarium. Unlike most reef building corals, the sun coral is non-photosynthetic, and relies on the capture of plankton as its sole energy source. In the Gulf of Mexico and Florida, this is an invasive coral species that most likely hitched a ride into the Caribbean basin following the opening of the Panama Canal. It has since spread northward into the Gulf of Mexico, colonizing oil rigs one-by-one. This particular colony was collected from one of the rigs not far from the BP Deep Horizon disaster about 2 years ago. It is unknown to us whether these corals have been negatively impacted from the spill, but as an invasive species, it raises a number of questions about whether their potential loss should be considered a detriment or not. Nevertheless, research on the impact these sun coral communities have experienced in the Gulf will be useful in determining oil tolerance on a stony coral species in close proximity to the oil disaster.

The iridescent, twinkling gelatinous creatures are called ctenophores (TEEN-o-fores) (aka comb jellies) ranging in size from 5-10mm in total length. They float in the open ocean and beat their rows of cilia (the iridescent, beating ‘combs’) which allows them to filter plankton out of the water. They often float in huge conglomerations of hundreds of thousands. They are an important part of the pelagic (open ocean) community of plankton likely impacted by the oil spill in the Gulf.

The little jellyfish are called ‘club hydromedusa’ (Orchistoma pileus) and range in size from 7-10mm. They also live in the open water near the surface, using their stinging tentacles to capture smaller zooplankton.

‘The Squat Urchin Shrimp’

Monday, June 28th, 2010

‘The Squat Urchin Shrimp’
Gnathophylloides mineri on Tripneustes ventricosus
Music, Video, and Aquarium
2010 Coral Morphologic

The Squat Urchin Shrimp (Gnathophylloides mineri) is an amazingly successful creature that can be found living amongst the spines of sea urchins throughout most of the world’s shallow tropical waters. In the Caribbean they hitchhike exclusively upon the black and white West Indian Sea Egg (Tripneustes ventricosus), traveling along where ever its host may go. The squat urchin shrimp is very small, reaching no more than 6mm in length, and orients itself parallel with the spines making it all but invisible and protected from a would-be-predator. Often colonies of up to half a dozen squat urchin shrimp of varying sizes will all share the same urchin. Beyond its circumtropical distribution and perfect camouflage, the squat urchin shrimp further demonstrates its successfulness by feeding upon the epidermal tissue of the very spines that grant it protection. This is a relatively benign form of parasitism that doesn’t seem to bother the urchin. These shrimp will also feed opportunistically upon detritus that the urchin picks up as it moves along the sea floor. The squat urchin shrimp is a creature that has found a near perfect niche in a truly self-sustaining, self-contained world of spines.

‘Cleaner Pt. 3’

Tuesday, June 15th, 2010

‘Cleaner Pt. 3′
Periclimenes rathbunae on Stichodactyla helianthus
Music, Video, and Aquarium
2010 Coral Morphologic

The sun anemone shrimp (Periclimenes rathbunae) is the least common of the three species of Floridian anemone shrimp. While the other two anemone shrimp (P. pedersoni and P. yucatanicus) act as cleaners to passing fish, the sun anemone shrimp doesn’t seem to engage in this behavior. Instead, it spends its time living almost exclusively upon its namesake sun anemone (Stichodactyla helianthus). Aquarium observations suggest that this shrimp may supplement its diet by occasionally nipping off and eating the tentacles of the anemone. This parasitism suggests a more complicated symbiotic relationship than the sort of simple mutualism that these shrimp are often categorized by.

In Floridian waters, the scarcity of this shrimp is likely related to the infrequency of its host sun anemone. However, where they are found, the sun anemone often lives in dense clonal colonies that can literally carpet shallow reefs. The tentacles, while short and stubby, are packed with powerful stinging nematocysts that act like microscopic harpoons to deliver their venom. The end result of all these nematocysts and tentacles, is an anemone that is very ‘sticky’, and capable of producing painful welts to the careless diver.