Free Republic

In a press announcement issued by the Studio ESSECI press office, authorities have discovered lost pieces of the Golden Tree of Lucignano, a grandiose reliquary created by the famous Sienese goldsmith, Gabriello d'Antonio.The reliquary is considered one of the finest masterpieces of Italian goldsmithing, which is a morphological tripartition (roots, trunk, foliage) and contains the metaphor of the life of Christ in the three different phases: origin, passion, and glory.Measuring 2.70 metres in height, it was created in two stages between 1350 and 1471 from gilded copper, silver and enamel, and features branches decorated with coral, crystals and miniatures on...

Seventy percent of coral reefs off the coast of Florida are eroding and experiencing a net loss of habitat, according to new research out of the University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine, Earth and Atmospheric Science. The decline is a result of bleaching events which are driven by climate change, ship groundings and disease. In 2014, researchers discovered an outbreak of Stony Coral Tissue Loss Disease, which is decimating reefs both in Florida and the Caribbean. The state’s coral reefs also support around 70,000 jobs and generate $8.5 billion annually, data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)...

Two-thirds of the Great Barrier Reef in Australia recorded the highest amount of coral cover in nearly four decades, though the reef is still vulnerable to climate change and mass bleaching, a monitoring group said Thursday. The northern and central parts of the UNESCO world heritage-listed reef have experienced some recovery while the southern region has seen a loss of coral cover due to crown-of-thorns starfish outbreaks, according to a report by the Australian Institute of Marine Science, a government agency. AIMS CEO Paul Hardisty said that while the coral in the north and central regions was a sign the...

COCONUT ISLAND, Hawaii (AP) — On a moonless summer night in Hawaii, krill, fish and crabs swirl through a beam of light as two researchers peer into the water above a vibrant reef. Minutes later, like clockwork, they see eggs and sperm from spawning coral drifting past their boat. They scoop up the fishy-smelling blobs and put them in test tubes. In this Darwinian experiment, the scientists are trying to speed up coral’s evolutionary clock to breed “super corals” that can better withstand the impacts of global warming. For the past five years, the researchers have been conducting experiments to...

Ancient Deep-sea Coral Reefs Off Southeastern US Serve As Underwater 'Islands' In The Gulf StreamThe brisingid sea-star (Novodinia antillensis) perches high in the coral branches of Lophelia pertusa to filter feed. This photo was taken off the North Carolina coast in about 370 meters (roughly 1,200 feet) of water, far north of the normal range of this species. (Credit: Ross et al, NOAA, HBOI) ScienceDaily (May 20, 2008) — Largely unexplored deep-sea coral reefs, some perhaps hundreds of thousands of years old, off the coast of the southeastern U.S. are not only larger than expected but also home to commercially...

Think twice next time you stumble across a pile of garbage at the beach — you could have found a bizarre sea creature. While out on patrol, a park guide in Texas stumbled across what looked like a pile of noted rope and yellow cord on a barrier island off the Texan coast. The "rope ball" is actually a form of coral. National Park Service (NPS) employee Rebekah Claussen made the discovery on the Padre Island National Seashore near the Gulf of Mexico. She uploaded her photo to Facebook on February 1 and explained the knotted mass was actually "sea...

Florida cities and counties wouldn't be able to ban sunscreens containing ingredients that some researchers say harm coral reefs, under a bill passed by the state Senate on Wednesday. The Senate voted 25-14 in favor of the bill after no discussion or debate. If it becomes law, a Key West ordinance to ban the sale of sunscreens containing oxybenzone or octinoxate would be nullified. The Key West ban is set to go into effect next year. Research has shown the chemicals can cause coral bleaching, and the reefs around Key West attract divers, snorkelers and fishing enthusiasts. But Republican Sen....

For the first time ever, scientists have found corals that were thought to have been killed by heat stress have recovered, a glimmer of hope for the world's climate change-threatened reefs. The chance discovery, made by Diego K. Kersting from the Freie University of Berlin and the University of Barcelona during diving expeditions in the Spanish Mediterranean, was reported in the journal Science Advances on Wednesday. Kersting and co-author Cristina Linares have been carrying out long-term monitoring of 243 colonies of the endangered reef-builder coral Cladocora caespitosa since 2002, allowing them to describe in previous papers recurring warming-related mass mortalities....

Hawaii just became the first state to ban certain sunscreens as a measure to protect the state's essential coral reefs. Hawaii Gov. David Ige signed a bill on Tuesday, July 3, banning the sale of sunscreens containing two chemicals, oxybenzone and octinoxate, believed to harm coral reefs and other marine ecosystems. State lawmakers passed the legislation in early May. Senate Bill 2571 prohibits the sale and distribution of non-prescribed sunscreens on the islands that contain oxybenzone or octinoxate, which can be deadly for coral larvae. The ban will not be applied to medically prescribed sunscreens or makeup that contain oxybenzone...

Hawaii is set to become the first state to ban the sale of sunscreens containing chemicals believed to be harmful to the environment. State lawmakers passed a bill Tuesday that prohibits the sale and distribution of over-the-counter sunscreens containing oxybenzone or octinoxate, two chemicals that have been found to "cause genetic damage to coral and other marine organisms." "These chemicals have also been shown to degrade corals' resiliency and ability to adjust to climate change factors and inhibit recruitment of new corals," the bill reads. The contamination is "constantly refreshed and renewed everyday" by swimmers and beachgoers, according to the...

At first, Chris Matthews thought a flu bug had hit his entire family last week when they started to feel nauseous and experience eye problems at the same time. But when the family's two dogs started to show symptoms, Matthews knew something was wrong. Matthews had cleaned out the aquarium inside his house in Steventon, England, a day prior. The 27-year-old was transferring rocks and other items from the fish tank into another container, so he could clean each item individually. When he was finished power cleaning the tank, Matthews shut the door and went to bed. The next day, Matthews and...

The Trump administration is preparing to unveil as soon as this week expansive offshore oil plan that would open the door to selling new drilling rights in Atlantic waters, according to people familiar with the plan… President Donald Trump his Interior Department to write the new blueprint with the aim of auctioning oil and gas drilling rights off the U.S. East Coast -- territory that his predecessor, former President Barack Obama, had had had had ruled out..” Don’t get me wrong! Cheaper energy and greater energy independence for our nation are nothing to sneeze at! But many of us familiar...

A massive luxury yacht owned by Microsoft Corp co-founder Paul Allen destroyed most of a protected coral reef during a visit to the Cayman Islands in the Caribbean earlier this month, media reported. An anchor chain from the vessel damaged nearly 14,000 square feet (1,300 square meters), or about 80 percent, of reef near two scuba diving sites in the West Bay, the islands' environment department said, according to the Cayman News Service. Allen's Seattle-based Vulcan Inc organization, which manages his fortune, said on Wednesday that the M/V Tatoosh was moored on Jan. 14 in a "position explicitly directed" by...

Dedicated coral gardeners are doing their part to restore the declining reefs in Fiji. A unique aspect of the program is that we use hands-on methods of gardening corals as a way of helping individuals and communities better understand and connect with corals and coral reefs.(Video)

GRAND COUNTY, Colo. - The coroner says a 31-year-old Michigan man was fatally shot Monday night after authorities say he forced his way into the Hot Sulphur Springs home of a Grand County sheriff's deputy and his wife, who is a county deputy district attorney. Grand County Coroner Brenda Bock identified that dead man as Joshua Stevens, 31, of Coral, Michigan. An autopsy to determine the cause and manner of death is scheduled for Wednesday. Authorities say Stevens was shot outside the couple's home. At this time, authorities aren't saying who fired the shots that killed Stevens, according to Susan...

Guest post by David ArchibaldWillis Eschenbach’s post on lab work on coral response to elevated carbon dioxide levels, and The Reef Abides, leads to a large scale, natural experiment in Papua New Guinea. There are several places at the eastern end of that country where carbon dioxide is continuously bubbling up through healthy looking coral reef, with fish swimming around and all that that implies.Coral Reef at Dobu Island with carbon dioxide bubbling through it (photo: Bob Halstead)What that implies is that ocean acidification is no threat at all. If the most delicate, fragile, iconic ecosystem of them all can...

Enlarge Image Green plague. In Fiji, rarely fished reefs (top) abound with colorful corals, but seaweeds start their invasions in exploited locales (bottom) Credit: E. Hunter Hay (top); I. P. Markham (bottom) "Attack of the killer seaweed" may sound like a cheesy horror flick, but for many coral species, murderous multicellular algae have become real-life villains. A new study of reefs in the South Pacific suggests that some algae can poison coral on contact. This chemical warfare may be increasing the pressure on struggling reef communities worldwide, researchers say. Along the reefs dotting Fiji, overfishing has pitted corals against...

January's big chill led to widespread death of corals in many near shore and mid-channel reefs from Biscayne Bay to Summerland Key, but most of the popular offshore diving and fishing reefs in the Florida Keys were spared. A survey conducted at 78 sites throughout the Florida Reef tract from Martin County to the Keys also found that corals fared well north of Miami and in the Lower Keys west to the Dry Tortugas. Analysis of the data collected by 31 scientists from 13 organizations has not been completed to determine the amount of coral damage throughout the island chain....

Marine scientists say they are astonished at the spectacular recovery of certain coral reefs in Australia’s Great Barrier Reef Marine Park from a devastating coral bleaching event in 2006. That year high sea temperatures caused massive and severe coral bleaching in the Keppel Islands, in the southern part of the GBR. The damaged reefs were quickly smothered by a single species of seaweed – an event that can spell the total loss of the corals. However, a lucky combination of rare circumstances meant the reefs were able to achieve a spectacular recovery, with abundant corals re-established in a single year,...

Age estimate places coral among the most long-lived species on the planet.Some species of coral can live for over 4,000 years — longer than any other animal that lives in the ocean, a study has found. Uncertainty over how to date coral makes estimates of their lifespan contentious. A radiocarbon-dating study published in 2006 by Brendan Roark, then at Stanford University in California, suggested that living colonies of Gerardia corals could be more than 2,700 years old1. But a 2002 study by Richard Grigg at the University of Hawaii had estimated the life span of the same species to be...