Marine Species Conservation

Paper Summary:

The paper discusses the precarious position of the Elkhorn Coral and identifies the features of an effective conservation policy at the national and/or international level. This includes keeping human beings and animals away from the reefs, developing non-intrusive bulwarks as a protection from large-scale hurricanes and distancing industrial works and run-off from the reefs. The paper concludes that an effort should be undertaken to build up an international coalition of environmentalists and sympathetic policy-makers who can remind political elites around the globe of under-reported marine species such as the Elkhorn Coral.

From the Paper:

"One of the most obvious problems currently bedeviling the Elkhorn Coral is its susceptibility to disease. According to the United States Office of Protected Resources, the Elkhorn Coral has had problems with rampant disease since the dawn of the 1980s (para.4). Indeed, by the middle-1980s, scientists were becoming increasingly alarmed by the spread of calicoblastic neoplasms or cancerous lesions among Elkhorn Coral colonies in the Florida region - most notably among those colonies housed at the Key Largo National Marine Sanctuary in Key Largo, Florida (Peters, 895)."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Pantos, O. "Bacterial Community Structure associated with White Band Disease in the Elkhorn Coral Acropora palmata determined using Culture-Independent 16S rRNA Techniques." Diseases of Aquatic Organisms, 69.1 (2006): 79-88.
• Parks, Noreen. "Reef killer unmasked." Science Now, 21 Jun. 2002: 2-3.
• Peters, E.C. "Calicoblastic Neoplasms in Acropora palmata, with a review of reports on anomalies of growth and form in corals." Journal of the National Cancer Institute, 76.5 (1986): 895-912.
• Smith, L.D., A.P. Negri, E. Phillipp, N.S. Webster, and A.J. Heyward. "The effects of anti-foulant-paint-contaminated sediments on coral recruits and branchlets." Marine Biology, 143.4 (2003): 651-657.
• United States Office of Protected Resources. "Elkhorn Coral (Acropora palmata)." Elkhorn Coral: Office of Protected Resources. N.d. NOAA Fisheries. 26 Mar. 2007 <http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/pr/species/invertebrates/elkhorn.htm>

More papers on Marine Species Conservation:

• Research Paper # 75665 : "Endangered Species Act"
• Term Paper # 125021 : "Extinction and Endangered Species"
• Descriptive Essay # 132694 : "Plight of the Elkhorn Coral"

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