Friday, August 19, 2005

Trouble at the OK Coral

The Human Flower Project (how cool is that name?) has posted about the trouble brewing in the Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary, the Gulf of Mexico's only true coral reef. Seems that among the young corals settling on nearby oil and gas platforms is the Pacific orange cup coral (Tubastrea coccinea). A recent study determined that the Flower Garden Banks reef is quite healthy, and showed no signs of orange coral cup invasion, but researchers are sure to be keeping a close eye on the habitat as well as nearby fouling communities.

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