May 15, 2001 – A diverse group of government and private-sector marine professionals joined University of the Virgin Islands marine staff and students at UVI's MacLean Marine Center on Monday morning for a workshop aimed at furthering efforts to preserve and manage the vital coral resources of the Virgin Islands.
The second in a series of workshops focusing on local marine habitats, this one was organized by assistant data manager Christy Loomis of UVI's Conservation Data Center, with the help of CDC chief scientist Barry Devine. In welcoming remarks, Devine expressed interest in "creating partnerships" to "get more information about our environment to put into our geo-reference maps.
(For background information on these maps, see "Ecological mapping on St. Thomas unveiled".)
Frank Mills, director of UVI's Eastern Caribbean Center, said, "The subject is particularly interesting due to the economic importance the coral polyp has for the Virgin Islands."
Three resident marine scientists addressed the workshop participants in turn:
Sandra Romano, UVI assistant professor of marine biology, identified the classifications, growth forms and family characteristics associated with corals species worldwide, illustrating her points with color slides and coral skeletons.
Caroline Rogers, U.S. Geological Survey scientist, also using color slides to illustrate, described in detail the characteristics of coral colonies she has observed in V.I. waters.
Richard Nemeth, director of UVI's Center for Marine and Environmental Studies, made a presentation on his observations of coral damage locally from both diseases and animal predators. He also showed film footage shot during his fish-tagging work with red-hind grouper on Virgin Islands offshore coral reefs.
At noon, the workshop moved to Havensight for participants to make a group dive aboard the Atlantis submarine. It was a unique opportunity to view the coral reefs near St. Thomas's Buck Island with ongoing commentary from the three workshop scientists. The scientist-guides identified individual coral colonies in their native habitats with attendant resident organisms.
A follow-up scuba dive trip aboard the UVI marine search vessel Willie Mac is scheduled for Wednesday for a limited number of the workshop participants.
