I have to give a persuasive speech on our hobby, and the worlds oceans
 

Hi, my name is Andy and I'm a college student in Sacramento. I have been in this hobby for a year now. I am giving a presentation on Monday, and thought I could try to persuade students to become interested in this hobby, and the worlds reefs in general. I haven't figured out how to tie all this together exactly, but was thinking of using examples of how much we have learned about corals over the past 20 years by observing them in our own aquariums. I also thought I would discuss the tsunami, and it's impact on various reefs around the world. I thought I could make the argument that having small pieces of reefs spread out among thousands of hobbyists might allow us to better understand how and why they thrive, along with the fact that if somehow we lost a reef entirely, we still have some alive and well that could possibly be reintroduced in the future?
Does anyone know of any articles, reports, or journals that discuss the impact on the worlds oceans from the tsunami and pollution in general? Or info on what hobbyists have been able to observe and contribute to our understanding of the ocean? I just read a thread last night in the advanced topic section. Someone was discussing how corals are potentially immortal? I thought students would find that fascinating, but I didn't really understand why people had reached that conclusion. It was the first time I had read about corals that were over 1000 years old though! Very cool. Any pointers, or resources you might be able to give me would be greatly appreciated! Or if the thesis, or premise seems to be off, any suggestions on how to frame this would be welcomed. I plan on doing a ton of research myself, and am not expecting others to do the fact finding for me. But this is my first step, and thought I would use everyones collective knowledge to help me get started!
Andy Hull

[url=http://archive.reefcentral.com/forums/member.php?action=getinfo&find=lastposter&threadid=1289789] Greenbean36191 [/url] and [url=http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/member.php?s=&action=getinfo&userid=24545] MCsaxmaster [/url] would be 2 of your better resources that frequently contribute to this board.
hth, Chris

Thank you. I will "bother" them right now. :)

Have you checked the Responsible Reefkeeping forum here too?
[url]http://reefcentral.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?s=&daysprune=&forumid=225[/url]
There's a lot of industry information in there and you can find a ton of info that I think you're looking for.

Good luck on the presentation!

dont forget the negative impact that Biofuels will have on the reef ecosystem. We have previously paid our farmers to NOT grow too much because it depletes the land. Overgrowing ( using fertilizers ) also adds excess nitrogenous wastes to the rivers which feed the oceans. More crop growing means more red tides & coral die-offs.

Stu

thanks to both of you. I will look into that now. Someone else just gave me an article in reef discussion about the effect of plastic polymers on the ocean as well. So far I have a lot of information on how many problems we have in the ocean, I need to find info on the benefits of eduction through the hobby.

The benefit is kind of plain. You love what you see and know. You wouldnt give two hoots about a reef unless you knew it was colorful and so diverse in life, they captivate us and people who have never seen them dont even know they exist. Let alone know that their everyday actions have an effect on them.