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

[ahullsb]

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

[seapug]

Give a presentation on this Monday? Holy procrastination!
I'd think about how to narrow the scope, at least....

One thing layman hobbyists learn about quickly of is the narrow range of chemical and physical parameters corals must have to survive. When we let (or make) them stray outside of these parameters they quickly die. That's something you could spend quite a long time discussing.

[ahullsb]

That's true. I could address water parameters. I'm trying to discuss a few facts that the average person who knows nothing of the hobby might find interesting. And in my defense, this is a winter session class, and I was given this assignment yesterday!

[seapug]

wow, that's quite a huge, complicated subject to give a speech about on a short notice. Makes me glad I finished college a long long time ago....

One thing students have working in your favor nowadays is the internet. If all else fails, you can do a laptop slide presentation comparing natural reefs to tanks of RC members. People will be blown away when they see what advances are being made in the hobby and that the corals are actually living growing creatures. A few stoners in the back of the room might actually think about setting up a tank afterwards. lol.....

[ahullsb]

It is a complicated subject I suppose, but I was going to do Darfur before...so this should be a piece of cake compared to that. I do have to have a powerpoint presentation, and I agree I can wow them with some pictures of reef tanks. Maybe I could compare that to some of the "uglier" brown reefs we see in certain areas. My roommate just got back from Hawaii and was not too impressed with the coloration he saw! Like I mentioned before, I was going to try to find some info on how many reefs were decimated after the tsunami, and how keeping the beautiful specimens we do could be insurance against losing reefs in the future. And yes maybe a few stoners will be persuaded to start a tank, but they couldn't start a tank because they need to save all their money for weed! haha

[reeformadness]

I would hit on captive coral sexual reproduction. Forums at projectdibs.com have some info on this. There are also threatened fish species such as the Bengaii cardinalfish that are being reproduced in captivity. I imagine alot has been done in the scientific literature on tsunami impacts especially after the tragedy several years ago. Try searching ebscohost or jstor. Even the abstracts by themselves might be useful if you don't have access to any journals. Do not forget the educational aspect of reefing which is the biggest benefit in my opinion. Be careful what you are arguing though because there is a huge difference between "reefing has caused some important scientific and ecological advances" and reefing is "more good than bad." There are many collection practices (such as the use of rotenone and cyanide) that are totally devastating to our coral reefs. Many popular aquarium species are unregulated and overharvested. Aquaria as well as the aquarium industry require fossil energy. Much is still up to the consumers. I personally only buy coral frags and try to get aquacultured fish when possible.

[Fraggle Rock2]

Just show this

http://numaga.com/deepsea.html

Someone brought up the issue of the Pacific Ocean gyre and pollution on our local board that was pretty interesting as well.

http://www.mindfully.org/Plastic/Oce...cificNov03.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Pacific_Gyre

Both topics are interesting at least to me and have some shock factor....although, maybe it's not quite what you wanted.

[ahullsb]

Thanks reefermadness, that is the type of information I need to help make my case. And I agree that there is a lot of bad involved with the hobby. But hopefully we can change it. That's another reason I want to pick this topic. Although I will be leaving out as many negative aspects as I can.

Fragglerock2- That video is fascinating! I wish I had enough time to show it. But maybe I can figure out a way to work it in for a minute or so. And I will read both of those articles about plastic. I'm sure I could twist that into another reason why it's not a terrible idea to have some of these species in a controlled environment.

[ahullsb]

I keep coming across mixed reports on the tsunami. Some say that the damage was way overstated at that everything will recover, while others are claiming anywhere from 30-80 percent devastation on certain reefs. Does anyone have any idea what the general consensus is on this?

[ahullsb]

Fragglerock2- that article on plastic polymers is frightening. I have a feeling that will make into the speech. Thank you.

Anyone have insight on any knowledge we have gained through peoples interest in the hobby? It seems to me that at the very least, we have thousands more people because of this hobby, who are able to observe the cause and effects on corals by having them in their living rooms. And I understand that there are problems with the collection of coral and the depletion of certain areas, but again I am trying to focus on the benefits here.

[gman0526]

Originally posted by ahullsb
Thanks reefermadness, that is the type of information I need to help make my case. And I agree that there is a lot of bad involved with the hobby. But hopefully we can change it. That's another reason I want to pick this topic. Although I will be leaving out as many negative aspects as I can.

Why is this? Wouldn't you like to be fair and responsible by providing your audience with all the facts (positive/negative) and let them make an unbiased intelligent decision? Because so many negative facts have been left out of from many reports in the past we have a problem in our oceans right now.

[2fishy]

Just a thought, but I think that I would focus on how far the hobby has come in 20 years or less. How easy it has become to have a piece of the reef in your aquarium because of research, advancement in technology of equipment, education among hobbiests, and also in aquaculture and what hobbiests are doing to save the reef (both corals & fish).

[ahullsb]

Yes gman I always try to be as fair and responsible as I can be. This assignment is a persuasive presentation. And I am trying to get people INTO the hobby here. I can't do that in 7 minutes by telling them how many fish are trapped with cyanide, etc. My main goal here is going to get people interested enough in the hobby that they will WANT to learn more about it like we have. The informative presentation was last week, that would have been very easy to lay out the present situation. Here I'm persuading, and I'm not trying to persuade people to stay away from the hobby.

[ahullsb]

Originally posted by 2fishy
Just a thought, but I think that I would focus on how far the hobby has come in 20 years or less. How easy it has become to have a piece of the reef in your aquarium because of research, advancement in technology of equipment, education among hobbiests, and also in aquaculture and what hobbiests are doing to save the reef (both corals & fish).

That's not a bad idea. It is along the lines of what I was going to discuss. The hobby and how far it has come, as well as taking an interest in the state of the worlds reefs. That is why I'm trying to find as much info as I can about the Tsunami and it's effects since, and something like the article linked above about plastic and it's effects in the ocean.

[stevelkaneval]

And yes maybe a few stoners will be persuaded to start a tank, but they couldn't start a tank because they need to save all their money for weed! haha

I resent that comment.

[ahullsb]

It's a joke steve

[stevelkaneval]

I know it was. just tryin to frizzle your nerves a little.

[ahullsb]

Cool. You can never tell on this site!

[airinhere]

Sounds like you are getting a little bit more direction for your presentation.

I would steer away from anything politicized.

Claims that reefers are a benefit to the world are probably not a good direction to go. You would be better off skipping the morality of reefkeeping and go right for its greatest strength.

The sense of wonder we all feel looking at our tanks.

Trying to sway a persons moral choice is going to be much harder than trying to appeal to someones sense of wonder.

You could show the class the reality of keeping a reeftank and the spectacular results some people enjoy.

Feed them eye-candy and a tale of amazing growth and development in the hobby.

Everybody loves candy and good news.

[ahullsb]

I agree. Thank you. I am basically just trying to get people interested. I have never met anyone in this hobby who hasn't become more informed or interested in preserving them after.

[ljosh]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by airinhere

Claims that reefers are a benefit to the world are probably not a good direction to go. You would be better off skipping the morality of reefkeeping and go right for its greatest strength.

I would have to agree with that...