[SEMCO] Woods Hole research organizations in the news...

[Doug Karlson]

Woods Hole research organizations in the news…

We’d like to share encouraging news from Sea Education Association (SEA)’s recent voyage to the Phoenix Islands.

As many know, the Phoenix Islands Protected Area (PIPA), located in the island nation of Kiribati, is a remote and rarely visited coral wilderness and a UNESCO World Heritage Site.


Every summer since 2014, SEA has voyaged to PIPA with undergraduates enrolled in our SEA Semester: Protecting the Phoenix Islands academic study abroad program. This past July, SEA Semester students, together with researchers from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and the New England Aquarium, sailed 1,600 miles from Honolulu to Kiribati aboard SEA’s sailing research vessel, the SSV Robert C. Seamans, to conduct research on PIPA’s marine ecosystem, sea life, and vast coral reefs. One goal was to assess the impact and extent of coral bleaching.Student research informs conservation policies for the region as made by the PIPA management office in Kiribati.

As they explored the archipelago, the students and scientists were surprised and delighted to discover that even despite a very warm El Niño, the coral ecosystem there is thriving, and has continued to recover since SEA’s last visit in 2015.

News of these findings were detailed today in the New York Times.

To read the full article, visit http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/16/science/coral-reef-climate-change.html. For more information about SEA and SEA Semester, visit http://www.sea.edu<http://www.sea.edu>.


[http://www.sea.edu/images/sea_images/logo_signatures.gif]

Doug Karlson
Marketing & Communications Coordinator
Sea Education Association
P.O. Box 6 • Woods Hole, MA 02543
t: 508.540.3954 x523
f: 800.977.8516
www.sea.edu<http://www.sea.edu/>


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