Calendar of Events

What's Happening to Florida corals?
Monday, February 18, 2019, 06:30pm - 08:30pm
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Speaker: Dr. Keven Reed, coral biologist.

Dr. Keven Reed has lived and worked on three Pacific islands for a combined total of fourteen years and currently collaborates with Prof. Robert Van Woesik at FIT. Keven has donated invertebrate marine specimens to two European museums and Dickinson Hall at the University of Florida. Among his publications, he was the lead author on a published coral immunology paper, and has been a member of the International Society for Reef Studies (ISRS) more than twenty years. He combined three careers (coral biologist, retired optometric physician, and retired Naval Officer), and was certified in underwater reef surveying techniques at the U. of Hawaii.

Corals are tiny animals that live inside skeletons they construct from minerals drawn from seawater. Generations of these skeletons form coral reefs, with a thin layer of living coral tissue on the surface. Coral reefs provide habitat for about a quarter of the world’s marine species. South Florida’s reefs, the only near-shore reefs in the continental United States, draw thousands of visitors for fishing, diving and snorkeling and provide homes to fish, crabs, lobsters, sponges, sea turtles and other creatures. But Florida’s coral reefs are in trouble. Keven Reed will tell us what is happening and what we can do about it.

Meetings start with refreshments at 6:30 pm and programs at 7:00 pm (unless otherwise noted)

Location Charles Neviaser Educational Institute of Community Hospice, 4266 Sunbeam Road #100, 32257