About Us

This site is for monitoring coral bleaching in the Philippines. The goal is to allow the general public (scientists, conservationists, fisherfolks, scuba divers, resort operators, etc.) to collaborate, compile and access field reports on coral reef bleaching. Please submit reports, photos, videos and news feeds. What is coral bleaching? It is the whitening of diverse coral taxa resulting from the loss of symbiotic zooxanthelae and/or reduction in the photosynthetic pigment concentrations in zooxanthelae residing within the host coral. [1] Corals may expel their zooxanthellae, which leads to a lighter or completely white appearance, hence the term "bleached". [2] It's probably not coral bleaching if one or a combination of these factors are present: <ul> <li>Coral predators as abundant (e.g. crown-of-thorns starfish, Drupella sp., parrotfishes)</li> <li>Corals are infected by disease (i.e. uneven bleaching with color bands)</li> <li>Reef are is near thermal effluent (coal-fired power plant)</li> <li>Coral bleaching is too patchy</li> <li>No coral bleaching alert from NOAA</li> </ul> How you can help <ul> <li>Take underwater photos and submit incident reports. While we document primarily bleaching incidents, report on non-bleaching areas (Not Damage category) are also important.</li> <li>Re-visit reported incidents and verify if bleaching is indeed present, expanding, diminishing or recovering.</li> <li>We also need volunteers to add, filter and verify submitted reports. </li> </ul> How to take underwater photos <ul> <li>Take photos in landscape mode.</li> <li>Include a person when taking photos to serve as scale. See example <a href="http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=103563&fbid=113800875345171&op=1&o=all&view=all&subj=128589833823936&aid=-1&oid=128589833823936&id=100001457766514">here</a>.</li> <li>For detailed close-up photos, include small color key to calibrate photo color. See example <a href="http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=103565&fbid=113801118678480&op=1&o=all&view=all&subj=128589833823936&aid=-1&oid=128589833823936&id=100001457766514">here</a>.</li> <li>Use the white balance feature of your camera.</li> <li>Add a text watermark with your name and date of the photograph. </li> </ul> How to identify coral species? To easily identify coral species, download the Field Guides to the Common Genera of Philippine Corals from the <a href="http://coenomap.philreefs.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=143&Itemid=53">Coenomap website</a>. Note: Individual content are owned and copyrighted by the contributor. However, by submitting information to this website, you are allowing the use of submitted content to be aggregated and use for other research purposes. How to access aggregated data (coming soon) <ul> <li>RSS feeds - useful for integration to other web-based maps. </li> <li>CSV file - useful for integration to table reports and GIS applications.</li> <li>GPS format - useful for uploading to GPS devices.</li> </ul>   Reef Risk Overlays The risk overlays were derived from WRI's <a href="http://www.wri.org/publication/reefs-at-risk-revisited">Reef at Risk publication</a>. More information available at: <ul> <li> <a title="Philippine Coral Bleaching Watch" href="http://www.facebook.com/search/?post_form_id=b86f793510c454707c4db9cbb7117792&q=Philippine Coral Bleaching Watch&init=quick&sid=0.5725768914563902#!/group.php?gid=128589833823936&ref=search">Philippine Coral Bleaching Watch Facebook Page</a></li> <li><a title="philcrm" href="http://philcrm.org/">Philippine CRM website</a></li> <li><a href="http://www.facebook.com/#!/photo_search.php?oid=128589833823936&view=all">Bleaching Photos</a></li> </ul>   References [1] Philippine Coral Bleaching Watch 2010 poster. Image availabale in <a href="http://www.facebook.com/#!/photo.php?pid=308521&fbid=145343518820794&op=1&o=all&view=all&subj=128589833823936&aid=-1&oid=128589833823936&id=100000354398583">facebook</a>. [2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coral_bleaching