Persons wishing to view the regional coral reef exhibit on display at the Folkestone Park and Marine Reserve in St. James, still have an opportunity to do so.

Due to popular demand, the deadline for the travelling exhibition entitled Our Reefs: Caribbean Connections has been extended until Friday, January 7, 2011.?? It was slated to end on Thursday, December 16.

The exhibit, which contains some local photographs, seeks to promote awareness and understanding of the reasons for the deterioration of coral reefs and the fact that quick action can begin to reverse current trends.

According to the project’s official website, the exhibit offers a scientific perspective of the declining condition of many corals reefs in the wider Caribbean, and presents local attempts to conserve, sustainably utilise, or restore reefs and related ecosystems.

Topics covered in the exhibit?? include: Caribbean Currents; Paradise for Sale; Creating a Coral Reef; Depleted Harvests; Coral and Climate Change; Marine Reserves; Land and the Reef; Experiments in Reef Repair; Vulnerable Coastlines; and Caribbean Reefs: the Future?

The display, said to be a revision of a travelling exhibit developed by the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, debuted at the Eighth International Coral Reef Symposium (ICRS) in Panama in 1996 and subsequently visited multiple venues in the U.S., Honduras, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, Belize and Panama.

Due to the deteoriation of coral reefs in the wider Caribbean over the past decade, as well as the increase in scientific knowledge and emergence of new strategies for management and remediation, it was felt that an update was needed. Designed and produced at Florida State University, this new version opened at the 11th ICRS in Fort Lauderdale in 2008.

The initiative is being supported locally by the Coastal Zone Management Unit, the Folkestone Marine Park and Reserve, the National Conservation Commission and the Centre for Resource Management and Environmental Studies (CERMES), University of the West Indies, Cave Hill Campus.????cgaskin@barbados.gov.bb

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