Halmos College Promotes Coral Education Through Coral Adoption

Corals are in crisis. Students of all ages need to be educated about stony corals impact in ocean ecology. On June 30, 2011, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) arrived at the Oceanographic Center (OC) in two 18-wheel trucks and donated 29 pallets of seized Pacific coral. Richard Dodge, Ph.D., OC dean, welcomed the donation. “The stony coral skeleton specimens will be useful for research, education, outreach, and display to provide information for understanding about economically important and biologically and ecologically valuable corals and coral reefs,” said Dodge.

Fast forward to 2019 and these dried specimens of scleractinian (“stony”) corals from the Solomon Islands confiscated by U.S. Customs and donated to Nova Southeastern University are being made available for research and education purposes only, on long-term loan. As of September 2019, 84 coral colonies have been loaned out to schools and educational institutions from the Tri-County area.

If interested in obtaining a loan for education or research, please contact Melissa Dore, Ed.D. at missy@nova.edu to see if you qualify.