'Dr. Cool' runs coral sperm bank

[mikecc]

'Dr. Cool' runs coral sperm bank
1st Paragraph or 2
EDMONTON - As a claim to fame, developing the world's first sperm bank for Elkhorn ocean coral may not seem particularly impressive.

Yet for Jason Acker, a cryopreservation expert at the University of Alberta, it's an achievement that could have profound impacts for the health of the planet.

Link

Interesting..... Wonder if he is a Reef Central Enthusiast? Impressive to me.

 

[Hawk23]

It's nice to see projects like these. There is certainly an awareness that the natural reefs are in trouble, but it's really cool to see someone taking a proactive approach and planning for the future.
While on the topic of preventing extinction in marne life, I live near the toledo zoo and they currently are one of a few different zoos that are trying to repopulate a species of african ciclid that is extinct in the wild. Pretty cool stuff.

 

[iCam]

So, who gets to milk these bad boys?

 

[Samala]

If you read the article, they wait for the corals to milk themselves. I found it incredibly interesting that they were successful with freezing sperm but not eggs and not larvae. It would be very very interesting as well to see what their plans are for future collections from a genetic standpoint.. are they going to collect from other sites within the Caribbean? Will they collect several times in a season?

Thats the only problem with these sort of frozen genetic banks from my perspective. If the genetic profile of a population of animals is a dynamic thing how can a frozen snapshot of that population - the sample taken on that day in that area of the reef - help us preserve them in the long term?

Hmmm. More flies in the ointment perhaps.. though of course that doesnt mean we shouldnt be attempting some of these more fringe projects.

>Sarah

 

[greenbean36191]

There are people collecting all over the Caribbean and Gulf- FGBs, VIs, PR, Bermuda... They can only collect once a year though since that's all the corals crank out.

Thats the only problem with these sort of frozen genetic banks from my perspective. If the genetic profile of a population of animals is a dynamic thing how can a frozen snapshot of that population - the sample taken on that day in that area of the reef - help us preserve them in the long term?

Unless we fix the underlying problems they're facing no amount of genetic diversity is going to preserve them long term. A lot of the Caribbean is pretty low in genetic diversity anyway, especially WRT Acropora due to recent bottlenecks and poor success in sexual reproduction to begin with.

 

[drawman]

Very nice to see that someone is doing this. Hopefully, we can take some measures to avoid worldwide extinction but it's not looking too good so far. I bet their methods of freezing will improve with more research so they can freeze eggs.

 

[PBFinest]

suck to get splashed with some of that water