Studying the Healthy to Protect the Dying.

In February and March of the coming year, an expedition entitled "Southern Line Islands Expedition" will embark on a mission to save the endangered coral reefs. They will "travel to the remote central-Pacific islands of Flint, Vostok, Millennium, Starbuck, Malden, and Jarvis to continue reef studies done in the Northern Line Islands in 2005 and 2007." The participants will study the ecology of healthy reefs in hopes to be able to learn how they can preserve the endangered habitats. They will "study the intricate structures of healthy reef ecosystems and cataloguing the wide array of species it takes to sustain a reef." This expedition is the first of its kind and hopefully the data will be able to be used to "establish a baseline model for healthy coral reefs, to quantify the effects of human activity on these ecosystems, and to devise a blueprint for the conservation of degraded reefs." For more information on this project click here.