Today@Dal

From The Chronicle Herald:

Emilie Novaczek is trying to save the planet one zip tie at a time.

She’s used these and other “extremely low tech” tools — nail clippers and hammers — to help restore endangered coral off the coast of San Andres, an Caribbean island about 150 kilometres off the coast of Nicaragua that is part of Colombia.

And she’s studied humans’ impact on these strikingly colourful endangered species of the deep.

The Dalhousie University student spent much of last summer and fall under water, off the island’s coast, where tourists, climate change, overfishing and other factors have put the sea life in peril.

She worked in the Seaflower Marine Protected Area, cultivating “critically-endangered” Staghorn corals, whose Caribbean population has declined by 98 per cent over the past 30 years.

And, thanks to a $6,000 grant from Robin Rigby Trust, she interviewed tourism operators across the island about boating, snorkeling and other human interactions near these “delicate” and “vulnerable” creatures that look like plants but are animals.

Vital animals because they’re a food source for millions of fish, species that millions of humans eat.

Read the rest of this article at The Chronicle Herald's website.