Blue Ocean Network Liz Cunningham | Page 6

forces with Jim on 10 animated videos that explain the complicated concepts that guide efforts to protect our oceans. Tune in here.

Somehow, Jim found time to speak at TEDxCannes, where he provided a "cartoonist’s perspective on animal intelligence and how in many ways it might be superior to our own. In particular, he talks about the ocean animals he features in his comic strip and what makes them interesting to him as a storyteller and artist."

Follow Jim on his website or Facebook page.

Lois Hatcher ('15)

Head of Coral Nursery Operation,

Ocean Frontiers Ltd., Grand Cayman

Lois Hatcher has some good news to report

since Summit 2015 when she filled us in on the devastation caused by the Carnival Magic that dropped its anchor in a restricted zone near Georgetown Harbour in Grand Cayman. The anchor cut a wide swath damaging 11,500 square feet of living, coral reef, including a popular dive site.

As a graduate of Coral Restoration Studies (taught by Alex Brylske, '14) and a former intern at the Coral Restoration Foundation (founded by Ken Nedimyer, '15), Lois was able to train a team of local divers to collect fragments and tend them in a newly created coral nursery. Two years and 1000's of volunteer hours later, the nursery-raised corals have been replanted at the dive site, now called "Magic Reef." A recent survey showed that 85% of the coral that had been reattached have survived.

Lois now focuses her time at the coral nursery established by Ocean Frontiers, a dive operation committed to sustainability. Their nursery tends over 600 live coral fragments with plans to expand as new permits are granted. The controversial plan to construct a cruise ship berthing facility in Georgetown Harbour, vehemently opposed by the dive industry and hotel operators in 2015, has been halted for now.

Follow Lois and Ocean Frontiers on Google Plus and Facebook.