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Cladacora story
1. Scuba diving teens help researchers ‐ St. Petersburg Times Page 1 of 2
Scuba diving teens help researchers
By Tony Marrero, Times Staff Writer
Published Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Morgan Liston popped up from below the Gulf of Mexico's shimmering surface and made a declaration.
"This is actually a really good reef," Liston, a 17-year-old senior at Palm Harbor University High School, said from
behind a diving mask. "It has nine different species of coral."
Among those species is one that has piqued the interest of Liston and her fellow SCUBAnauts: Cladocora arbuscula,
an orange, macaroni-shaped coral that sprouts in tennis ball-sized clumps along the rock ledges 12 miles off the
Hernando County coast.
On Sunday, the amateur dive group for students ages 12 to 18 led a marine scientist and a graduate student from the
University of South Florida's College of Marine Science in St. Petersburg to the spot so they could collect some
Cladocora for research.
The SCUBAnauts' help is "a godsend," said Jose Torres, a biological oceanography professor at the college. "They're
really helping us out. They're smart, capable, and they're good little divers."
Torres is working with doctoral candidate Lara Henry to learn more about the symbiotic relationship between coral and
algae. Cladocora is unusual among coral because it doesn't need algae to survive, much like deep sea coral that live in
colder, darker environs.
"We're hoping it could be a good lab rat, as it were, to be able to answer different kinds of coral questions," he said.
But first they had to find some.
Enter the SCUBAnauts. Think the Boy Scouts or Girl Scouts, but instead of brown or green uniforms and badges, the
'Nauts sport wet suits and regulators, earning rank in the group by accumulating dive time and completing special tasks
such as open water and night dives.
The original Tampa Bay chapter draws members from throughout the bay area. The Tarpon Springs chapter has 30
members, mostly from Pasco and northern Pinellas but from as far south as St. Petersburg. The students undergo
extensive training on diving techniques and safety before they're allowed to participate in a dive.
Just as the Scouts are about more than enjoying the wilderness, the 'Nauts are about more than fun days spent below
the surface, said Mike Waugh, president of the Tarpon Springs chapter. Waugh's son, Connor, a sophomore at East
Lake High, joined two years ago.
"They're getting the leadership experience, the research experience and the dive skills," Waugh said.
http://www.tampabay.com/news/environment/water/scuba‐diving‐teens‐help‐researc... 10/14/2009