One North October 2014

Vol 12 October 2014

The Alumni Magazine of UWC South East Asia

Understanding and

protecting our coral reefs

Alumni profiles

Graduation 2014

Reunions

College updates

Alumni services

Every student who leaves UWCSEA,

regardless of how long they were here,

automatically becomes a member of

our alumni community. Some of the

services that we offer include:

One°North

The alumni magazine is

published biannually. Please send

contributions and/or suggestions to:

alumnimagazine@uwcsea.edu.sg.

Alumni website and mobile app

Our password-protected alumni website

and mobile app allow you to maintain your

own profile, search for and contact other

registered members, stay informed about

news and events and more.

Reunions and get-togethers

A reunion of the 40, 30, 20 and 10 year

anniversary classes is held each August

in Singapore. Additional class reunions

and alumni gatherings are held in various

locations throughout the year, planned

by both UWCSEA and our alumni. Watch

the alumni website for updates and

details, and let us advertise your events!

Alumni and Parents of Alumni eBriefs

These are emailed to alumni and

parents of alumni throughout the year,

containing news and information to

keep you updated and informed.

Mentor opportunities

Volunteer to be listed in the mentor

section of the alumni site if you are

willing to be contacted by current

students or other alumni for information

or advice regarding your university or

career; or visit the pages if you have

questions of your own.

Career services

Check this section of the site for career

opportunities or candidates, or post

your own job opening or resumé. You

can also set up alerts to be notified of

new postings.

Volunteering opportunities for alumni

Check the Volunteer page of the website

for short to long term or virtual volunteer

work opportunities in Southeast Asia

working with organisations supported

by UWCSEA.

Old Interscols

Let us know if you would like a soft copy

of your Interscol year book.

Visits, tours and other requests

We are happy to help in any way we can.

If you are in Singapore and would like to

drop in for a visit or a tour, we would be

more than happy to show you around,

any time. Send your requests to us at

alumni@uwcsea.edu.sg or just drop in!

Alumni website:

http://alumni.uwcsea.edu.sg

Alumni email:

alumni@uwcsea.edu.sg

Please stay connected!

Our alumni community

Albania, Argentina, Australia, Austria, Bahamas, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belgium, Benin, Bermuda, Botswana, Brazil, Brunei, Bulgaria,

Cambodia, Cameroon, Canada, Cayman Island, Chile, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Croatia, Curaçao, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Egypt,

Ethiopia, Fiji, Finland, France, Gabon, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Guam, Guatemala, Guyana, Hong Kong, Hungary, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Ireland,

Israel, Italy, Japan, Jersey, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Laos, Luxembourg, Macau, Malaysia, Maldives, Malta, Mauritius, Mexico, Mongolia, Myanmar,

Namibia, Nepal, Netherlands, New Caledonia, New Zealand, Nigeria, Norway, Oman, Pakistan, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Peru, Philippines,

Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Romania, Russia, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Serbia, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Slovenia, South Africa, South Korea, South

Sudan, Spain, Sri Lanka, Swaziland, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Tanzania, Thailand, Timor Leste, Trinidad And Tobago, Turkey, Turks And Caicos

Islands, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States, Uruguay, Venezuela, Vietnam, Zambia, Zimbabwe

2 OneºNorth October 2014

Note from the Alumni Office.................................. 4

Maps by Frazer Cairns, Head of Dover Campus

Frazer discusses world map projections

and why we are changing the one we use

at UWCSEA ................................................................ 5

Farewell from Julian Whiteley

Julian says good bye ................................................. 6

Farewell and thank you to Julian..............................7

An introduction to Chris Edwards,

Head of College...........................................................7

Cover story

Helping to understand

and protect coral reefs

Dominic Bryant ’03

talks about the Catlin

Seaview Survey............... 8

Graduation 2014

464 students across both campuses graduated in

May with an impressive average IB score!...........12

Changing directions and promoting

conservation through film and

personal action

Documentary filmmaker and

conservationist, Patrick Rouxel ’84, building

enclosures for Indonesian sun bears.....................14

Ricardo Lobo and the StoneWolf Band

Meet Ricardo Lobo ’03,

musician and lead singer of the

StoneWolf Band....................................16

UWCSEA year in review

Just a sample of the huge variety of events

and activities that take place at the College...... 18

Never too old to have a Gap Year –

Part II

Part two of current teacher, Karen

Niedermeyer’s sabbatical story—

an account of her adventures and visits with

young alumni along the way.................................20

UWC-wide get-togethers and

alumni-organised reunions....................................23

Alumni reunions and events

UWCSEA alumni hosts get-

togethers around the world ..............24

Humanitarian work:

rewarding but not always easy

Linda Steinbock ’06 describes

her rewarding work with Save

the Children...............................................................26

When the straight line dissolves

Chihiro Isozaki ’11 discusses the need

to take action even when the right

course is uncertain..............................28

Nine recent alumni weddings ..........30

Eight weddings with 11 alumni brides

and grooms! One alumni team

member too!

Alumni giving back

Alumni give their time and talent

to students at UWCSEA, in person

and from afar.......................................33

Alumni interns

The past five—all UWCSEA alumni......................33

UWCSEA Foundation update

Alumni giving and the Annual Fund.....................34

Upcoming reunions

Don’t miss out! ........................................................35

One°North is published by UWC South East Asia twice per year for alumni, staff and friends of UWCSEA. Reproduction in any manner is prohibited without written

consent. Send your address change to alumnimagazine@uwcsea.edu.sg and/or update your profile on the UWCSEA alumni website or through the alumni app. We

welcome your feedback; please send comments to alumnimagazine@uwcsea.edu.sg.

Please send your articles and/or suggestions for articles, for the next issue, to alumnimagazine@uwcsea.edu.sg.

Contents

Editor

Brenda Whately

Design

Nandita Gupta

MCI (P) 037/03/2014

Cover photo: The Great Barrier Reef, Australia

Photo courtesy of Dominic Bryant

October 2014 OneºNorth 3

Note from the

Alumni Office

This past May witnessed the largest

graduating class ever, with the very

first graduation from East Campus.

We congratulate the students of the

Class of 2014 from both Dover and

East Campus, on your graduation

and your IB results and we welcome

all of you to the alumni community.

This July marked the departure of

Julian Whiteley and the arrival of

Chris Edwards as Head of College.

I’m sure that you will join us in a

warm farewell to Julian and a warm

welcome to Chris. While Chris was

Head of Bromsgrove School in

the UK, he played an active role in

strengthening their alumni relations

and he is now looking forward to

meeting as many of our UWCSEA

alumni as possible over the coming

months and years.

Construction of the new building

which replaces the old Languages

Block, High School Office Block

and Small Hall, is moving along

at a very fast pace, scheduled to

open in August 2015. It will house

classrooms, High School offices

the University Advising Centre,

Admissions, Administration, a

proposed Heritage Centre, the

UWCSEA Foundation and the

Alumni office.

Sona, Siti and I always enjoy meeting

alumni at events and at the school. If

you are in Singapore, please do drop

in for a visit and/or tour.

Best regards,

Brenda Whately

Director of Alumni Relations

UWC South East Asia

You may have noticed that the image of the map of the world used in this magazine

has changed. Late last year, Bill Lodwick ’76 suggested to us that the Mercator

Projection of the Earth we were using should be changed because he says, “It distorts

the globe so that countries, oceans and islands at higher latitudes look bigger in

comparison to those at lower latitudes.” Since then, the School has been using the

Hobo-Dyer Projection that you see on page 2.

Thank you to Bill for challenging our perceptions.

“This map [on page 2] doesn’t make anyone or any place more or less important. It merely

presents a different view that may prompt you to re-evaluate some of your assumptions

about the world. In the future, but not too soon, I hope this map is replaced with another

that similarly makes me think.”

Bill Lodwick ’76

Our map of the world

The mobile app for Apple or android devices provides our alumni with another way to

stay connected with each other and with the school. It will also keep you up to date

with the latest UWCSEA news and events wherever you are, whenever you want.

The directory feature allows you to search for alumni profiles by name, location and

class year, and the ‘nearby’ function lets you see who is located near to wherever you

are. The directory is also integrated with LinkedIn. Other features include links to

Facebook and the UWCSEA alumni event calendar.

Download it from your app store now! Details can be found on the alumni website.

Enjoy!

Check out our exciting

UWCSEA mobile alumni app!

1) Download

2) Select UWCSEA

DOWNLOAD THE

UWCSEA ALUMNI APP NOW!

4 OneºNorth October 2014

By Frazer Cairns

Head of UWCSEA Dover Campus

I have long been a fan of maps. I can pass several minutes (or hours) happily playing

with my phone or flicking through an atlas spotting places that I had heard of but,

until that moment, had no inkling at all of where they were located on the planet.

My interest unfortunately doesn’t translate into any ability to navigate with any

certainty—a good deal of any walk I do is usually taken up with trying to find the

start of the path—but I do know that Greenland is the big thing at the top, France

and Germany are about in the middle, South America is at the bottom left and

New Zealand is at the bottom right. I have the world map on page 2 of this alumni

magazine, One°North, open to prove it.

However, if we look at the old One°North map (and I dare say most of the maps that

you remember from your school textbooks) Greenland is shown as being similar in

size to South America and not far off from being as big as Africa. In reality Greenland

has an area of approximately 2.2 million km2 and Africa an area of over 30.2 million

km2. Our map was showing a country that is at least 14 times smaller than Africa as

being of comparable size. Alaska was also grossly out of proportion. It may be the

largest state but according to the map projection it could encompass over a half of

North America, which just isn’t the case.

The map previously used in One°North is a Mercator projection, originally intended

for navigation. In an attempt to represent a three dimensional shape in a way that

allows lines of constant bearing to appear straight, the projection over emphasises

landmasses towards the poles like Greenland and under emphasises land at the

equator. A former student, Bill Lodwick ’76, pointed out to us recently why a school

like ours should care: having such a skewed map projection affects how people view

the world. Size, position (top, bottom, centre, side) and importance have long been

synonymous with each other and so if we portray the world in a way that shows

Africa as being the same size as Greenland we diminish the importance of this vast

continent. The projection is also centered on Europe with the Northern hemisphere on

top when, of course, there is no reason at all why this should be so.

It may be that an ‘upside down’ map centered on the Pacific would be more valid

given that we are in Singapore (when I saw one it is interesting that my reaction was

how ‘wrong’ it looked after a lifetime of looking at maps with things the other way up.

And just where did France disappear to?) and we are currently looking at a better way

to represent things. Given that I talk about how the school sees education as a force

for a more peaceful future, it does seem important to at least try to show the world in

a more equitable way. Alas, regardless, I fear I will still start most walks by blundering

through someone’s back garden.

“A man using a map

application on his well-

known brand of smart

phone walks into a bar … or

maybe an airport. Or is it a

river? Not quite sure. One of

them, anyway …”

MAPS

October 2014 OneºNorth 5

Farewell from Julian Whiteley

As I approach my final weeks at

UWCSEA, I cannot help but reflect upon

what an extraordinary experience the

last nine years have been.

Before I commenced work at the

College I had heard a great deal about

it. However, it was only upon arrival and

as I began to interact with the staff and

students, that I truly understood and

appreciated the very special nature of

UWCSEA. The ethos was palpable and

evident in the activities taking place

both within and without the classrooms,

many based around service. There was

an energy and unbridled enthusiasm

amongst the community and a genuine

belief in the good of the young that

was refreshing.

As we looked to develop the College, the

challenge was always going to be how

we could do so whilst preserving these

essential characteristics. I had never

worked in a mission-driven organisation

before but therein lay the key. At the

centre of our decision making process

has been the students and how, within

the context of the UWC mission, we

could enhance their education.

There have been substantial changes,

not the least of which has been the

development of the East Campus,

but going back over time change has

been a constant theme at the College

and, in that respect, it reflects the

development of Singapore over the

last 40 years. We have had to adapt to

our surroundings and the way in which

society and international education

has changed. However, in making that

statement it implies that we have been

reactive rather than proactive and

nothing could be further from the truth.

I genuinely believe that nowhere else in

the world is there such a talented group

of people—Board and staff—united

by a common belief, educating such

exceptional students, and supported

to the same extent by the alumni and

parent community. We do, indeed, have

something very special here that should

be cherished.

One of the key components of our

strategy has been the development

of our Alumni Department. When

we started I had hoped that it would

become a vibrant network spread

across the globe facilitating interactions

between alumni and also enabling you

to remain connected with the College.

What has evolved has far exceeded our

expectations and we are now in regular

contact with well over 10,000 of the

almost 20,000 UWCSEA alumni. A far

cry from 2006 when we didn’t even

possess a complete list of the names

of the students who had attended the

College since it’s founding in 1971.

I hope you are as proud of the College as

I am, for it is a unique place and I shall

be eternally grateful for the opportunity

I have had to work here. Both personally

and professionally it has been the most

rewarding period of my life.

I have much enjoyed meeting many of

you at various events around the world

and also here in Singapore. May I wish

you all well in your future endeavours

and I hope you will continue to support

the College. I have always maintained

that this is a great school but the

potential is even greater and I am

confident that under the leadership of

Chris Edwards, my successor, UWCSEA

will go on to greater heights.

Julian Whiteley

Head of College 2005–2014

UWC South East Asia

6 OneºNorth October 2014

Farewell and thank you to Julian

An introduction to

Chris Edwards, Head of College

This is an excerpt of an article that

appeared in the eDunia online magazine.

At the Grade 12 leavers assembly on

Dover, the students gave an additional

‘graduate’ a Class of 2014 hoodie

and invited him to join them on the

bleachers, so the Junior School students

could serenade him with the traditional

Leavers Song. The recipient of that

special invitation was an emotional

Julian Whiteley, Head of College, who

was to leave UWCSEA after nine years of

service and commitment to the College.

It was a significant period for UWCSEA.

The changes since Julian joined in 2005

has been extraordinary. Growing from

2,700 to 5,300 students, opening a

second campus, doubling the number

of scholars, transitioning to a new

admissions policy, setting up the Centre

for International Education, Alumni

Relations and the Foundation … through

these and many other initiatives,

Julian has furthered the ambition of

the College through courageous and

visionary leadership.

Charles Ormiston, Chair of the

UWCSEA Board of Governors, worked

closely with Julian on the opening of East

Campus and supported his leadership of

such crucial educational initiatives as the

iLearn programme and the curriculum

articulation project, as well as the

building programme on Dover Campus.

At Julian’s farewell dinner, Charles spoke

eloquently of Julian’s achievements, but

made the point that it was Julian’s ability

to manage partnerships that marked him

out as an exceptional leader. “It takes a

special kind of leader to have both the

humility and the confidence to truly

partner with others,” he said,

“and Julian has been able to effect

change by building positive partnerships

with his colleagues and external groups

and individuals, all in the service of

what’s best for students, and what’s

best for the College.” He also remarked

on Julian’s sense of timing, his ability

to know the best time to raise an issue

and how “almost every one of his big

ideas were several years in gestation

as he figured out when, not if.” Finally,

Charles paid tribute to Julian’s honesty

and integrity, and his moral compass,

“What Julian brought to all his major

accomplishments was the desire to fulfill

the guiding statements of the school;

his paramount objective when building

the second campus was simply to ensure

that more children had an opportunity

to benefit from a UWC education.”

It is fair to say that Julian’s hope has

been fulfilled. The College is better

because he was here.

From the start of the academic year,

the College community has welcomed

Chris Edwards as the ninth Head of

College. Mr Edwards assumed this role

after completing a decade serving as

Headmaster of Bromsgrove School, an

independent K–12 institution in England

offering IB and A levels. His career

in education in the 13 years prior to

this involved teaching in other British

schools in the UK, São Paolo and some

experience in Asia in his early career.

Mr Edwards explained how the College

found its way into his life: pleased as

he was with his position in redefining

the programme for arts, service and

sports, strengthening alumni relations,

and facilitating local and international

expansion of Bromsgrove School, he

visited UWCSEA for a conference a few

years back. He described falling in love

with the energy of the movement and

strength of the community. It seemed

to him that the College was completely

dedicated towards the UWC mission,

and that the community actually did,

rather than merely talk—especially

with reference to the robustness of the

service programme. This in conjunction

with the academic, sport and activities

record, made the College unique in

his eyes. During that visit Mr Edwards

decided that he would immediately

apply if there was to be an opening.

He is, in his words, thrilled to be given

the opportunity to lead a community

of leaders in a movement he supports

so strongly.

We look forward to seeing Mr Edwards

around the campuses and wish him

the best.

Aditya Krishnan, Grade 11 student

on Dover Campus, spoke with Chris

Edwards on his visit to Singapore in

May. This is an excerpt of an article that

appeared in the online magazine eDunia.

October 2014 OneºNorth 7

By Dominic Bryant

Dominic Bryant

Class of 2003

UWCSEA 1996–2003

The Catlin Seaview Survey is a global

coral reef survey which aims to

reveal the world’s coral reefs in high

resolution 360° panoramic images. I

have the privilege of earning my PhD

as one of the Catlin Oceans Scholars

at The University of Queensland’s

Global Change Institute (GCI). The

GCI is the lead scientific partner of the

Catlin Seaview Survey, and has the

responsibility of extracting scientific

ecological information on the current

condition of the world’s coral reefs

from the images under the direction

of leading climate change and coral

reef scientist, Professor Ove Hoegh-

Guldberg, the Chief Scientist on the

project and GCI Director. During my

time so far with the Catlin Seaview

Survey, I have had the opportunity to

travel the length of the Caribbean and

now the Coral Triangle in the Indo-

Pacific region.

Why coral reefs?

Despite covering less than one percent

of the earth’s surface, coral reefs provide

food and livelihoods for over 500 million

people worldwide. They also provide

protection from storms, waves and

open seas for coastal communities1

creating peaceful and productive lagoon

environments. However, coral reefs are

currently experiencing decline at a rate

faster than any ecosystem in earth’s

history, with many reefs losing 40-50%

coral cover in the last 30 years.1

This loss is due to various threats that

cause physical damage or stress to the

corals from both local (e.g., overfishing,

reduction in water quality, crown of

thorn starfish outbreaks, storms, and

coastal hardening etc.) and global (e.g.,

global warming and ocean acidification)

drivers. The cumulative effects of

increased population pressure adjacent

to reefs and increased carbon emissions

worldwide have left reefs less resilient to

recover from an impact such as a tropical

storm or coral bleaching event.

If corals are unable to recover, entire

colonies can die. Colonies of thousands

of individual polyps are no longer able

to perform the process of calcification,

or the creation of the internal skeleton

that is the basis for the coral structure.

This leaves the colony unable to defend

itself from being overgrown by faster

growing macro algae. This is known

as a phase shift, where macroalgae

become the more dominant life form

in the ecosystem, instead of coral.

Many Caribbean reefs have undergone

a catastrophic phase shift from coral

Helping to understand and

protect coral reefs through imagery

– the Catlin Seaview Survey

8 OneºNorth October 2014

reefs to algal-dominated systems since

the 1970s.2 Current research being

conducted using replicated patch reefs

reconstructed in experimental tanks

within the Coral Reef Ecosystems

Laboratory at The University of

Queensland (UQ) is showing coral reefs

will face very serious consequences

from ocean warming and acidification

in the next 50-100 years if current

carbon emission trajectories continue.

This could ultimately result in coral reefs

being unable to recover and most likely

disappearing for thousands of years.3

From a human resources perspective,

this essentially renders the ecosystem

services (e.g., tourism, fishing, and

coastal protection) provided by coral

reefs useless. Without the reef, there will

be a serious drop in tourism income from

activities such as diving and snorkeling.

Tourists will literally find better things

to do than visit an iconic site that is

meant to have lots of coral but has

none. The Great Barrier Reef alone

attracts roughly 1.6 million tourists a

year, generating over AUD$5 billion a

year for the Australian economy and

providing 63,000 tourism related jobs in

the region.

Perhaps more pressing and less obvious

is what happens to the ocean’s many

sources of food. Coral reefs provide a

myriad of hiding spots for all sizes of

fish and other edible species that live

on coral reefs, but without the hard

structure of a coral reef, there are no

more ‘hiding spaces’. These hiding

spaces provide refuge from predators

on the reef such as sharks, barracudas

and other large reef fish. Approximately

450 million people living within coastal

communities of the East-Asia Pacific

region live below the poverty line,

getting by on less than AUD$2 a day.

Without the reef as a source of protein

and income, residents within these

coastal communities face starvation

and/or resettlement. I have witnessed

this on remote islands off the coast of

Borneo, where the effects of dynamite

fishing have left populated islands

without a source of protein.

Unfortunately less than one percent of

people on earth have the opportunity to

witness the beauty and wonder of a coral

reef first hand. Many people who rely on

coral reefs do not get the opportunity to

see what a coral reef is supposed to look

like, let alone understand the impact

coral reefs have on their lives.

The importance of imagery

One of the challenges facing coral reefs

is that they are underwater, meaning

they are ‘out of sight and out of mind’

for most people. If you have ever spoken

to people from older generations about

coral reefs, you may have heard them

SVII camera on Glover’s Reef, Mexico

October 2014 OneºNorth 9

Dominic Bryant

Dominic is a UWCSEA alumnus from

the Class of 2003. Dominic started

diving with his family around the

islands of Pulau Aur and Pulau Tioman

off the east coast of the Malaysian

Peninsula. A trip to the Maldives in

1997 first spurred his interest in marine

biology, but after seeing first hand

the impacts of overfishing, dynamite

fishing, marine debris, and other human

impacts within South East Asia, he

knew that he wanted the conservation

of marine environments to be his

research focus. Dominic graduated with

a Bachelor of Science in Marine Biology

and Aquaculture from James Cook

University in Townsville and a Masters of

Philosophy in Marine Conservation from

the University of Tasmania.

Dominic joined the Catlin Seaview

Survey team in 2013 as a volunteer diver

on an expedition to the Caribbean. In

2014, he was awarded a PhD scholarship

by Catlin and UQ. Over the next three

years, he will focus on looking at how

coral reefs are affected by human

disturbances. He will also join the field

expeditions as a member of the shallow

reef team surveying the Coral Triangle in

the Indo-Pacific region.

Dominic focusing the camera

say something along the lines of “this

site was a lot better 10 years ago!”

But without any proof of what a reef

looked like, our perception of a healthy

reef changes to what we see in front of

us. Perceptions of healthy coral reefs

are often referred to as being on a

shifting baseline; a healthy reef today

may have been considered an unhealthy

reef a decade ago. Documenting the

current condition of coral reefs now,

means we can observe changes

they face in an uncertain future of

increased environmental stresses from

human-induced climate change and

population pressure.

There is a considerable amount of

time and effort in getting images to

the masses by the project originators

Underwater Earth. Underwater Earth

is a not-for-profit organisation run by a

team of ex-advertising experts who are

dedicated to supporting and promoting

ocean science and raising global

awareness of ocean issues. Imagery is

made freely available on Google Street

View, allowing anyone to have virtual

dive experience from the comfort of

their own home. This outreach tool

has already attracted a following of

3.5 million followers on social media

networks. This is an integral part of the

Catlin Seaview Survey because it gives

the public awareness about coral reefs

and the fact that they are currently in

considerable danger.

The next challenge is showing the

condition of the world’s reefs in a

scientific manner, where methods are

carried out under strictly standardised

scientific protocols across different

locations. The Catlin Seaview Survey

uses an SVII camera to collect images.

The camera has three digital SLR

cameras inside a housing, synchronised

to take pictures every three seconds.

The camera is attached to a Diver

10 OneºNorth October 2014

1 O. Hoegh-Guldberg, Coral reef ecosystems and anthropogenic climate change. Reg. Envir. Chang. 11, S215-S227 (2011); published online EpubMar (10.1007/s10113-010-0189-2).

2 T. P. Hughes, Catastrophes, phase-shifts, and large-scale degradation of a caribbean coral-reef. Science 265, 1547-1551 (1994); published online EpubSep 9 (10.1126/

science.265.5178.1547).

3 S. G. Dove, D. I. Kline, O. Pantos, F. E. Angly, G. W. Tyson, O. Hoegh-Guldberg, Future reef decalcification under a business-as-usual CO2 emission scenario. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S.

A. 110, 15342-15347 (2013); published online EpubSep (10.1073/pnas.1302701110).

Propulsion Vehicle, allowing us to travel

up to 2 kilometres in a single transect,

collecting approximately 900 360°

panoramic images.

For coral reef information, the bottom

camera is positioned so it faces the

reef, and the image is then cropped to

create a standardised 1m2 quadrat of

the bottom. Images are then annotated

in an online interface called Coral Net,

which uses automated computer vision

technology developed by the SCRIPPS

Institute of Oceanography. This rapidly

processes coral reef conditions and

assesses important information such

as the percentage of hard coral cover

or percentage of macro algae cover.

There is also ability to collect important

information about how coral reefs are

affected by human disturbances, and

this is what I plan to focus on partially

for my PhD project.

The images (in all their different

formats) go onto the open access

Catlin Global Reef Record (www.

globalreefrecord.org), an initiative

of Underwater Earth with scientific

protocols developed by scientists from

the GCI. There are teams currently

working on Citizen Science initiatives

that will allow the public to be involved

in analysing the images based on

their own interests, whether it is

looking at corals or identifying reef

fish. This provides people around the

world a greater sense of ownership

and understanding when it comes to

protecting our coral reefs.

The responsibility of

understanding climate change:

Catlin and UQ

The Catlin Group is a global re-insurance

company, operating out of 55 offices in

21 countries. They believe they need to

understand how current and future risks

to our climate and populations could

change the future of insurance. They

see the acquisition of this knowledge

as a duty of care and in the past also