Coralpalooza™ Digital 2021 is bringing together scientists, conservationists, and ocean enthusiasts from around the world for a one-day virtual celebration in honor of World Oceans Day.
© Coral Restoration Foundation
This free event celebrates a mission of hope for coral reefs – some of our planet’s most endangered ecosystems. Presented by Coral Restoration Foundation™, Coralpalooza™ Digital is hosted on a wildly creative and fully interactive digital platform. Visitors will be immersed in a digital underwater world and treated to never-before-seen footage, interviews and presentations from some of the leading figures in marine conservation, hands-on activities for the kids, a treasure hunt, and content-rich virtual booths where they can have live chats with experts from Florida Aquarium, the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary, The Nature Conservancy, ANGARI, and many more.
Coralpalooza™ Digital was an innovation born in 2020 as a result of the global pandemic. Every year since 2015, in honor of World Oceans Day, Coral Restoration Foundation™ has hosted Coralpalooza™ – traditionally a day of large-scale, active reef restoration work in the Florida Keys with coordinated ocean conservation activities around the world. But moving the event online in 2020 proved to be a massive success. Roxane Boonstra is heading up the event for Coral Restoration Foundation™ just as she did last year. She says, “The sheer quantity of people that attended Coralpalooza™ Digital 2020 confirmed just how much people care about our planet. We had more than 1,000 visitors from 67 countries - more people than ever before actively involved on a single day in the mission to save and restore life in our oceans. We are so excited to be presenting the event again, giving people a chance to engage with solutions for protecting life in our oceans.”
© Coral Restoration Foundation
This year, with Covid-safe logistics, Coral Restoration Foundation™ has brought back the in-person event, re-branded as “Coralpalooza™ Dive Day”, which sold out just 36-hours after registration opened. Luckily, attendance for Coralpalooza™ Digital 2021 is free and unlimited. This year’s event is sponsored in part by Ocean Reef Conservation Association and offers a VIP section that includes access to bonus content, the opportunity to have live video chats with presenters, and complimentary raffle tickets for a chance to win prizes including a Diverite BCD and a package that includes a two-night stay at the beautiful Bakers Cay Resort, Key Largo, and two spaces on a Coral Restoration Foundation™ Dive Program.
© Coral Restoration Foundation
Discover a whole new way to celebrate the coral reef comeback. Register now for the most inspiring digital event of the year.
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Coralpalooza™ Digital 2021
Date: June 6th, 2020
Time: 1 - 4 pm EDT
For more information contact Alice Grainger at alice@coralrestoration.org
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Coral Restoration Foundation™
Coral Restoration Foundation™ (CRF™) is a non-profit marine conservation organization dedicated to restoring reefs to a healthy state in Florida and globally. Through large-scale cultivation, outplanting and monitoring of genetically diverse corals, CRF works to support the reefs’ natural recovery processes. CRF engages and empowers others in their mission with dive programs, educational activities, scientific collaborations, and community outreach. www.coralrestoration.org
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Communications Program Editorial Intern
Tessa Markham is a recent graduate of Skidmore College, with a BA in English and Environmental Studies. She grew up in Wilton, in southwestern Connecticut, but spent her summers growing up either hiking and camping in the woods or swimming and sailing on the water. She has always been passionate about climate change and conservation. Diving for the first time in 2014 while taking a marine conservation course in the Caribbean leeward islands, she quickly amassed dives and got her PADI Instructor certification just three years later. Just after completing her instructor training, she spent nearly a month on the Yucatan Peninsula conducting research on their reefs, looking at the ratio of soft versus stony coral death. She later channeled her distress at the degradation of the reefs to write a short story about coral bleaching, which was published in Volume 5 of the Oakland Arts Review in 2020. Her capstone thesis built on this theme and she wrote a collection of four creative short stories that detail and exemplify climate change-induced environmental damage through a narrative lens. She aims to combine her degrees and experiences to make a career in science communications, making research and conservation accessible to everybody.