Poster presented at the 2011 Annual Meeting of the Marine Alliance for Science and Technology Scotland.

1. Cold-water coral outreach – developing the
Lophelia.org website
J Murray Roberts, Laura C Wicks, Lea-Anne Henry, Sebastian Hennige, Juan Moreno-Navas
The power of the internet
The first port of call people make for information is the internet. With googling a word in its own right,
any science outreach activity planned today almost always includes a significant web-based component.
With that in mind, we relaunched the www.Lophelia.org website, a cold-water coral resource designed to
raise awareness of cold-water corals and the threats they face.
In order to draw people to the website, we created a short film
with Sir David Attenborough, highlighting the importance of
coral conservation in Scotland and around the world. By
premiering the film at a launch event with strategic publicity,
Lophelia.org was featured throughout the national press,
increasing website traffic tenfold.
From age 5 to 105
The site is designed to be accessible and interesting
for all ages. Information is arranged using a series of
‘Go Deeper’ links that take the visitor through
gradually more detailed information culminating in a
list of primary scientific literature and technical
reports. With this intrinsic design the site can cater to
anyone from school children working on projects
through to scientific colleagues looking for particular
information in one of the website’s Case Studies, or
Conservation Status summaries.
Social media
In the 21st century, websites such as
Facebook, Twitter, Youtube and Google Earth
are important tools for scientists, allowing
quick communication of information, images
and videos.
By using social media and news stories, we
can keep www.lophelia.org up to date and
people can easily follow updates we make
about new discoveries from cold-water coral
researchers around the world.
Contact
L.Wicks@hw.ac.uk
J.M.Roberts@hw.ac.uk
+44 (131) 451 8267
Centre for Marine Biodiversity &
Biotechnology, School of Life
Sciences, Heriot-Watt University, For more information
Edinburgh, Scotland,
www.lophelia.org Acknowledgements
Small-Media-Large
EH14 4AS, UK Sir David Attenborough
Xtra-Large Recording