lophelia.org

Lophelia.org was founded by J Murray Roberts in 2005 to help make people more aware of cold-water corals and the threats they face. The site is now managed and updated by the University of Edinburgh’s Undergraduates Changing the Oceans – a group of students from across the university interested in all things coral!

The site was first launched in September 2005 as part of the Deep-sea Conservation for the UK project funded by the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation. The first site was designed by Rory MacKinnon and developed by J Murray Roberts and Andrew J Davies at the Scottish Association for Marine Science.

The site quickly grew in popularity and within a year of its launch was reviewed by Science’s Netwatch column. In the years since its launch we have continuously added to the site with news and developments in cold-water coral research and conservation around the world.

In 2010 Lophelia.org moved to Heriot-Watt University and was extensively redesigned by the Glasgow-based web design company small-media-large working in close collaboration with Murray’s research group, with Laura Wicks spearheading the revamp.

Lophelia.org was a contribution to the 2010 International Year of Biodiversity and was part of Heriot-Watt University’s contribution to the European HERMIONE project.

Please contact us at info@Lophelia.org about any of the site’s content or if you would like to write a new Case Study from your part of the world or get us to link to your cold-water coral webpages.