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Language: en

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(Water and boat engine sounds)

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How exciting is the thought of diving some of&nbsp;
the most pristine coral reefs in North America&nbsp;&nbsp;

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at NOAA's Flower Garden Banks&nbsp;
National Marine Sanctuary?&nbsp;

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This incredible underwater landscape off&nbsp;
the coasts of Texas and Louisiana in the&nbsp;&nbsp;

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Gulf of Mexico, has awe-inspiring hard coral&nbsp;
coverage and an abundance of aquatic wildlife.&nbsp;

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The Tennessee Aquarium and Flower Garden Banks&nbsp;
National Marine Sanctuary are working together in&nbsp;&nbsp;

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an Aquarium-Sanctuary Partnership for America's&nbsp;
Keystone Wildlife to protect these incredible&nbsp;&nbsp;

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coral reefs of the Flower Garden Banks.
As beautiful as they are, these reefs could&nbsp;&nbsp;

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be in danger. To keep them safe, we're&nbsp;
asking for help from the dive community.&nbsp;

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Hello, I'm Mark Craven, Manager of Dive Operations&nbsp;
and Dive Safety Officer at the Tennessee Aquarium,&nbsp;&nbsp;

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and I want to take a few minutes to draw your&nbsp;
attention to a problem that's ravaging the coral&nbsp;&nbsp;

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populations of the southeastern United States.
Stony Coral Tissue Loss Disease is killing&nbsp;&nbsp;

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corals along the Florida coast&nbsp;
and has spread into the Caribbean.&nbsp;

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The cause of the disease is&nbsp;
still under investigation,&nbsp;&nbsp;

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but we know that it spreads rapidly.
Since there's a possibility that dive&nbsp;&nbsp;

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gear may carry this disease from reef to reef,&nbsp;
we're asking divers to take extra precautions.&nbsp;&nbsp;

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As divers who enjoy exploring reefs, we have&nbsp;
an obligation to help prevent this horrific&nbsp;&nbsp;

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disease from spreading to the Flower&nbsp;
Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary.&nbsp;

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Just like we wash our hands to&nbsp;
prevent the spread of disease,&nbsp;&nbsp;

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we can take a few extra minutes to disinfect&nbsp;
our dive gear after visiting each dive site.&nbsp;

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This should kill off any harmful bacteria that&nbsp;
could spread Stony Coral Tissue Loss Disease.&nbsp;

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Here at the aquarium, after we dive an&nbsp;
exhibit, we take time to disinfect our&nbsp;&nbsp;

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dive gear before we enter another exhibit,&nbsp;
to help keep our marine wildlife healthy.&nbsp;

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You can do the same to help&nbsp;
protect living reefs in the wild.&nbsp;

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Before your first dive, and&nbsp;
again after visiting a dive site,&nbsp;&nbsp;

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safely and properly disinfect your dive gear by&nbsp;
following these instructions from our partners at&nbsp;&nbsp;

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Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary.
Otherwise, those harmful pathogens may be&nbsp;&nbsp;

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transmitted between dive areas,&nbsp;
further spreading this disease.&nbsp;

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(Music)

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As divers, you're drawn to the underwater&nbsp;&nbsp;world&nbsp;&nbsp;

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and the pristine beauty&nbsp;of these coral ecosystems.
Please help be a steward of these reefs.&nbsp;

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Thanks for being part of the&nbsp;
solution, and safe diving!&nbsp;

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This video is the result of an Aquarium-Sanctuary&nbsp;
Partnership for America's Keystone Wildlife,&nbsp;&nbsp;

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supported by NOAA's Office of&nbsp;
National Marine Sanctuaries,&nbsp;&nbsp;

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the National Marine Sanctuary Foundation,&nbsp;
and the Association of Zoos and Aquariums.&nbsp;

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The Tennessee Aquarium works with&nbsp;
Flower Garden Banks National Marine&nbsp;Sanctuary

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to protect the Gulf&nbsp;
of Mexico's marine species.&nbsp;

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Tennessee Aquarium is raising Flower&nbsp;
Garden Banks fish species at the aquarium,&nbsp;&nbsp;

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to perfect a methodology that may one&nbsp;
day help restore reef populations. (Music)