HARBOR BRANCH - OFFICIAL PRESS RELEASE

THE FORBIDDEN ZONE AND THE TREASURE COAST

Ever wonder why the waves are better for surfing on Florida's east coast, but the best shells are found on the west side? Or perhaps you'd like to know why Florida's southwestern shores get hit hardest by red tides. This week, on Wed., Feb. 1, for the next event in the 2006 Harbor Branch Ocean Science Lecture Series, Ned Smith will be answering these and other questions while describing and contrasting the distinct oceanographic personalities of Florida's two coasts.

Smith will also describe why waters off southwest Florida resist shoreward water flow. A result of prevailing offshore winds, this fact has earned the waters the nickname the Forbidden Zone, because objects such as bottles or even boats that start in the northeastern Gulf are, surprisingly, less likely to end up in this zone than all the way around the peninsula on the Treasure Coast.

Others topics Smith will address include the differing fates of polluted waters from the state's interior depending on whether they flow into the Atlantic or Gulf, and how it is that the cold water that occasionally upwells on the Treasure Coast actually originates in Antarctica.

Ned Smith is from Wisconsin, but nonetheless managed to acquire a love for the sea thanks to a 93-day oceanographic cruise during graduate school that took him to such ports of call as Bermuda and Senegal. The voyage convinced him to get a Ph.D. in oceanography, which he accomplished in 1972 at the University of Wisconsin. He came to Harbor Branch in 1977 and since then has studied shallow-water currents around Florida and in the Bahamas. Results of his work answer such questions as whether nutrient-rich water from the Florida Bay makes its way through the Keys and out to the state's coral reefs.

Smith's talk, "The Forbidden Zone and the Treasure Coast: Contrasting Florida's Gulf and Atlantic Coasts," will be held in the auditorium of the Johnson Education Center on the Harbor Branch Campus, 5600 US 1 North, Ft. Pierce, Fla. at 4:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 8. All talks in the Ocean Science Lecture Series are free to the public and followed by a free reception. A cash bar is available before and after the 7:00 p.m. talk. Please direct press inquiries to Mark Schrope at 772-216-0390 or schrope@hboi.edu. General questions about the series should be directed to the Marine Education Office at 772-465-2400 ext. 506 or education@hboi.edu.

2006 HARBOR BRANCH OCEAN SCIENCE LECTURE SERIES SCHEDULE

February 1 - Ned Smith - The Forbidden Zone and the Treasure Coast: Contrasting Florida's Gulf and Atlantic Coasts

February 8 - Brian Lapointe - Paradise Lost, Paradigm Found: Long Term Monitoring of Water Quality and Coral Reef Communities in the Florida Keys

February 15 - Clay Cook - Coral Bleaching and Global Warming: The Verdict Is In

February 22 - Amy Wright - Natural Products Investigators: Finding and Understanding A Killer

March 1 - Greg Bossart - The Indian River Lagoon Health Assessment Program from 2003-2005: So What's Ailing Flipper?

March 8 - John Scarpa - The Sensible Sea Squirt

March 15 - Tammy Frank - Vision in the Deep Sea: A Crab's Eye View

March 22 - Tracey Sutton - Deep-sea Denizens of the Mid Atlantic Ridge

March 29 - Peter McCarthy - An Ocean of Microbes: Microbial Influences on Planetary and Human Health

HARBOR BRANCH Oceanographic Institution was founded in Ft. Pierce, Fla., in 1971 to support the exploration and conservation of the world's oceans. The institution has held to this mission and grown into one of the world's leading oceanographic institutions with a 500-acre campus, over 200 personnel, and a fleet of sophisticated research ships and submersibles.