[NHCOLL-L:4578] cleaning coral

[Gatens, Lisa]

The following message is being posted on behalf of a colleague.  Please respond to him directly.  Thank you.

The NC Museum of Natural Sciences has recently received some pieces of deep-sea coldwater corals from areas off the North Carolina coast. We are hoping to preserve and display these corals in an exhibit area in the new wing of our Museum.
The species collected are in two groups of deep sea corals: Lophelia coral and Bamboo coral. These corals are rather fragile. They were collected recently as living specimens and have the remains of coral polyps dried within them.

We are hoping curators can give us successful tips for the following:

 1.  Best techniques to clean and preserve these corals
 2.  Methods to strengthen the corals in order to exhibit them without dramatically changing their appearance

Thanks for your help.
John Connors, Coordinator of the Naturalist Center
            john.connors at ncdenr.gov

Please note, this is a new email address, replacing lisa.gatens at ncmail.net.

Lisa J. Gatens
Curator of Mammals
North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences
11 W. Jones St.
Raleigh, NC 27601
919-733-7450 X727     fax: 919-715-2614

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