Dr. Mary Hagedorn, a distinguished Smithsonian scientist, is regarded as the world's leading expert in aquatic cryobiology and the application of human fertility techniques to help preserve our threatened coral. In 2000, she received the prestigious George E. Burch Fellowship in Theoretic Medicine and Affiliated Theoretic Sciences, and in 2005 was nominated as a Pew Fellow in Marine Conservation. From her laboratory at the Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology on Coconut Island, Oahu, she is working non-stop to understand the science needed to cryopreserve the eggs, sperm, larvae and tissue of coral.

Yet for all the promise this project holds for humanity, Mary is almost out of funding. The survival of Mary's project, and hence the survival of the reefs, is hanging in the balance.

In collaboration with other scientists and international conservationists, Mary is applying this conservation science to coral around the globe, and has begun to cryopreserve the sperm from coral in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. However, much remains to be done in terms of learning how to preserve other types of coral tissues, and helping to create secure storage facilities where the cells could be maintained alive for hundreds of years at ultra-low temperatures. Her vision is to develop a world-class frozen repository for preserving all coral species. These frozen genetic time capsules will act as an insurance policy for coral in the future. If coral reefs were severely damaged, the cryopreserved genetic material could be used to increase genetic diversity and in theory could be used to reseed the oceans.

This future-thinking program is the only one of its kind in the world, and not enough basic research or manpower has been dedicated to making significant progress towards banking down all coral species.

This is a critical issue with a clear solution - Mary needs your help now. These new technologies could be used immediately to begin protecting the planet's most endangered coral species.