REMINDER/Legendary Ship Returns to USA, Brings Urgent Message to Save Coral Reefs.

News Editors/City Desks/Science Writers

REMINDER...for Saturday (Oct. 11) to Saturday (Oct. 18)

LOS ANGELES & OAKLAND, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 10, 2003

Planetary Coral Reef Foundation:

Join Us For Homecoming Celebrations:

-- Oct. 11, 2003: RV Heraclitus (RVH) sails back under Golden

Gate Bridge into San Francisco Bay. 9 a.m.

-- Oct. 11, 2003: RVH arrives at Jack London Square in Oakland

greeted by schoolchildren, community leaders and government

officials. 1 p.m.

-- Oct. 11-18, 2003: RVH will be docked at Jack London Square.

Events and coral reef educational activities in greater Bay

Area.

The Tall Ship RV Heraclitus, the only research vessel continually at sea monitoring coral reefs on a global basis, is returning home for the first time since it was built and launched in Oakland, California in 1975. Since departing Oakland, this ship has circumnavigated the globe, journeyed up the Amazon River, sailed to the Antarctic Peninsula, and voyaged over 200,000 sea miles (equivalent to more than 8 times around the world).

"PCRF is doing something vitally important for each and every one of us," says James Cameron, Honorary Chair of PCRF, director of the film, "Titanic," and an underwater pioneer. "The health of the ocean depends on the health of coral reefs. Our destiny is interlocked with the destiny of the sea. If the seas die, we die."

To address the coral reef crisis, PCRF is pioneering a Coral Reef Satellite Mission that will monitor the world's coral reefs using satellite imagery and create the urgently needed first comprehensive baseline map of living coral reefs. To achieve this mission, PCRF has assembled an interdisciplinary team of institutions and scientists to carry out the project including: Astrium, the College of Charleston, MIT, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, SeaSpace, the Stevens Institute of Technology and USC.

The Planetary Coral Reef Foundation (PCRF) was founded in 1991 to address the coral reef crisis. Since its inception, PCRF has pursued an unprecedented global mission to preserve coral reefs through innovative programs in science, technology and education.

To create the first-ever comprehensive baseline map of living coral reefs, PCRF is pioneering a Coral Reef Satellite Mission in cooperation with scientists at College of Charleston, MIT, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, SeaSpace, Stevens Institute of Technology and USC.

This will be the first satellite mission dedicated to the stewardship of coral reefs.

www.pcrf.org

Broadcast Quality B-Roll Video is available upon request.

Your feature and event coverage is invited! For further information, to arrange interviews or make arrangements to cover the event, please call Matthew Wetmore at 310-463-5840.