My little posting seems to have triggered a lively debate (and thanks
LaVerne for that article with the photo!).  In most cases of the
"discovery" of geographical features and fauna and flora not situatuated
in deep water or being very small (as in viruses and such),  the matter
is indeed relative - indiginous folks who live on, near, or with the
"discovery" in question will of course have known about them for a long
time.  So, i think that all such findings by non-indiginous personell
should indeed be put in quotation marks, whether literally or
figuratively: yes, such things as this recently revealed coral reef
(with 30+ GENERA of corals - what diversity!!!) are indeed new to the
industrialized parts of the world and to science, so they do indeed
count as "discoveries" in that sense, but we must always remember and
properly acknowledge that they have been known for some time by the
people who live there: to not do so would be quite ethnocentric and/or
downright arrogant!!

 From a nippy first day of the last partial week in the second month of
the year 2006,
ross mayhew.

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