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Communicating
Emergency
Preparedness
Practical Strategies for the
Public and Private Sectors
Communicating
Emergency
Preparedness
Practical Strategies for the
Public and Private Sectors
Second Edition

Damon P. Coppola • Erin K. Maloney


CRC Press
Taylor & Francis Group
6000 Broken Sound Parkway NW, Suite 300
Boca Raton, FL 33487-2742

© 2017 by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC


CRC Press is an imprint of Taylor & Francis Group, an Informa business

No claim to original U.S. Government works

Printed on acid-free paper

International Standard Book Number-13: 978-1-138-72106-7 (Hardback)


978-1-498-76236-6 (Paperback)

This book contains information obtained from authentic and highly regarded sources. Reasonable
efforts have been made to publish reliable data and information, but the author and publisher can-
not assume responsibility for the validity of all materials or the consequences of their use. The
authors and publishers have attempted to trace the copyright holders of all material reproduced in
this publication and apologize to copyright holders if permission to publish in this form has not
been obtained. If any copyright material has not been acknowledged please write and let us know
so we may rectify in any future reprint.

Except as permitted under U.S. Copyright Law, no part of this book may be reprinted, reproduced,
transmitted, or utilized in any form by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or
hereafter invented, including photocopying, microfilming, and recording, or in any information
storage or retrieval system, without written permission from the publishers.

For permission to photocopy or use material electronically from this work, please access www.
copyright.com (http://www.copyright.com/) or contact the Copyright Clearance Center, Inc.
(CCC), 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, 978-750-8400. CCC is a not-for-profit organiza-
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granted a photocopy license by the CCC, a separate system of payment has been arranged.

Trademark Notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and
are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.

Visit the Taylor & Francis Web site at


http://www.taylorandfrancis.com

and the CRC Press Web site at


http://www.crcpress.com
This book is dedicated to Shannon, Kelly, Will,
Annabelle, and Miles, who remind us that risk messages
are best measured by the lives they’ve protected.
Contents

Acknowledgments xiii
Authors xv
Introduction xvii

Chapter 1 Individual Preparedness: In Theory and


in Practice 1
Introduction 1
Communication Science: A Primer 6
Social Marketing 10
A Systems Approach to Disaster
Preparedness Campaigns 14
Phase 1: Early Planning 15
Phase 2: Developing a Campaign Strategy 15
Phase 3: Implementing and Evaluating the Campaign 16
Purpose, Goals, and Objectives 16
Goal 1: Raising Awareness about the Hazard Risk 17
Goal 2: Guiding Behavior 18
Goal 3: Warning 20
Other Risk Communication Goals 23
Priorities and Goals of Risk Communication Recipients 24
Seeing the Bigger Picture: Communication as
One Component of a Larger Solution 28
Campaign Requirements 35
The Dangers of Failed Risk Communication 38
Conclusion 39
References 39

vii
viii Contents

Chapter 2 Managing Risk, Emergencies, and Disasters 41


Introduction 41
Fundamental Emergency Management Concepts 43
Risk43
Hazard44
Vulnerability 44
Disaster 46
Safe48
The Management of Risk 49
The Management of Emergencies and Disasters:
Emergency Management Functions 51
Mitigation 51
Preparedness 52
Response 52
Recovery 53
The Management of Emergencies and Disasters:
Emergency Management Structures 54
The Fire Department 54
Law Enforcement 56
Emergency Management 57
Emergency Medical Services 57
The Military 58
Other Emergency Management Resources 59
Private-Sector Emergency and
Risk Management Structures 59
Governmental Preparedness Actions 61
Individual and Organizational Preparedness 62
Jurisdictional Management and Control:
Defining Responsibility 63
What Is Public Emergency Preparedness? 65
The Advantages of a Trained Public 67
Conclusion 71
References 72
Contents ix

Chapter 3 The Campaign—Step 1: Early Planning 73


Introduction 73
Define the Problem 75
Identify and Analyze the Hazard Risk 75
Define the Target Population 77
Identify Appropriate Solutions 91
Market Research 93
Existing Program Research and Gap Analysis 95
Determine Project Feasibility 95
Establish Realistic Goals and Objectives 96
Form the Planning Team and Coalition 101
Encouraging Partners to Join the Planning Team 108
The Media as a Partner 115
Drawing Up Partnership Plans 119
Project Management 120
Conclusion 124
References 124

Chapter 4 Step 2—Develop a Campaign Strategy 127


Introduction 127
Project Kickoff 127
The Campaign Strategy 129
Influential External Variables 138
Selecting Appropriate Settings,
Channels, and Methods 140
Settings141
Channels 143
Methods 149
Selecting Communication Channels and Methods 155
Selecting Spokespeople 161
Design and Develop Message Content 164
The Extended Parallel Process Model 166
The Health Belief Model 168
x Contents

Theory of Planned Behavior 169


Pilot Test and Adjust Materials 172
Activities and Events Planning 172
Establishing a Project Timetable 174
Creating the Comprehensive Communication Plan 174
Conclusion 175
References 175

Chapter 5 Campaign Implementation and Evaluation 179


Introduction 179
Campaign Launch 179
The Media 181
Evaluation 182
Objectivity in Evaluation 183
The Justification for Evaluation 184
Process Evaluation 184
Experimental and Quasi-Experimental Design 186
True Experimental Designs 186
Conclusion 195
References 196

Chapter 6 Program Support 197


Introduction 197
Types of Program Support 200
Sources of Support 202
Individual Donors 202
Business and Corporate Donors 204
Foundations 207
Local, State, County, and Federal Government Grants 212
Religious Organizations 218
Civic Organizations and Service Clubs 219
Fee Generation 219
Partnerships 220
Implementing a Fundraising Strategy 221
Contents xi

Fundraising Strategy Factors 222


Asking for Stuff 225
Conclusion 228
References 228

Chapter 7 Emergency Management Public Education


Case Studies 231
Case: Organized Training for Communities 231
Case: Volunteer Emergency Preparedness Program 232
Case: Teaching Emergency Preparedness in Schools 233
 mergency Preparedness in
Case: E
Public Transportation234
Case: Public–Private Partnership for
Disaster Preparedness235
Case: National Public Education Effort 236
Case: Technology-Based Learning 238
Case: Local Government Preparedness Campaign 239
Case: Disaster Preparedness Camp 239
Case: Community-Wide Disaster Drill 240
Case: Youth Preparedness 241
Case: Multi-Stakeholder Preparedness Campaign 242
Case: Government-Sponsored Business
Preparedness Certification Program243
Case: Creative Methods and Channels 244
Case: Using Creative Messaging 245
Case: Campaign Support 246
Appendix: Websites and Downloadable Guides
Found on the Internet247

Index 251
Acknowledgments

Damon Coppola would like to express his profound gratitude to


his wife, Mary Gardner Coppola, for her guidance and patience; to
Jane Bullock and George Haddow for their friendship and support and
for continuing to give freely of their expertise and experience; and to
the following friends, mentors, and colleagues without whom this book
would not have been possible: Jack Harrald, Greg Shaw, J. René van
Dorp, Joe Barbera, Ryan Miller, Louise Comfort, Barbara Johnson,
Sanjaya Bhatia, Gerry Potutan, Gulzar Kayyim, Irmak Renda-Tanali,
Ehren Ngo, Ollie Davidson, Jack Suwanlert, and Rich Marinucci.
Erin Maloney would like to thank her husband, Sean McConnell,
for his amazing support and encouragement, and her sister-in-law, Molly
McConnell, for the countless hours she spent playing with the girls so
that Erin Maloney could write.
The authors would also like to thank Jennifer Abbott, Natalja
Mortensen, and Eve Strillacci at Taylor & Francis Group for the assis-
tance they provided in the development of this book.

xiii
Authors

Damon P. Coppola, MEM, ARM, is the founder of the Singapore-based


Shoreline Risk Management, partner at Bullock & Haddow LLC, and
adjunct assistant professor at the Loma Linda University School of Public
Health. Mr. Coppola is an accomplished emergency management systems
engineer who has bridged the gap between practice and academia. In his
professional career, he has consulted as an analyst and technical assis-
tant to clients in the public, nonprofit, and private sectors. Mr. Coppola
is a recognized emergency management training and education specialist,
having developed and co-developed programs and courses for the FEMA
Emergency Management Institute Higher Education Program and the DHS
National Training and Education Division. Mr. Coppola has authored and
co-authored more than a dozen academic and professional emergency man-
agement textbooks in use at over 200 colleges and universities worldwide.

Erin K. Maloney, PhD, is a research director at the Tobacco Center of


Regulatory Science (TCORS) in the Annenberg School for Communication
at the University of Pennsylvania, and an adjunct instructor for George
Washington University’s Master of Public Health Online program and
West Chester University’s Department of Communication Studies. She
specializes in health communication, social influence, and quantitative
research methods. Dr. Maloney’s research explores message effects in
mediated and face-to-face contexts and seeks best practices for message
design in public health communication campaigns. Her work has been pre-
sented at dozens of national and international academic conferences and
published in prestigious academic journals across disciplines, including
Human Communication Research, Journal of Applied Social Psychology,
Journal of Clinical Oncology, and Nicotine & Tobacco Research. She
has consulted on a wide variety of public health and environmental cam-
paigns at the grassroots level and contributed to the development of the
nationally attended communication skills training programs for clinicians
at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. Dr. Maloney is currently
funded by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to conduct research
that has implications for tobacco control.

xv
Introduction

There are two indisputable truths that together drive the need for this
book.
The first is that major disasters, whether natural, technological, or
terrorism-based, are increasing in both their number and their intensity.
Hurricanes have devastated cities and political administrations alike;
floods have washed away businesses and strained whole economies; new
and exotic diseases have remained one step ahead; while terrorists and
psychopaths have inflicted debilitating fear into millions of lives more
than the thousands, their attacks have extinguished. And this list is
not ­comprehensive. Today, the vast majority of the global population—­
perhaps every human—lives in perpetual risk from at least one major
disaster threat. Through ongoing urbanization, a changing global climate,
and widespread geopolitical instability, the problems merely grow. There
is no exaggeration in stating that disasters punctuate 21st century life.
The second truth, which comes in stark contrast to the first, is that
the vast majority of people are woefully unprepared for the hazards that
threaten them. After-action reporting following several recent events
found that only a very small percentage of disaster-affected populations
had acted to reduce their vulnerability. More than half of the disaster-
impacted businesses never reopened or closed within a year. In many of
these cases and others like them, national and international governments
and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) alike expended tremen-
dous human and financial resources in an effort to promote disaster pre-
paredness. Clearly, most of these efforts fell far short of their expected
outcomes.
Together, these truths obligate the adaptation of a more effective
practice. Individual, family, and business preparedness are vital to
increasing overall community resilience, especially in light of the lim-
itations typically experienced by the emergency services at the outset
of large-scale events. Even in countries whose governments boast of
the most highly advanced emergency management capacities, leaders
have found it necessary to warn average citizens that a minimum of

xvii
xviii Introduction

48–72 hours of self-reliance in the aftermath of a major disaster should


be anticipated.
Disaster preparedness is by no means a new concept; however,
the recognition of its true lifesaving potential has elevated its prom-
inence among professionals in the fields of emergency management,
risk management, and business continuity planning. In response to a
2006 Council for Excellence in Government study, which reported that
“most Americans haven’t taken steps to prepare for a natural disas-
ter, terrorist attack, or other emergency” (USA Today, 2006), Michael
Chertoff, former Department of Homeland Security Secretary, echoed
an even wider societal recognition of the dire need for increased public
disaster preparedness efforts in stating, “Everybody should have [disas-
ter preparedness] basics down. I think Katrina shook people up. A lot
of messaging and a lot of education, particularly at the local level, is
the key” (Government Executive, 2006). Furthermore, the University
of Colorado Natural Hazards Center, a leader in the advancement of
emergency management throughout the world, stated in a January
2007 edition of Natural Hazards Observer that: (1) there is a posi-
tive correlation between public awareness and positive disaster out-
comes; (2) opportunities exist to better educate the public, coordinate
messages, and initiate social change; (3) recent studies and surveys all
indicate that there is an immediate need for better public education
before disaster; and most importantly (4) there exists no comprehen-
sive review of practices and resources and identification of components
that make up an effective disaster public education program (Natural
Hazards Observer, 2007).
Perhaps, most significantly, a June 2007 report released by the
Emergency Preparedness Institute stated, “The current approach to
encouraging preparedness is ineffective, and a new method of commu-
nicating the importance of developing business and personal prepared-
ness plans is needed.” While other industries, most notably the public
health sector, have enjoyed great success in shaping public attitudes and
actions about their risk reduction behavior, the emergency management
sector has thus far been largely unsuccessful in its endeavors. Despite
the high cost and high profile of the penultimate preparedness effort, the
Department of Homeland Security’s Ready.gov preparedness campaign
has failed to make use of strongly supported public education method-
ologies that would have most certainly improved outcomes (Washington
Post, 2006). Years after hurricane Katrina—arguably America’s most
widely reported disaster—and despite the existence of widespread pre-
paredness messaging, the American Red Cross found that only 1 in 20
coastal residents had taken key preparedness actions (Citizen Corps,
2013). What is most troubling is that it isn’t a lack of will standing in
the way of preparedness but rather an industry-wide lack of knowledge
Introduction xix

about how people learn new behaviors, what influences them to act upon
this knowledge, and the best way to create messages catering to those
individual factors.
All communities are vulnerable to the effects of natural, techno-
logical, and intentional hazards. Every day, in every community, these
hazard risks result in emergency events of varying size and intensity.
Occasionally, they are of such great magnitude that they result in a major
disaster. To minimize the consequences posed by known and unknown
hazards, or to limit their likelihood of occurrence, communities perform
mitigation and preparedness actions and activities. Individuals and busi-
nesses alike may be equipped with the skills and knowledge to further
reduce their own vulnerability, and that of their families, employees,
neighborhoods, and communities—if they are given the right kind of
training, using appropriate communication methods and channels. Once
prepared, these stakeholders become an integral part of the community’s
emergency management capacity. Properly trained individuals not only
influence their own and their family’s disaster risk but also use the skills
they have learned to rescue their neighbors, relieve shelter staff, retrofit
homes for earthquakes, save their businesses, and take countless more
actions to extend the reach of their local emergency services.
As is true with the emergency manager and the first responders in a
community, members of the general public and of the business commu-
nity need information and training if they are to know what is best to do
before, during, and after emergencies. The information provided must
reflect their true risk and must be tailored to their needs, preferences,
and abilities; transmitted in a way they can receive and understand; and
tested for effectiveness. Any education provided will be received in con-
junction or in competition with a wide range of other messages relating
to hazards, each considered a “risk communication,” regardless of its
influence. In addition, while some of this coincident information will
be accurate, effective, and useful, much of it is misleading, inaccurate,
and ultimately harmful. Individuals are left to their own devices to cull
through the daily onslaught of information received for that which will
help them prepare.
Creating risk messages and conveying them to the intended audi-
ences requires time, planning, and learning. Unfortunately, disaster pre-
paredness education and training is not as easy as simply telling people
what they should do. This process, which includes public awareness,
education, and outreach, is an involved one relying on many years of
practice and many different disciplines (including psychology, sociology,
graphic design, marketing, communication, emergency management,
and many others). Risk communication efforts are ongoing and long-
term in nature, and must adhere to strategic plans to be effective. They
should be coordinated with other providers in the community, and are
xx Introduction

most successful when they involve partners drawn from throughout the
community and even beyond its borders.
This resource has been developed to provide practitioners in the
United States and the rest of the world, at both the local and national
levels, with the background and the tools they need to plan, design, and
carry out their public disaster preparedness efforts. The book is intended
as an academic resource as well as a practical how-to guide.

REFERENCES

Foster, Chad. 2007. On the Line. Natural Hazards Observer. January 3.


http://bit.ly/2iflp5l.
Goldfarb, Zachary. 2006. Is DHS Site Really Ready? Science Intern
Thinks Not. Washington Post. August 10. http://bit.ly/2imjgos.
Hall, Mimi. 2006. Most People Unprepared for Disaster. USA Today.
December 18. http://bit.ly/2jCFsjz.
Harris, Shane. 2006. Chertoff Discusses Goals, Responds to Critics.
Government Executive. December 20. http://bit.ly/2ji3vRb.
Chapter 1
Individual Preparedness
In Theory and in Practice

INTRODUCTION

Risk-related messages permeate all facets of modern life. Automobiles


chime to remind us we must “Click It or Ticket”; cigarette boxes warn in
no uncertain terms of the cancer threat contained within; lids on dispos-
able coffee cups proclaim the obvious heat contained within; and pharma-
ceutical prescriptions are accompanied by pages of warnings and dangers
that more than counterbalance the sentence or two that detail the intended
benefits. The flood of risk information we receive can be so great that, in
fact, we simply stop paying attention to most of it (Figure 1.1).
Every moment of our lives entails risk. And for every contributing
hazard, there are actions we can take that will either increase or decrease
our risk. For many—if not most—of these hazards, one might expect
that common sense dictates the wisest risk reduction measures: holding
a handrail while descending a staircase; wearing a seatbelt while driving
or riding in an automobile; or avoiding cigarette smoke or quitting smok-
ing. Regrettably, such simple and sensible actions are often neglected,
and each year in the United States alone more than 1,600 ­people die by
falling down the stairs; more than 10,000 people perish in motor vehicle
accidents while neglecting to wear a seatbelt (accounting for approxi-
mately 40% of all daytime and 60% of nighttime accident deaths); and
approximately 480,000 people succumb to smoking-related illnesses
(one-fifth of all deaths that occur each year) (National Safety Council
[NSC] 2007; National Highway Traffic Safety Administration [NHTSA]
2014; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC] 2015). As a spe-
cies, humans are ineffective at assessing or even estimating their own risk
and likewise seldom prepare for or even fear the right things. Fortunately,
through the application of effective risk communication, it is possible
to correct risk-related misperceptions, miscalculations, and misguided
behaviors at both the individual and population levels.

1
2 Communicating Emergency Preparedness

FIGURE 1.1 Click It or Ticket Campaign. (This image was developed by


the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration for use by the media,
http://www.nhtsa.gov/buckleup/ciot-planner/planner07/index.htm.)

The majority of the risk-related messaging we encounter has been


generated in the public health sector. In fact, the most common avoid-
able or reducible risks we face as individuals are those that fall within
the public health domain. For decades, public health professionals have
studied the most prevalent causes of mortality and morbidity, discovered
appropriate methods for reducing them, and crafted effective messages
and communication strategies to empower the public with this knowl-
edge. Public health practitioners and health communication specialists
have steadily improved their methodologies, resulting in increasingly
greater population-wide risk reduction success. Through their efforts,
people are living longer, healthier, and more productive lives.
Public health risks, however, constitute only one of the many cat-
egories of risk we face as individuals and societies. We also face finan-
cial risks related to our income, job security, physical health, and legal
liabilities, among other factors; safety risks on account of crime, occupa-
tional hazards, our physical surroundings, and other factors; and risks
from many other sources as well. There are also many larger-scale and
occasionally catastrophic hazard risks that fall within the purview of the
emergency management community.
Emergency managers and the various emergency services have been
tasked with the heavy burden of preparing for, mitigating, responding to,
and recovering from a full and growing list of natural, technological, and
intentional hazards that each year affect millions of people worldwide and
Individual Preparedness 3

destroy property, infrastructure, and personal and national wealth worth


billions of dollars. Like their counterparts in the public health sector,
emergency managers are acutely concerned with population-wide risk.
However, rather than addressing commonly occurring hazards that affect
individual citizens on a more personal level—like heart disease and HIV
infection—their foci are those disaster-triggering hazards that impact
entire communities, cities, states, and even whole nations or regions.
Private-sector entities, inclusive of both for-profit businesses and
nonprofit and voluntary organizations, are also concerned with the resil-
ience of their own staff and, depending on the nature of their business,
their customers, and supply-chain partners. The operations of a busi-
ness or nonprofit organization will quickly become diminished or may
even cease—even if the entity was not impacted directly—if its employ-
ees are unable to report to work. Private-sector entities are recognizing
to an increasing degree that encouraging employees to address personal
and household vulnerabilities (and even facilitating those efforts) greatly
increases the chance of them avoiding interruptions and ultimately
remaining in business if and when disasters occur.
Because the emergency management became professionalized much
later than the public health sector, few emergency managers possess the
requisite communication background or skills. For private and nonprofit
risk management professionals, recognition of the need for individual
preparedness in messaging and the availability of required communica-
tion skills beyond simple occupational safety and health are even less
prevalent. And, in fact, outside of the public health profession in gen-
eral, we find very few areas of specialty where the requisite knowledge
and practical experience needed to develop and run impactful prepared-
ness campaigns is common. And likewise we find few public- or private-
sector offices that enjoy the leadership or financial support needed to
adequately plan and fund campaigns or to gauge the effectiveness of
those campaigns they manage to launch.
That being said, it would not be correct to accuse the emergency
management community of being entirely inexperienced when it comes
to individual and household preparedness messaging. In recent years,
especially since the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, there have been
a number of awareness and training programs that seek or sought to
reduce population-wide risk from major hazards (and likewise to reduce
the post-disaster response burden on emergency services agencies). Some
of the most memorable campaigns predate the watershed 9/11 attacks.
For instance, almost every American over the age of 40 possesses an
instinctive understanding of what to do when instructed to “Duck and
cover!” An even larger population is familiar with the command “Stop,
drop, and roll.” These two phrases, developed to address the risk of an
air raid in the first case and one’s clothes catching fire in the second, are
4 Communicating Emergency Preparedness

FIGURE 1.2 Civil defense era poster, Pennsylvania. (Library of Congress


2000.)

the products of two very widespread and successful disaster prepared-


ness campaigns that were institutionalized throughout American public
school systems in partnership with local emergency services (Figure 1.2).
Despite the wide success of these two examples, most public and
private disaster preparedness efforts have failed to achieve similar levels
of success. In fact, year after year, studies report that the vast majority
of individuals and households have done surprisingly little or even noth-
ing to prepare for disasters and hazards despite the increasing onslaught
of information. The 21st century has thus far proven to be one marked
by frequent and sometimes catastrophic hazards in the United States,
including terrorist attacks, hurricanes, floods, tornadoes, blackouts, and
much more. Even with extensive media coverage of these events, and the
ongoing conduct of what may be one of the most widely touted disas-
ter preparedness campaigns in decades (the Department of Homeland
Security’s Ready.gov Website and its related Disaster Preparedness
Month), recent research indicates that most individuals and families are
still woefully unprepared for the risks they know to be affecting them
(see Sidebar 1.1).
Individual Preparedness 5

SIDEBAR 1.1 RECENT DISASTER


PREPAREDNESS SURVEY FINDINGS

Year Sponsor Findings


2014 Allstate Insurance 92% of Americans claimed to have been
personally impacted by a disaster but less than
10% have practiced an evacuation plan and
30% claim they would disregard an
evacuation order
2014 SUNYIT Americans claimed to be knowledgeable about
risk but only 1 in 3 had taken any efforts to
plan for a disaster
2014 Energizer Holdings Only 38% of Americans have an emergency kit
at home
2013 American Red Cross Only 1 in 20 coastal residents had taken seven
key preparedness actions identified by the
American Red Cross
2013 FEMA Low levels of individual preparedness identified
in a 2007 survey remained unchanged in 2013
2012 National Geographic Less than 15% of the U.S. population is
prepared for a major disaster event, with more
than 25% having taken no action at all.
2012 Adelphi University Nearly half of U.S. adults do not have the
resources or plans in place in the event of
a disaster.
Source: Citizen Corps Disaster Preparedness Surveys Database: Public, Businesses,
and Schools, http://bit.ly/1QHtPiz.

The poor success rates of the wider emergency and risk management
communities are frustrating, but they in no way suggest that the goal
of a “culture of disaster preparedness” is unattainable. Organizations
like the American Red Cross, in fact, have proven through the success
of their cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and first aid training pro-
grams that ordinary citizens can and are willing to learn how to help
themselves and others in emergencies. The Citizen Corps program has
seen similar success with the Community Emergency Response Team
(CERT) program. The knowledge and experience of these organizations
that are directly attributable to their successes are not widely enjoyed in
the greater emergency and risk management communities. Most notably,
in the case of the American Red Cross, public preparedness efforts have
bridged the gap between public health capabilities and emergency man-
agement concerns, and their practitioners have successfully incorporated
6 Communicating Emergency Preparedness

the communication sector’s lessons-learned into their individual and


household disaster preparedness education efforts.
Risk communication in practice is difficult at best, requiring a detailed
understanding of the population targeted, the methods (channels) most
suitable for reaching them, and the types of messages most likely to be
received and acted upon. There is no such thing as a one-size-fits-all risk
communication message, and any attempt to do so is doomed to fail.
By learning and applying the effective practices developed over many
decades by the public health community and others, emergency managers
and private-sector risk managers can enjoy similar levels of success.
This chapter introduces public (e.g., individual, household, or
employee) disaster preparedness education and the concepts that guide
its successful practice. To begin, a short overview of the experience
gleaned in the public health sector, where risk communication efforts
have advanced most significantly, is provided. This will help to famil-
iarize readers with the relevant terms and concepts used by risk com-
munication professionals, and the principles and theories that drive
preparedness education and the behaviors desired. Finally, the founda-
tional elements of preparedness education—its goals, limitations, and
requirements—are presented and explained.

COMMUNICATION SCIENCE: A PRIMER

Communication science is a field of practice and research that has great


potential to advance the preparedness efforts of businesses and communi-
ties alike. While all sectors and all professions utilize communication to
some degree, the success of disaster preparedness efforts are wholly deter-
mined by the successful utilization of communication science p ­ rinciples. For
instance, communication science explains how the mechanisms through
which information is conveyed to individuals or groups will play an immi-
nent role in the impact a message will have on the intended message recipi-
ents. Through the application of these lessons, which have been developed
through decades if not centuries of research and practice and which have
been presented in the c­ hapters that follow, it is possible to influence positive
behaviors and thus increase disaster resilience.
Research has defined the mechanisms according to which indi-
viduals process the information they receive through the following six
distinct stages (McGuire 1968):

1. Exposure to the message


2. Attention to the message
3. Comprehension of the arguments and conclusions presented in
the message
Individual Preparedness 7

4. Yielding to the message


5. Accepting the message
6. Information integration (which allows for message retention)

Thus, once individuals pay attention to and understand a message to


which they have been exposed, they will use past experience with regard
to the issue to evaluate the new information. If after being compared with
the old information the new information is accepted, it is integrated into
one’s knowledge structure. This integration is said to produce a change in
one’s belief system, leading individuals to change their attitude toward the
topic. Attitudes are composed of three components: (1) cognitive (one’s
opinions or beliefs about the issue), (2) affective (one’s feelings about the
issue), and (3) behavioral (one’s behaviors related to the issue). Because
these components are so closely intertwined, influencing the cognitive
and affective elements of an attitude may bring about behavior change.
The act of changing a person’s attitude on an issue for the purpose of
creating, reinforcing, or changing responses is called persuasion. Much
of communication science and research seeks to uncover different tech-
niques that can be used while delivering a message in order to make it
more persuasive.
One of the most important factors to consider when attempting to
construct messages that persuade an audience is the degree to which the
members of the audience are involved with the topic being discussed.
Involvement in this realm is defined as how much people feel that deci-
sions about the issue will have direct implications on their lives and the
things that are important to them; it is how much they care about deci-
sions surrounding the issue. For example, some areas of the medical
sector that may be considered high involvement issues are the legality
of abortion and whether health insurance will cover the cost of pre-
scribed medications. Issues that might be considered low involvement
are the importance of washing one’s hands properly in order to prevent
the spread of disease or whether health insurance covers the cost of a
medication that he or she do not use.
Those who are highly involved with the topic are much more likely
to carefully scrutinize the message itself, so the degree to which a mes-
sage persuades them is based mostly on the strength of the argument
presented. For example, an individual with a great interest in emergency
preparedness who is seeking information specifically on that topic will
most likely pay close attention to information presented in preparedness
promotions. And he or she will most likely grasp upon inconsistencies
and will question any counter-intuitive facts that are presented. As such,
campaign planners targeting audiences that include highly involved peo-
ple must be certain that they have presented logical, sound a­ rguments.
If the communication program planner knows beforehand that his or her
8 Communicating Emergency Preparedness

highly involved audience already holds unfavorable attitudes toward the


behavior(s) being presented, then he or she must be especially careful not
to present any extreme viewpoints that counter the beliefs of the audi-
ence. For example, imagine a community located downstream from a
dam that is well-built and presents very little risk to the community even
if it were to fail. Also, imagine that there has long persisted a perception
among the community members that the dam could burst and inundate
the town, destroying property and threatening the life of residents. Any
communicator, whether from outside or within the community, risks
low credibility if he or she fails to address these perceptions head-on.
Pursuing approaches that are counter-attitudinal to an audience have
been shown to backfire because the audience will focus on counter-­
arguing (i.e., criticizing every point made, finding something wrong with
each points in their own minds, and ending up with a more extreme
viewpoint against the message) rather than helping to move toward a
preparedness goal.
Another important issue is how actively engaged the target audience
already is with regard to the issues being communicated. People who are
uninvolved with the topic being promoted have been shown to pay less
attention to the message itself. They will not likely be able to pick out
inconsistencies in the message or counter-intuitive claims and instead
will be influenced by features of the message (such as perceptions of
source credibility, message length, and the sheer number of arguments
in favor of the issues presented within the message). Therefore, a person
who is not highly involved with the issue of emergency preparedness and
is not seeking information about the topic is likely to be more influenced
by a promotion that contains a list of semi-compelling reasons to engage
in the behavior being promoted than a promotion that offers a single
highly logical and rational reason.
In the case of emergency preparedness messages, those tasked with
crafting the campaign are more likely to find themselves contending with
audiences who are uninvolved with the issue. There are advantages to this
scenario in that recipients will not be likely to have strong attitudes that run
counter to the promoted behavior given that they do not care very much
about the issue. This can also be a drawback, however, in that no matter
how logical and sensible it may be for people to engage in the behavior
the communicator is promoting, it will take more than just rational argu-
ments to convince them to assume the inconvenience of a new behavior.
Chapter 4 discusses a number of different appeals and communication
theories that have been successful in the past in persuading audiences and
motivating behavior change. These appeals will be especially important
for target audiences that are not involved with the topic of emergency
or disaster preparedness. See Sidebar 1.2 for more information about the
potential and limitations of communication campaigns.
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fragments of the tentacles and fringe of the Medusa, whilst the
Medusa will in its turn occasionally capture and devour one of the
fish.

A great many of the Scyphozoa, particularly the larger kinds, have


the reputation of being able to sting the human skin, and in
consequence the name Acalephae[346] was formerly used to
designate the order. Of the British species Aurelia aurita is almost
harmless, and so is the rarer Rhizostoma pulmo; but the
nematocysts on the tentacles of Cyanaea, Chrysaora, and Pelagia
can inflict stings on the more delicate parts of the skin which are very
painful for several hours, although the pain has been undoubtedly
greatly exaggerated in many popular works.

The soft structure of the Medusae does not favour their preservation
in the rocks, but the impressions left by several genera, all belonging
apparently to the Rhizostomata, have been found in Cambrian,
Liassic, and Cretaceous deposits.

There is reason to believe that many Scyphozoa exhibit a


considerable range of variation in the symmetry of the most
important organs of the body. Very little information is, however, at
hand concerning the variation of any species except Aurelia aurita,
which has been the subject of several investigations. Browne[347]
has found that in a local race of this species about 20 per cent
exhibit variations from the normal in the number of the statorhabs,
and about 2 per cent in the number of gastric pouches.

The Scyphozoa are not usually regarded as of any commercial or


other value, but in China and Japan two species of Rhizostomata
(Rhopilema esculenta and R. verrucosa) are used as food. The jelly-
fish is preserved with a mixture of alum and salt or between the
steamed leaves of a kind of oak. To prepare the preserved food for
the table it is soaked in water, cut into small pieces, and flavoured. It
is also stated that these Medusae are used by fishermen as bait for
file-fish and sea-bream.[348]

In general structure the Scyphozoa occupy an intermediate position


between the Hydrozoa and the Anthozoa. The very striking
resemblance of the body-form to the Medusa of the Hydrozoa, and
the discovery of a fixed hydriform stage in the life-history of some
species, led the older zoologists to the conclusion that they should
be included in the class Hydrozoa. Recently the finer details of
development have been invoked to support the view that they are
Anthozoa specially adapted for a free-swimming existence, but the
evidence for this does not appear to us to be conclusive.

They differ from the Hydrozoa and resemble the Anthozoa in the
character that the sexual cells are matured in the endoderm, and
escape to the exterior by way of the coelenteric cavity, and not
directly to the exterior by the rupture of the ectoderm as in all
Hydrozoa. They differ, on the other hand, from the Anthozoa in the
absence of a stomodaeum and of mesenteries.

The view that the Scyphozoa are Anthozoa is based on the belief
that the manubrium of the former is lined by ectoderm, and is
homologous with the stomodaeum of the latter; and that the folds of
mesogloea between the gastric pouches are homologous with the
septa.[349]

The Scyphozoa, notwithstanding their general resemblance to the


Medusae of Hydrozoa, can be readily distinguished from them by
several important characters. The absence of a velum in all of them
(except the Cubomedusae) is an important and conspicuous
character which gave to the class the name of Acraspeda. The
velum of the Cubomedusae can, however, be distinguished from that
of the Craspedote Medusae (i.e. the Medusae of the Hydrozoa) by
the fact that it contains endodermal canals.
Sense-organs are present in all Scyphozoa except some of the
Stauromedusae, and they are in the form of statorhabs
(tentaculocysts), bearing statoliths at the extremity, and in many
species, at the base or between the base and the extremity, one or
more eyes. These organs differ from the statorhabs of the Hydrozoa
in having, usually, a cavity in the axial endoderm; but as they are
undoubtedly specially modified marginal tentacles, they are strictly
homologous in the two classes. In nearly all the Scyphozoa these
organs are protected by a hood or fold formed from the free margin
of the umbrella, and this character, although not of great
morphological importance, serves to distinguish the common species
from the Craspedote Medusae. It was owing to this character that
Forbes gave the name Steganophthalmata, or "covered-eyed
Medusae," to the class.

Another character of some importance is the presence in the


coelenteric cavity of all Scyphozoa of clusters or rows of delicate
filaments called the "phacellae." These filaments are covered with a
glandular epithelium, and are usually provided with numerous
nematocysts. They have a considerable resemblance to the acontia
of certain Anthozoa, and are probably mainly digestive in function.
These three characters, in addition to the very important character of
the position and method of discharge of the sexual cells already
referred to, justify the separation of the Scyphozoa from the
Medusae of the Hydrozoa as a distinct class of Coelenterata.

The umbrella of the Scyphozoa varies a good deal in shape. It is


usually flattened and disc-like (Discophora), but it may be almost
globular (Atorella), conical (some species of Periphylla), or cubical
(Cubomedusae). It is divided into an aboral and a marginal region by
a circular groove in the Coronata. The margin may be almost entire,
marked only by notches where the statorhabs occur, or deeply lobed
as in the Coronata and many Discophora. Marginal tentacles are
present in all but the Rhizostomata, and may be few in number, four
in Charybdea, eight in Ulmaris (Fig. 143), or very numerous in
Aurelia and many others. The tentacles may be short (Aurelia), or
very long as in Chrysaora isosceles, in which they extend for a
length of twenty yards from the disc.

The manubrium of the Scyphozoa is usually quadrangular in section,


and in those forms in which the shape is modified in the adult
Medusa the quadrangular shape can be recognised in the earlier
stages of development. The four angles of the manubrium are of
importance in descriptive anatomy, as the planes drawn through the
angles to the centre of the manubrium are called "perradial," while
those bisecting the perradial planes and passing therefore through
the middle line of the flat sides of the manubrium are called
"interradial."

The free extremity of the manubrium in many Scyphozoa is provided


with four triangular perradial lips, which may be simple or may
become bifurcated or branched, and have frequently very elaborate
crenate edges beset with batteries of nematocysts. In Pelagia and
Chrysaora and other genera these lips hang down from the
manubrium as long, ribbon-like, folded bands, and according to the
size of the specimen may be a foot or more in length, or twice the
diameter of the disc.

In the Rhizostomata a peculiar modification of structure takes place


in the fusion of the free edges of the lips to form a suture perforated
by a row of small apertures, so that the lips have the appearance of
long cylindrical rods or tubes attached to the manubrium, and then
frequently called the "oral arms." The oral arms may be further
provided with tentacles of varying size and importance. In many
Rhizostomata branched or knobbed processes project from the outer
side of the upper part of the oral arms. These are called the
"epaulettes."
Fig. 143.—Ulmaris prototypus. g, Gonad; I, interradial canal; M, the fringed lip of
the manubrium; P, perradial canal; S, marginal sense-organ; t, tentacle. × 1.
(After Haeckel.)

The lumen of the manubrium leads into a large cavity in the disc,
which is usually called the gastric cavity, and this is extended into
four or more interradial or perradial gastric pouches. The number of
these pouches is usually four, but in this, as in other features of their
radial symmetry, the jelly-fish frequently exhibit duplication or
irregular variation of the radii.[350]

The gastric pouches may extend to the margin of the disc, where
they are united to form a large ring sinus, or they may be in
communication at the periphery by only a very narrow passage
(Cubomedusae). In the Discophora the gastric pouches, however, do
not extend more than half-way to the margin, and they may be
connected with the marginal ring-canal by a series of branched
interradial canals. Between the gastric pouches in these forms
branched perradial canals pass from the gastric cavity to the
marginal ring canal, and the system of canals is completed by
unbranched "adradial" canals passing between the perradials and
interradials from the sides of the gastric pouches to the ring-canal
(Fig. 143).

In the Discophora there are four shallow interradial pits or pouches


lined by ectoderm on the under side of the umbrella-wall. As these
pits correspond with the position of the gonads in the gastric
pouches they are frequently called the "sub-genital pits." In the
Stauromedusae and Cubomedusae they are continued through the
interradial gastric septa to the aboral side of the disc, and they are
generally known in these cases by the name "interradial funnels."
The functions and homologies of these ectodermic pits and funnels
are still uncertain.

The Scyphozoa are usually dioecious, but Chrysaora and Linerges


are sometimes hermaphrodite. The female Medusae can usually be
distinguished from the male by the darker or brighter colour of the
gonads, which are band-shaped, horseshoe-shaped, or circular
organs, situated on the endoderm of the interradial gastric pouches.
They are, when nearly ripe, conspicuous and brightly coloured
organs, and in nearly all species can be clearly seen through the
transparent or semi-transparent tissues of the disc. The reproductive
cells are discharged into the gastric cavity and escape by the mouth.
The eggs are probably fertilised in the water, and may be retained in
special pouches on the lips of the manubrium until the segmentation
is completed.[351] Asexual reproduction does not occur in the free-
swimming or adult stage of any Scyphozoa. In some cases (probably
exceptional) the development is direct. In Pelagia, for example, it is
known that the fertilised egg gives rise to a free-swimming Medusa
similar in all essential features to the parent.

In many species, however, the planula larva sinks to the bottom of


the sea, develops tentacles, and becomes attached by its aboral
extremity to a rock or weed, forming a sedentary asexual stage of
development with a superficial resemblance to a Hydra. This stage is
the "Scyphistoma," and notwithstanding its simple external features it
is already in all essential anatomical characters a Scyphozoon.

The Scyphistoma may remain as such for some time, during which it
reproduces by budding, and in some localities it may be found in
great numbers on seaweeds and stones.[352]
In the course of time, however, the Scyphistoma exhibits a ring-like
constriction of the body just below the crown of tentacles, and as this
deepens the general features of a Scyphomedusa are developed in
the free part above the constriction. In time this free part escapes as
a small free-swimming jelly-fish, called an "Ephyra," while the
attached part remains to repeat the process. In many species the
first constriction is followed by a second immediately below it, then a
third, a fourth, and so on, until the Scyphistoma is transformed into a
long series of narrow discs, each one acquiring, as it grows, the
Ephyra characters. Such a stage has been compared in form to a
pile of saucers, and is known as the "Strobila."

The Ephyra differs from the adult in many respects. The disc is thin
and flat, the manubrium short, the margin of the umbrella deeply
grooved, while the statorhabs are mounted on bifid lobes which
project outwards from the margin. The stabilisation of the
Scyphistoma is a process of reproduction by transverse fission, and
in some cases this is supplemented by gemmation, the Scyphistoma
giving rise to a number of buds which become detached from the
parent and subsequently undergo the process of strobilisation.

Fig. 144.—The perisarc tubes of a specimen of Spongicola fistularis (N)


ramifying in the skeleton of the Sponge Esperella bauriana (Sp.), as seen in
a macerated specimen, × 1. (After Schulze.)

The Scyphistoma of Nausithoe presents us with the most remarkable


example of this mode of reproduction (Fig. 144), as it forms an
elaborate branching colony in the substance of certain species of
sponges. The ectoderm secretes a chitinous perisarc, similar to that
of the hydrosome stage of many of the Hydrozoa, and consequently
Stephanoscyphus (Spongicola), as this Scyphistoma was called,
was formerly placed among the Gymnoblastea. It is remarkable that,
although the Scyphozoan characters of Spongicola were proved by
Schulze[353] in 1877, a similar Scyphistoma stage has not been
discovered in any other genus.

Order I. Cubomedusae.
Scyphozoa provided with four perradial statorhabs, each of which
bears a statolith and one or several eyes. There are four interradial
tentacles or groups of tentacles. The stomach is a large cavity
bearing four tufts of phacellae (Fig. 145, Ph), situated interradially.
There are four flattened perradial gastric pouches in the wall of the
umbrella which communicate with the stomach by the gastric ostia
(Go). These pouches are separated from one another by four
interradial septa; and the long leaf-like gonads are attached by one
edge to each side of the septa. In many respects the Cubomedusae
appear to be of simple structure, but the remarkable differentiation of
the eyes and the occurrence of a velum (p. 313) suggest that the
order is a highly specialised offshoot from a primitive stock.

Fig. 145.—Vertical section in the interradial plane of Tripedalia cystophora. Go,


Gastric ostia; Man, manubrium; Ph, group of phacellae; T, tentacles in four
groups of three; tent, perradial sense-organs; V, velum. (After Conant.)

Fam. 1. Charybdeidae.—Cubomedusae with four interradial


tentacles.
Charybdea appears to have a very wide geographical distribution.
Some of the species are usually found in deep water and come to
the surface only occasionally, but others (C. xaymacana) are only
found at the surface of shallow water near the shore. The genus can
be easily recognised by the four-sided prismatic shape of the bell
and the oral flattened expansion of the base of the tentacles. The
bell varies from 2-6 cm. in length (or height) in C. marsupialis, but a
giant form, C. grandis,[354] has recently been discovered off
Paumotu Island which is as much as 23 cm. in height. The colour is
usually yellow or brown, but C. grandis is white and C. xaymacana
perfectly transparent.

"Charybdea is a strong and active swimmer, and presents a very


beautiful appearance in its movements through the water; the quick,
vigorous pulsations contrasting sharply with the sluggish
contractions seen in most Scyphomedusae." It appears to be a
voracious feeder. "Some of the specimens taken contained in the
stomach small fish, so disproportionately large in comparison with
the stomach that they lay coiled up, head overlapping tail."[355]

Very little is known of the development, but it is possible that Tamoya


punctata, which lacks gonads, phacellae, and canals in the velum,
may be a young form of a species of Charybdea.

Fam. 2. Chirodropidae.—Cubomedusae with four interradial groups


of tentacles.

This family is represented by the genera Chirodropus from the


Atlantic and Chiropsalmus from the Indian Ocean and the coast of
North Carolina.

Fam. 3. Tripedaliidae.—Cubomedusae with four interradial groups


of three tentacles.
The single genus and species Tripedalia cystophora has only been
found in shallow water off the coast of Jamaica. Specimens of this
species were kept for some time by Conant in an aquarium, and
produced a number of free-swimming planulae which settled on the
glass, and quickly developed into small hydras with a mouth and four
tentacles. The further development of this sedentary stage is
unfortunately not known.

Order II. Stauromedusae.


This order contains several genera provided with an aboral stalk
which usually terminates in a sucker, by means of which the animal
is temporarily fixed to some foreign object. There can be little doubt
that this sedentary habit is recently acquired, and the wide range of
the characteristic features of the order may be accounted for as a
series of adaptations to the change from a free-swimming to a
sedentary habit.

It is difficult to give in a few words the characters of the order, but the
Stauromedusae differ from other Scyphozoa in the absence or
profound modification in structure and function of the statorhabs.
They are absent in Lucernaria and the Depastridae, and very
variable in number in Haliclystus.

The statorhab of Haliclystus terminates in a spherical knob, which is


succeeded by a large annular pad or collar bearing a number of
glandular cells which secrete a sticky fluid. At the base of the organ
there is a rudimentary ocellus. The number is very variable, and
sometimes they are abnormal in character, being "crowned with
tentacles." There can be little doubt that the principal function of
these organs is not sensory but adhesive, and hence they have
received the names "colletocystophores" and "marginal anchors,"
but they are undoubtedly homologous with the statorhabs of other
Scyphozoa.
The tentacles are short and numerous, and are frequently mounted
in groups on the summit of digitate outgrowths from the margin of the
umbrella. They are capitate, except in Tessera, the terminal swelling
containing a battery of nematocysts.

Very little is known concerning the life-history and development of


the Stauromedusae.

Fam. 1. Lucernariidae.—Marginal lobes digitate, bearing the


capitate tentacles in groups. Haliclystus auricula is a common form
on the shores of the Channel Islands, at Plymouth, and other
localities on the British coast. It may be recognised by the prominent
statorhabs situated in the bays between the digitate lobes of the
margin of the umbrella. Each of the marginal lobes bears from 15 to
20 capitate tentacles. It is from 2 to 3 cm. in length. The genus
occurs in shallow water off the coasts of Europe and North America,
extending south into the Antarctic region.

Lucernaria differs from Haliclystus in the absence of statorhabs. It


has the same habit as Haliclystus, and is often found associated with
it. L. campanulata is British.

Halicyathus is similar in external features to Haliclystus, but differs


from it in certain important characters of the coelenteric cavities. It is
found off the coasts of Norway, Greenland, and the Atlantic side of
North America.

In Capria, from the Mediterranean, the tentacles are replaced by a


denticulated membrane bearing nematocysts.

The rare genus Tessera, from the Antarctic Ocean, differs from all
the other Stauromedusae in having no stalk and in having only a few
relatively long non-capitate tentacles. If Tessera is really an adult
form it should be placed in a separate family, but, notwithstanding
the presence of gonads, it may prove to be but a free-swimming
stage in the history of a normally stalked genus.

Fam. 2. Depastridae.—The margin of the umbrella is provided with


eight shallow lobes bearing one or more rows of tentacles.
Statorhabs absent.

Depastrum cyathiforme occurs in shallow water at Plymouth, Port


Erin, and in other localities on the coasts of Britain and Norway. The
tentacles are arranged in several rows on the margin of the umbrella.
In Depastrella from the Canaries there is only one row of marginal
tentacles.

Fam. 3. Stenoscyphidae.[356]—Stauromedusae with simple


undivided umbrella margin. The eight principal tentacles are
converted into adhesive anchors. Secondary tentacles arranged in
eight adradial groups. Stenoscyphus inabai, 25 cm., Japan.

Order III. Coronata.[357]


The external surface of the umbrella is divided into two regions, an
aboral region and a marginal region, by a well-marked circular
groove (the coronal groove). The aboral region is usually smooth
and undivided, but it is an elongated dome, thimble- or cone-shaped,
in marked contrast to the flattened umbrella of the Discophora. The
margin is divided into a number of triangular or rounded lobes, and
these are continued as far as the coronal groove as distinct areas
delimited by shallow grooves on the surface of the umbrella. The
tentacles arise from the grooves between the marginal areas, and
are provided with expanded bases called the pedalia. The
manubrium may be short or moderately long, but it is never provided
with long lips.

Fam. 1. Periphyllidae.[358]—Coronata with four or six statorhabs.


In Pericolpa (Kerguelen) there are only four tentacles and four
statorhabs. In Periphylla, a remarkable deep-sea genus from 700 to
2000 fathoms in all seas, but occasionally found at the surface, there
are twelve tentacles and four statorhabs. The specimens from deep
water have a characteristic dark red-brown or violet-brown colour.
They are usually small Medusae, but the umbrella of P. regina is
over 21 cm. in diameter. Atorella has six tentacles and six
statorhabs.

Fam. 2. Ephyropsidae.—Coronata with eight or more than eight


statorhabs.

Nausithoe punctata is a small, transparent jelly-fish, not exceeding


10 mm. in diameter, of world-wide distribution. Its Scyphistoma stage
is described on p. 317. N. rubra, a species of a reddish colour found
at a considerable depth in the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans, is
probably an abysmal form. Palephyra differs from Nausithoe in
having elongated instead of rounded gonads. Linantha and Linuche
differ from the others in having subdivided marginal lobes.

Fam. 3. Atollidae.—Atolla is a deep-sea jelly-fish of very wide


geographical distribution. It is characterised by the multiplication of
the marginal appendages, but the number is very irregular. There
may be double or quadruple the usual number of marginal lobes, or
an indefinite number. There may be sixteen to thirty-two statorhabs,
and the number of tentacles is quite irregular. Some of the species
attain a considerable size, the diameter of the umbrella of A.
gigantea being 150 mm., of A. valdiviae sometimes 130 mm., and of
A. bairdi 110 mm.

Order IV. Discophora.


This order contains not only by far the greater number of the species
of Scyphozoa, but those of the largest size, and all those that are
familiar to the seaside visitor and the mariner under the general term
jelly-fish.

They may be distinguished from the other Scyphozoa by several


well-marked characters. The umbrella is flattened and disc-shaped
or slightly domed, but not divided by a coronary groove. The
perradial angles of the mouth are prolonged into long lips, which may
remain free (Semaeostomata) or fuse to form an elaborate proboscis
(Rhizostomata).

Sub-Order I. Semaeostomata.
In this sub-order the mouth is a large aperture leading into the cavity
of the manubrium, and is guarded by four long grooved and often
tuberculated lips. The margin of the umbrella is provided with long
tentacles.

Fam. 1. Pelagiidae.—Semaeostomata with wide gastric pouches,


which are not united by a marginal ring sinus. Pelagia, which forms
the type of this family, has eight long marginal tentacles. It develops
directly from the egg, the fixed Scyphistoma stage being eliminated.
[359] It is probably in consequence of this peculiarity of its
development and independence of a shore for fixation that Pelagia
has become a common and widespread inhabitant of the high seas.
In the Atlantic and Indian Oceans P. phosphora occurs in swarms or
in long narrow lines many miles in length. It is remarkable for its
power of emitting phosphorescent light. In the Atlantic it extends
from 50° N. to 40° S., but is rare or absent from the colder regions. P.
perla is found occasionally on the west coast of Ireland. Chrysaora
differs from Pelagia in the larger number of tentacles. There are, in
all, 24 tentacles and 8 statorhabs, separated by 32 lobes of the
margin of the umbrella. C. isosceles is occasionally found off the
British coast. It passes through a typical Scyphistoma stage in
development. Dactylometra, a very common jelly-fish of the
American Atlantic shores, differs from Chrysaora in having sixteen
additional but small tentacles arranged in pairs at the sides of the
statorhabs.

Fam. 2. Cyanaeidae.—Semaeostomata with eight radial and eight


adradial pouches, which give off ramifying canals to the margin of
the umbrella; but these canals are not united by a ring-canal. The
tentacles are arranged in bundles on the margin of the deeply lobed
umbrella.

The yellow Cyanaea capillata and the blue C. lamarcki are


commonly found on the British coasts.

Fam. 3. Ulmaridae.—The gastric pouches are relatively small, and


communicate with a marginal ring-canal by branching perradial and
interradial canals and unbranched adradial canals.

In Ulmaris prototypus (Fig. 143, p. 315) there are only eight long
adradial tentacles, and the lips of the manubrium are relatively short.
It is found in the South Atlantic.

Aurelia is a well-known and cosmopolitan genus, which may be


recognised by the eight shallow lobes of the umbrella-margin beset
with a fringe of numerous small tentacles.

Sub-Order II. Rhizostomata.


In this sub-order the lips are very much exaggerated in size, and are
fused together by their margin in such a manner that the mouth of
the animal is reduced to a number of small apertures situated along
the lines of suture. Tentacles are absent on the margin of the
umbrella. This sub-order contains some of the largest known jelly-
fishes, and exhibits a considerable range of structure. The families
are arranged by Maas[360] in three groups.
Group I. Arcadomyaria.—Musculature of the disc arranged in
feather-like arcades. Oral arms pinnate.

Fam. Cassiopeidae.—There are no epaulettes on the arms. Labial


tentacles present. Cassiopea is common in the Indo-Pacific seas,
and extends into the Red Sea. It includes a great many species
varying in size from 4 to about 12 cm. in diameter.

Group II. Radiomyaria.—Musculature arranged in radial tracts. Oral


arms bifid.

Fam. Cepheidae.—The genera included in this family differ from the


Cassiopeidae in the characters of the group. Cephea is found in the
Indo-Pacific Oceans and Red Sea. Cotylorhiza is common in the
Mediterranean Sea and extends into the Atlantic Ocean.

Group III. Cyclomyaria.—The group contains the majority of the


Rhizostomata. Musculature arranged in circular bands round the
disc. Oral arms primarily trifid, but becoming in some cases very
complicated. The principal families are:—

Fam. Rhizostomatidae.—With well-marked epaulettes, and sixteen


radial canals passing to the margin of the umbrella.

Rhizostoma pulmo (= Pilema octopus), a widely distributed species,


is often found floating at the surface off the western coasts of
Scotland and Ireland, and sometimes drifts up the English Channel
into the German Ocean in the autumn. The umbrella is about two
feet in diameter, and the combined length of the umbrella and arms
is four feet. The colour varies considerably, but that of a specimen
obtained off Valencia in 1895 was described as follows: "The colour
of the umbrella was pale green, with a deep reddish margin. Arms
bright blue."[361]

The family includes Stomolophus, of the Pacific and Atlantic coasts


of America, in which the oral arms are united at the base, and
Rhopilema, the edible Medusa of Japan and China.

Fam. Lychnorhizidae.—Here there are only eight radial canals


reaching as far as the margin of the umbrella, and eight terminating
in the ring-canal. There are no epaulettes, and the oral tentacles are
often very long. The family includes Lychnorhiza from the coast of
Brazil, Crambione from the Malay Archipelago, and Crambessa from
the Atlantic shores of France and Spain and from Brazil and
Australia. The last-named genus has been found in brackish water at
the mouth of the Loire.

In the families Leptobrachiidae and Catostylidae there are eight


radial canals reaching the margin of the umbrella, and between them
a network of canals with many openings into the ring-canal. In a few
of the Leptobrachiidae the intermediate canal-network has only eight
openings into the ring-canal, as in the Lychnorhizidae.

CHAPTER XIII

COELENTERATA (CONTINUED): ANTHOZOA = ACTINOZOA—GENERAL


CHARACTERS—ALCYONARIA

CLASS III. ANTHOZOA = ACTINOZOA


Among the familiar objects included in this class are the Sea-
anemones, the Stony Corals (Madrepores), the Flexible Corals, the
Precious Coral, and the Sea-pens. With the exception of a few
species of Sea-anemone, Anthozoa are not commonly found on
British sea-shores; but in those parts of the tropical world where
coral reefs occur, the shore at low tide is carpeted with various forms
of this class, and the sands and beaches are almost entirely
composed of their broken-down skeletons.

The majority of the Anthozoa are colonial in habit, a large number of


individuals, or zooids as they are called, being organically connected
together by a network of nutritive canals, and forming a communal
gelatinous or stony matrix for their protection and support. Whilst the
individuals are usually small or minute, the colonial masses they
form are frequently large. Single colonies of the stony corals form
blocks of stone which are sometimes five feet in diameter, and reach
a height of two or three feet from the ground. From the tree or shrub-
like form assumed by many of the colonies they were formerly
included in a class Zoophyta or animal-plants.

But whether the individual polyps are large or small, whether they
form colonies in the adult condition or remain independent, they
exhibit certain characters in common which distinguish them not only
from the other Coelenterata, but from all other animals. When an
individual zooid is examined in the living and fully expanded
condition, it is seen to possess a cylindrical body, attached at one
end (the aboral end) to the common colonial matrix or to some
foreign object. At the opposite or free extremity it is provided with a
mouth surrounded by a crown of tentacles. In these respects,
however, they resemble in a general way some of the Hydrozoa. It is
only when the internal anatomy is examined that we find the
characters which are absolutely diagnostic of the group.

In the Hydrozoa the mouth leads directly into the coelenteric cavity;
in the Anthozoa, however, the mouth leads into a short tube or
throat, called the "stomodaeum," which opens into the coelenteric
cavity. Moreover, this tube is connected with the body-wall, and is
supported by a series of fleshy vertical bands called the mesenteries
(Fig. 146). The mesenteries not only support the stomodaeum, but
extend some distance below it. Where the mesenteries are free from
the stomodaeum their edges are thickened to form the important
digestive organs known as the mesenteric filaments (mf). It is in the
possession of a stomodaeum, mesenteries, and mesenteric
filaments that the Anthozoa differ from all the other Coelenterata.
There is one character that the Anthozoa share with the Scyphozoa,
and that is, that the gonads or sexual cells (G) are derived from the
endoderm. They are discharged first into the coelenteric cavity, and
then by way of the mouth to the exterior. In the Anthozoa the gonads
are situated on the mesenteries.

Fig. 146.—Diagram of a vertical section through an Anthozoan zooid. B, Body-


wall; G, gonads; M, mesentery; mf, mesenteric filament; St, stomodaeum;
T, tentacle.

Nearly all the Anthozoa are sedentary in habit. They begin life as
ciliated free-swimming larvae, and then, in a few hours or days, they
become attached to some rock or shell at the bottom and
immediately (if colonial) start the process of budding, which gives
rise to the colonies of the adult stage. Many of the Sea-anemones,
however, move considerable distances by gliding over the rocks or
seaweeds, others habitually burrow in the sand (Edwardsia,
Cerianthus), and one family (the Minyadidae) are supported by a gas
bladder, and float at the surface of the sea. The Sea-pens, too,
although usually partly buried in the sand or mud, are capable of
shifting their position by alternate distension and contraction of the
stalk.[362] The Anthozoa are exclusively marine. With the exception
of a few Sea-anemones that are found in brackish or almost fresh
water in river estuaries, they only occur in salt sea water. The
presence of a considerable admixture of fresh water, such as we find
at the mouths of rivers, seems to interfere very materially with the
development and growth of all the reef-forming Corals, as will be
noticed again in the chapter on coral reefs. A few genera descend
into the greatest depths of the ocean, but the home of the Anthozoa
is pre-eminently the shallow seas, and they are usually found in
great abundance in depths of 0-40 fathoms from the shores of the
Arctic and Antarctic lands to the equatorial belt.

The only Anthozoa of any commercial importance are the Precious


Corals belonging to the Alcyonarian family Coralliidae. The hard pink
axis of these corals has been used extensively from remote times in
the manufacture of jewellery and ornaments. Until quite recently the
only considerable and systematic fishery for the Precious Corals was
carried on in the Mediterranean Sea, and this practically supplied the
markets of the world. In more recent times, however, an important
industry in corals has been developed in Japan. In 1901 the value of
the coral obtained on the coasts of Japan was over £50,000, the
greater part of which was exported to Italy, a smaller part to China,
and a fraction only retained for home consumption. The history of the
coral fishery in Japan is of considerable interest. Coral was
occasionally taken off the coast of Tsukinada in early times. But in
the time of the Daimyos the collection and sale of coral was
prohibited, for fear, it is said, that the Daimyo of Tosa might be
compelled to present such precious treasure to the Shogun. After the
Meiji reform, however (1868), the industry revived, new grounds
were discovered, improved methods employed, and a large export
trade developed.

There is evidence, however, in the art of Japan, of another coral


fishery in ancient times, of which the history is lost. Coral was
imported into Japan at least two hundred years ago, and used
largely in the manufacture of those exquisite pieces of handicraft for
which that country is so justly famous. On many of the carved

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