News & Updates

The Gulf Oil Spill is highly likely to have lasting impacts on wildlife, ecosystems, and people - both locally in the Gulf, as well as regionally in the greater Florida area and possibly throughout the Caribbean. Like you, all of us at REEF have been closely following the news about this unfortunate disaster.

While REEF is not directly involved in the response to the oil spill, we are poised to provide baseline data on fish populations in the affected regions if needed. Thanks to the efforts of REEF volunteers, approximately 5,600 fish population surveys have been conducted in the Gulf of Mexico since 1994. This includes over 1,500 surveys along the west coast of Florida, 3,500 surveys in the Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary, and another 600 in Veracruz, Mexico.

There are many organizations and agencies that have set up useful websites to help monitor the situation, post updates, and list ways to help. We have listed some of these below.

Thank you for your continued support of REEF and our programs.

Web Resources on the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill:

- The Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary, located about 100 miles off the coast of Texas. Their website, http://flowergarden.noaa.gov/, contains links to the NOAA restoration and response efforts.

- The State of Florida Department of Environmental Protection is the lead agency charged with coordinating the oil spill response for Florida. Their website is http://www.dep.state.fl.us/deepwaterhorizon/

- The Waterkeeper Alliance is a non-profit advocacy organization focused on clean waterways worldwide - http://www.waterkeeper.org/ There are several Waterkeepers in the Gulf region who are working very hard on the front lines of the spill, and Waterkeeper Alliance has organized this website - they are posting the latest information and there is donation information available as well. Save Our Gulf -http://saveourgulf.org/

- The official website of the Unified Response is http://www.deepwaterhorizonresponse.com/

As all of you Caribbean fiswatchers know, hamlets are a group of colourful coral reef fish found throughout the Caribbean. Ten species of hamlet have been discovered and each can be easily recognized by its own distinct colour pattern. In some areas, as many as seven varieties can be found on a single reef. However, most hamlet species are only found at specific locations. The blue hamlet, for example, is found only in the Florida region. How these very different looking, yet very closely related species came to be has been a a subject of debate among scientists. Data collected by divers and snorkelers as part of the REEF Volunteer Fish Survey Project were recently used in a large analysis to better understand the patterns of evolution in these and other marine fishes. Dr. Ben Holt from University of East Anglia (UK) and his colleagues Simon Fraser University in Canada recently published their findings in the scientific journal Global Ecology and Biogeography. 

It had previously been believed that these different species of hamlets evolved because of geographical separation. For example, it was thought that falling sea levels in the past could have divided the original species. Then, when levels increased, the differently evolved species were thrown back together. The new study found little evidence for this theory and instead suggests that hamlet color varieties could have evolved regardless of any physical separation. Using thousands of underwater surveys made by REEF volunteers, the researchers analysed distributions of the ten different hamlet species. They found that even widespread hamlet species are not found everywhere, and identified high density hotspots for each species. Because different species hotspots overlap and many species have more than one hotspot, the results do not support the theory that hamlets originated independently when they were geographically separated in the past. The research also showed how ecological factors, such as competition for food or habitat, may influence how different hamlet species co-exist. 

"Our findings suggest that ecology may better explain the evolution of hamlets than geographical separation," said lead author Dr Ben Holt of UEA's School of Biological Sciences. "Many scientists believe hamlets are beginning to evolve into a new species and this latest discovery will shed light on this process."

Ben goes on to say this about REEF volunteers and the value of their data in this study: "The success of this study is a great example of the value of citizen science and, specifically, the REEF volunteer survey project. It has been known for a long time that hamlets have distinct geographical distributions, and that this must be a clue to the origin of the many different colour types in this group. However, attempts by scientists to investigate these patterns are unavoidably held back by the huge scale of the costs and time required to survey a meaningful number of locations across the Caribbean. We are therefore extremely grateful to REEF and all the volunteer data collectors for providing this invaluable dataset. By analysing these data, we were able to look, not just at hamlet distributions but also at densities and at how different hamlets coexist on individual reefs, across the whole of the Caribbean. This has allowed us to draw some exciting conclusions about the hamlet system and I’m sure that there will be many more interesting discoveries regarding this group in the future. It is still very unclear how new species arise in the marine environment and the hamlet group represents one of the best opportunities to study these processes. Such work is important for the advancement of our knowledge of marine life, and consequently for our ability to value and protect it. This study represents a step towards understanding the evolution of the hamlet group and it would not be possible without the REEF volunteers. I would like to say thank you to all of them. Keep up the good work and, above all, keep having fun!"

The full citation of the paper is Holt, B., I Cote, and B Emerson (2010). Signatures of speciation? Distribution and diversity of Hypoplectrus (Teleostei: Serranidae) colour morphotypes. Global Ecology and Biogeography (published online 23 April 2010).

To see this and other scientific papers that have been published using REEF data, check out thePublications page on the REEF.org website here.

We are excited to announce a great line-up of destinations for REEF's 2010 Field Survey Travel Schedule. These fun and educational eco-dive trips are part of REEF's Volunteer Survey Project and they are the perfect way to "Make a Dive That Counts". The week-long trips are a great introduction to fish identification for novice fishwatchers, and a fun way for experienced surveyors to build their life list while interacting with fellow fishwatchers. Trips are led by REEF staff and other REEF instructors and feature daily classroom seminars and a full diving schedule. We are featuring several new destinations, including the northern Baja Peninsula and Roatan, as well as returning to some of our member's favorites like Dominica and Grand Cayman. Several specialty trips are also being offered in 2010, including invasive lionfish research projects and reef fish behavior tours.

REEF Trip Schedule 2010 -- Check the Trip Page for prices, package details and more.