Dr. Michael Coyne - 2002

REEF staff were proud to present Dr. Michael Coyne with the 2002 Volunteer of the Year award. Michael was on hand to receive the award during the 10 Year Anniversary Banquet. Michael’s involvement with REEF started in 1999 when he began helping us revamp the fish survey database structure and query capabilities. His efforts have completely revolutionized every aspect of how we process, access, and summarize data. He added a membership component to our database last year and serves as a lead contact person to assist with technology questions related to our website and database server. Michael is a fisheries biologist with NOAA’s Biogeography Office, and he assists in that office’s efforts to apply REEF data to various GIS and mapping projects. Outside of work, Michael is a sea turtle biologi st and volunteer director of seaturtle.org. He was instrumental in adding sea turtle sightings to the REEF survey method and serves as a liaison between those sightings data and the scientific community. With limited staff and technical resources, REEF relies heavily on volunteers such as Michael, and we extend a big thanks to him and to the many other volunteers who help REEF achieve success.