1) When and where did you do your first REEF survey?  What got you started?
In 2006 we were living on our sailing catamaran Blue Marine in Bonaire and met Golden Hamlet Linda Ridley. If you know Linda, you know she is passionate about fish! She taught us the REEF ID courses, pushing us until I was a Level 5 and doing some teaching myself. I’m so thrilled that someone I first taught, Kim White, is now a Golden Hamlet herself!

2) When and where did you do your 1,000th Survey? Tell us anything memorable about your 1,000th survey?
We were at Atlantis Resort in Puerto Galera, Philippines with the Water Planet Images group, who we dive with annually. I’ve had several diving milestones on our trips with them and this one was a highlight! 

3) In which regions have you done surveys?  What experience levels are you in those other regions?  Do you have any favorite dive spots in those places?

TWA Level 5 – Bonaire, of course, Blue Heron Bridge (thanks to Peter Leahy), Cocoview Resort (Yellow Boat!)
PAC
HAW Level 2
TEP Level 2
CIP Level 3 – North Sulawesi, Indonesia, especially Lembeh Strait (love that muck)

4) What are some of your favorite fishes or invertebrates?  What makes them your favorite?
Almost an impossible question! Blennies, unusual finds and anything that hasn’t been reported in that zone before. 

5) What is your favorite thing/memory about REEF and the Volunteer Fish Survey Project?
Ned and Anna DeLoach brought a Field Survey Trip to Bonaire in 2006 or 2007.  They reached out to Linda Ridley for some help and I was recruited to be a dive guide for the surveyors. Besides the opportunity to sit in on Ned and Anna’s briefings and classes, the highlight was showing the surveyors some of Bonaire’s hidden treasures.

6) What are your goals with REEF for the future?
I hope to pass the CIP Level 4 exam sometime – I’ve tried once and missed it by a few points. Maybe next year!

7) Feel free to share anything else about yourself and your diving adventures!
I couldn’t have done it without my longtime survey support team, Joy Johnson and Paulette Schindele, both Level 3 TWA, and my husband Todd, a Level 4 TWA. And spotters Shawn & Jodi Biggar.