At the end of this month, REEF staff members and partners from collaborating institutions including Scripps Oceanography and Oregon State University will be attending the scientific conference hotsted by the 2025 Gulf and Caribbean Fisheries Institute (GCFI) in Cartagena, Colombia. This annual gathering brings together scientists, park managers, fishers, and conservation organizations to share the latest in research and initiatives. We will be presenting on several of REEF's programs at this year's conference. A full listing of presentations is below. 

Volunteer Fish Survey Project -

Semmens, BX and M Titcomb. A 30-Year Retrospective: Using Citizen Science Data to Model the Drivers of Caribbean Grouper Trends. Reef-associated groupers are iconic apex predators and critical ecological indicators of reef health, yet many Caribbean grouper populations are experiencing range-wide declines according to the IUCN Red List Index. To evaluate species-specific trends throughtout the Caribbean region, the authors of this studies analyzed 30 years (1994–2024) of citizen-science Roving Diver surveys conducted as part of REEF's Volunteer Fish Survey Project.

SMILE -

Loch, J et al.

Grouper Moon Project -

Layton, J et al. Understanding Energy Output During Spawning Aggregation Events of Tiger Grouper (Mycteroperca tigris) on Little Cayman, Cayman Islands. This study is part of the larger spawning aggregation research conducted as part of REEF's Grouper Moon Project, which focuses on Nassau Grouper but also studies the other species that use the site on the west end of Little Cayman. Our team measured the per-egg energy content of Tiger Grouper during spawning, revealing consistent reproductive energy investment across time, but significantly different from that of Nassau Grouper. These findings help improve our understanding of grouper reproductive ecology and emphasize the need for species-specific conservation strategies in the Caribbean.