Since 2010, more than 45,000 invasive lionfish have been removed through REEF Lionfish Derbies. We are excited to announce that the following dates and locations have been set for REEF’s 2019 Summer Lionfish Derby Series:
• June 28 – 30: 8th Annual Fort Lauderdale Lionfish Derby at 15th Street Fisheries
• July 12 – 14: 6th Annual Sarasota Lionfish Derby at Mote Marine Laboratory and Aquarium
• Sept.13 – 15: 10th Annual Upper Keys Lionfish Derby and Festival at Postcard Inn Resort and Marina
Last summer, we launched a brand-new version of the REEF website! There are many improved features on this new interface that we'd like to share with you. This month, we'll show you how to sort your REEF Survey Log.
Step 1: After logging into your REEF account, go to My REEF > My Survey Log
Step 2: Notice that you can click on any of the headers to sort in ascending or descending order.
REEF members are the heart of our grassroots marine conservation programs. A diverse community of divers, snorkelers, and ocean enthusiasts support our mission to conserve marine environments worldwide.
Did you know you can contribute to REEF's conservation and education efforts while shopping for everyday items, through our newly launched Shop to Support program? We are pleased to announce that Divers Alert Network (DAN) is our newest Shop to Support partner! DAN will donate a percentage of the proceeds back to REEF for each travel insurance policy you purchase using our affiliate link. Click here to purchase your DAN travel insurance and support REEF’s conservation efforts worldwide.
REEF Fishinars are fun, live, interactive webinars, open to anyone who wants to learn about ocean life. At the beginning of May, we presented a beginner's course covering 60 most commonly seen fish species in the Tropical Western Atlantic (the survey region including Florida, the Caribbean and the Bahamas). Each session of this four-part series was recorded, so if you missed them or want to watch them again, you can view them any time online.
We are excited to share details of two recent scientific publications that leverage the long time-series of species composition information that our citizen science surveys provide. The first study looked at how reef fish community assemblages have changed over time at several sites in Florida. In particular, the researchers looked for evidence of biological homogenization (increasing species similarity between sites.) Homogenization can alter the ecological function of systems as well as the economic value associated with ecosystems. Dr.
A recent paper in Journal of the Ocean Science Foundation describes cleaning behavior that had previously not been documented in a particular species. The findings are the result of the keen eyes of two active REEF surveyors – Carol Cox and Frank Krasovec. Carol frequently surveys in the northern Gulf of Mexico and Frank surveys in his home state of North Carolina. Both photographed Yellowprow Goby, Elacatinus xanthiprora, cleaning other fishes, which is not typical for the species. Scientist and frequent REEF advisor, Dr.
We are very proud to share that Dr. Christy Pattengill-Semmens, REEF Director of Science, and Dr. Brice Semmens, Director of California Cooperative Oceanic Fisheries Investigations and associate professor at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego, have been named Scuba Diving magazine’s April 2019 Sea Heroes! Sponsored by the watch brand Seiko, this award honors the extraordinary work done by scuba divers making a difference for our world’s oceans, reefs and marine life.
We are very excited to share some great news from our Grouper Moon Project colleagues at Cayman Islands Department of Environment (DOE) – on April 1, 2019, the Cabinet of the Cayman Islands approved the most significant expansion and enhancement to Cayman’s existing marine parks system since the areas were established in 1986. The “no take” zones, including marine parks/reserves, environmental zones, and wildlife interaction zones, will increase from a national average of approximately 14% to 48%.