During the last week of April, divers from around the country gathered at Amoray Dive Resort in Key Largo, Florida for a REEF Fish Behavior Tour hosted by Ned and Anna DeLoach. After making two morning dives each day, the group spent their late afternoons and early evenings attending entertaining talks about the myriad fish they encountered on the reef. Lad Akins, REEF’s Special Projects Director, dropped by to explain the science behind the recent invasion of Indo-Pacific lionfish in the western Atlantic.
Last Summer during a dive with Pacific Adventure Charters in Hood Canal, Washington, a group of REEF Pacific Advanced Assessment Team (AAT) surveyors came across something unexpected. As part of REEF’s funded project with The Russell Family Foundation, the team’s goal was to look for invasive tunicates and do REEF marine life surveys on several previously unsurveyed sites. While they found the invasive tunicates they were looking for, they also found a derelict fishing net that was damaging fragile habitat and ensnaring marine life.
REEF is hosting this community panel discussion to raise awareness about how volunteers contribute to scientific understanding of the environment. Rick Bonney of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology in Ithaca, New York will lead the discussion. Florida Keys-based citizen science practitioners will present on local projects and ways for volunteers to get involved. Topics include fish and bird surveying, native plants and coral restoration.
This is the second in a series. The first was held in February in Key Largo, FL.
6:30-7:00 - Reception with food, 7:30-9:30 - Presentations
REEF is hosting this community panel discussion to raise awareness about how volunteers contribute to scientific understanding of the environment. Rick Bonney of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology in Ithaca, New York will lead the discussion. Florida Keys-based citizen science practitioners will present on local projects and ways for volunteers to get involved. Topics include fish and bird surveying, native plants and coral restoration.
Panel Speakers include: Leda Cunningham, REEF
Thanks to a three-year grant from the Lenfest Ocean Program at the Pew Charitable Trusts, REEF and collaborators at the Cayman Islands Department of the Environment (CIDOE) and Oregon State University (OSU) will greatly expand the conservation science research being conducted as part of the Grouper Moon Project in the Cayman Islands.
REEF Director of Science, Dr. Christy Pattengill-Semmens, joined a dozen other scientists in presenting the findings of monitoring the marine protected areas (MPAs) in the Channel Islands, California, earlier this month during a special session of the California Islands Symposium. The presentation highlighted the effect of reserves on common nearshore rocky reef fishes based on 10 years of REEF survey data. During this time, REEF volunteer divers have collected 1,595 visual fish surveys from 113 sites throughout the Channel Islands before and after state marine reserves were established in 2002.
The REEF 2008 Field Survey Schedule is in full swing. Many of the trips are already sold out, but we wanted to bring your attention to one that still has some space on it -- the Field Survey to Baja Mexico aboard the Don Jose in the Sea of Cortez this October. This is a great trip, with spectacular diving and lots of tropical fishes, warm and clear water, and beautiful topside scenery. Some of the highlights include giant hawkfish, jawfish the size of your leg, whale sharks and manta rays, and spectacular sunsets over unpopulated desert islands.
This week aboard the sailing vessel Cat Ppalu will focus on data gathering and observational behavior in and around Eleuthra (weather permitting). The trip will be led by REEF Director of Special Projects Lad Akins and will have a maximum of 12 participants. During the week of diving, we'll tag and track lionfish as well as collect specimens for researchers in the Bahamas and in the US. We'll also conduct new activity observations to determine when and how lionfish are most active.
As part of a current REEF training project in the Pacific Northwest that is funded by The Russell Family Foundation, regional REEF instructor, Janna Nichols, has organized free training sessions around the region in order to enlist new divers into the Volunteer Survey Project. The TRFF project also includes funding for periodic boat dives that are open to active REEF surveyors in order to provide opportunities and incentive for existing REEF surveyors to stay involved and increase their surveyor skill level.
Pacific Northwest diver and REEF surveyor, Nick Brown, recently discovered the invasive tunicate, Ciona savignyi, during a dive in the San Juan Islands in Washington. This was the first record of the unwanted species in the San Juans. Nick learned about the invasive tunicate, and two other species that are monitored by REEF surveyors in the Pacific Northwest, during a recent REEF training seminar taught by Janna Nichols. Volunteer divers are serving an important role in the early detection and removal of invasive tunicates in the Pacific Northwest.