REEF’s Grouper Moon Project, ongoing since 2001, was recently featured in Scientific American as a model for natural resource science. The project is a powerful collaboration between scientists at REEF, Cayman Islands Department of Environment, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, and Oregon State University, with input from Caymanian fishermen and support by local businesses. The work has connected cutting-edge science with the real-world need for understanding and protecting Nassau Grouper and their spawning aggregations.
REEF members are at the heart of our grassroots marine conservation programs. More than 70,000 divers, snorkelers, students, and armchair naturalists stand behind our mission.
This month we highlight Hideko Kawabata, REEF member since 2007. Hideko has conducted 159 REEF surveys, and has been on many REEF Trips to the Caribbean, Hawaii, and Indo-Pacific. She is a Level 3 TWA surveyor. Here's what she had to say about REEF:
How did you first learn about REEF?
To commemorate 25 years of REEF’s Volunteer Fish Survey Project, a group of volunteer citizen scientist divers joined REEF staff and interns, along with co-founder Paul Humann, for a special 25th anniversary Field Survey Trip in Key Largo, Florida, last month. Key Largo is home to REEF Headquarters and was also the location for the very first REEF Field Survey Trip, held in July 1993. The attendees on the 2018 trip surveyed the same sites visited by participants on the 1993 Field Survey, to observe how fish populations have changed over past 25 years.
REEF's Volunteer Fish Survey Project dataset was one of 73 fish and invertebrate monitoring programs that were systematically cataloged and evaluated as part of a mulit-year study funded by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) RESTORE Act Science Program. The effort was led by Arnaud Gruss from the University of Miami, and involved dozens of collaborators, including REEF's Director of Science, Christy Pattengill-Semmens.
Statistical habitat models, such as generalized linear models (GLMs) and generalized additive models (GAMs), are key tools for assisting Ecosystem-based Fisheries Management (EBFM) efforts. These models can be used to map species distributions and assist in marine protected area (MPA) planning.
This paper is an inventory of fish and invertebrate monitoring programs in the US Gulf of Mexico, including the REEF Volunteer Fish Survey Project, which has been active in the region since 1994. The authors conducted a gap analysis of the programs, and provided recommendations for improving current monitoring programs and designing new programs, and guidance for more comprehensive use and sharing of monitoring data.
REEF members are at the heart of our grassroots marine conservation programs. More than 70,000 divers, snorkelers, students, and armchair naturalists stand behind our mission.
Last month, REEF kicked off our 2018 Lionfish Derby series at the Phillip and Patricia Frost Museum of Science in Miami. Four teams competed on June 9 and 10 to bring in a total of 309 fish. The largest lionfish caught was 411mm (just over 16 inches) and the smallest was 112mm (about 4.5 inches.) We have two more derbies coming up this month - in Sarasota at Mote Marine Lab and Aquarium on July 6 - 8, and in Ft. Lauderdale at 15th St. Fisheries on July 13 - 14, and a few more later this summer and fall.
