Although we are just one month into the year, our 2019 Field Survey Trips are filling up fast! Because of the great response, we have decided to add two new trips to the 2019 schedule: an invasive lionfish-focused liveaboard trip to Belize this June, and a fish survey liveaboard trip in December, to the Turks and Caicos Islands.
Thanks to the generous support of OpenROV and National Geographic, REEF received two Trident remotely-operated vehicles (ROVs) to advance our research on endangered Nassau Grouper and invasive lionfish.
This month, REEF is proud to highlight one of our outstanding Conservation Partners: CoCo View Resort in Roatan, Honduras. REEF Conservation Partners are active organizations and dive shops dedicated to protecting marine environments. As valued REEF ambassadors, they teach fish ID classes, host survey dives, organize volunteer events and more. Read on to find out how you can get involved with these centers of conservation action!
We are proud to share the newest scientific publication that includes data from the REEF Volunteer Fish Survey Project. The study, published last month in the journal Science Advances, used REEF data from the Pacific Coast to evaluate the massive decline of the Sunflower Sea Star (Pycnopodia helianthoides). The study's analysis included almost 11,000 REEF surveys collected by our citizen scientists from California to Alaska over the last decade.
We’re excited to introduce our Spring 2019 Marine Conservation Interns. These individuals will support the REEF team in mission-oriented tasks and daily office operations, as well as play an integral role in the many education and outreach programs that take place throughout the spring semester. They will also have opportunities to scuba dive, conduct fish surveys, and volunteer with environmental organizations in South Florida and the Florida Keys. This semester’s interns bring diverse skills and interests to REEF. They include:
Fishinars are REEF's brand of fun, live, interactive webinars and anyone who wants to know more about ocean life is welcome to join in. Tune in this month for a four-part course on Pacific Northwest Invertebrates and Algae, co-taught by REEF staff members Janna Nichols and Ellie Place. This comprehensive course will teach you how to identify the 60+ invertebrates and algae that are monitored in the REEF Pacific Northwest Survey Region (Alaska, Washington, Oregon and British Columbia). It will be a great resource for beginners and an opportunity for advanced surveyors to review.
I wanted to share with you the excitement I felt attending the Reef Futures 2018: A Global Coral Restoration and Interventions Science Symposium in December. Excitement was evident throughout the talks, and the visions were grand for this global conference. We heard about the Great Barrier Reef Marine Authority’s audacious effort to address coral bleaching due to climate change, including consideration of such possibilities as coral shading, a 5um biodegradable film over the corals that could reduce sunlight by 30%, cloud seeding, and pumping colder water from the deep.
Escape the winter cold by planning a dive trip to the tropics! When you travel with REEF, you take a dive vacation that counts, and we still have a few spaces left on our upcoming Field Survey Trip to the beautiful Caribbean island of Nevis, on March 9-16, 2019. Led by Janna Nichols, this trip will include daily fish identification classes to help you boost your Caribbean fish id knowledge. Nevis is separated from its sister island, St. Kitts, by a two-mile stretch of water known as the Narrows, home to lots of interesting marine life.
REEF scientists and volunteers are gearing up another season of the Grouper Moon Project, a collaborative research effort with the Cayman Islands Department of the Environment (CIDOE). This important project focuses on one of the largest (and one of just a few) known spawning aggregations of Nassau Grouper in the Caribbean. Over 6,000 grouper amass in one location for 7-10 days following winter full moons.