Hello and Happy Fall! In this issue of REEF-in-Brief, we remind you of the many ways to make dives that count, and share secrets for success in using the Online Data Entry program. While we still process paper survey scansheets, we highly recommend that our surveyors submit their data to the Volunteer Survey Project through the online program. Not only is it faster and more accurate, it requires less REEF staff resources and saves money on postage and paper.
Happy Summer, REEF Friends. We are excited to bring you this month's issue of REEF-in-Brief. As we approach the half-way mark of our Summer Funraising Campaign, we are about 1/3 of the way towards our goal of raising $60,000. Thanks to all who have already contributed. If you haven't yet donated, please consider doing so today. Because of a generous offer from the Curtis and Edith Munson Foundation, your contribution (and your impact) with be doubled! Funds raised during this campaign will ensure that REEF is able to continue our valuable marine conservation programs.
- Ocean Science 2.0: REEF Pioneers New Approach to Understanding Ocean Ecosystems
- REEF.org Redefined: REEF Launches New Website
- Studying MPAs in the Channel Islands
- Monitoring Artificial Reeefs
- Putting REEF Data to Work
- Online Mapping - A New Data Tool
- REEF's Grouper Moon Project: Conserving a Caribbean Icon
- Lionfish Expeditions Lead to New Information
- REEF Field Stations: Partners on the Ground, In the Water
- Capacity Building in New England
Greetings REEF Friends!
This month marks the Great Annual Fish Count (GAFC), REEF's annual event that celebrates our fish survey program. In this issue of REEF-in-Brief we highlight a few of the many GAFC events that were held by our partners throughout the month of July. New REEF staff, Alecia Adamson just returned from the Field Survey to Roatan and her report is below. We are also proud to announce that REEF has facilitated the donation of lionfish collection kits to 27 dive operators in the Florida Keys.
Summer is here! Throughout REEF survey regions – coastal Americas, the tropical eastern Pacific and the Caribbean and Hawaiian Islands - volunteers are diving into the Great Annual Fish Count, discovering the “wild and wooly” side of St. Vincent, helping understand the impacts of exotic invasive lionfish, and experiencing life and loss on Bonaire’s coral reefs.
Greetings from REEF HQ. This month we bring you highlights from our recent trip to DEMA, the dive industry trade show, where we shared results from REEF's research on Indo-Pacific Lionfish and the urgency of the threat that the invasion of this unwanted species into the Bahamas and Caribbean poses. We are also excited to announce that two REEF member, Lad Akins and Anna DeLoach, were inducted as a Platinum Pro5000 Diver by SSI. The REEF 2009 Trip schedule offers a wide array of destinations.
Dear Valued REEF Members,
Hello and Happy September! We are pleased to unveil the 2008 Field Survey Schedule in this edition of REEF in Brief, as well as fill you in on some of the important field work that we have going on around the REEF survey regions. Learn about the fifth year of monitoring at the Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary in Washington, new and growing partnerships with the New England Aquarium and others in the northeast, a collaborative research project at the world's only undersea laboratory in Key Largo, and the results of ongoing exotic species work on lionfish in the Bahamas.
Greetings!
While fall used to be a slower time here at REEF, this year we are busier than ever. In addition to working with scientists to get them up-to-date species data and continuing to coordinate and expand the citizen science Fish Survey Project to new regions, the REEF staff is involved in a variety of marine conservation issues including the lionfish invasion in the Caribbean and associated waters and endangered species spawning aggregation research. This issue of REEF-in-Brief features updates from several of these programs.
Hello and Happy April!