Last week, REEF Co-Executive Director Dr. Christy Pattengill-Semmens joined hundreds of experts, educators, and community leaders in Oregon for the 2025 Conference for Advancing the Participatory Sciences. This annual event brings together people from around the world who are passionate about involving the public in scientific research.
Small Hope Bay Lodge is a historic, intimate, and eco-friendly resort that has been welcoming guests to Andros Island for over 60 years. They offer classic beachfront cabins, fresh international cuisine, an array of outdoor activities, and the opportunity to relax in an unspoiled eco-paradise. Unwind and enjoy the amazing variety of dives, world-class fishing, rare birds, and the fine art of lazy hammock lounging. It’s simply like no place else on earth!
Negril, Jamaica is home to a famous 7-mile beach with white-sand and turquoise waters right out of a postcard. The family-owned boutique hotel, Travellers Beach Resort, is centrally located with all of the amenities and activities you can think of. Known for warm Jamaican hospitality and a stunning beachfront setting, relax, explore, and feel at home. One Love Scuba is the onsite dive shop, providing the personal service of a small shop while catering to all divers. Enjoy the calm, protected reefs of Negril that attract divers from all over the world.
This Great Annual Fish Count, join REEF and Ocean First for a free fish ID class, followed by a fish survey dive/snorkel as part of the REEF Volunteer Fish Survey Project.
The fish ID class will take place at Ocean First at 9am, break for lunch (on your own), and check in for the survey dives/snorkel at 12:15pm.
Fish ID class and check-in location: 51 Shoreland Dr Key Largo.
KEY LARGO, FLA. - Reef Environmental Education Foundation (REEF) invites ocean enthusiasts and fitness fans everywhere to join the movement to protect marine life during the 2025 Fish Out of Water Virtual 5K, taking place from June 8-14, 2025.
This unique, family-friendly event encourages participants to complete a 5K via an activity of their choice - anytime, anywhere, all while supporting REEF’s mission to protect ocean ecosystems through citizen science, education, and research.
We just wrapped up hosting the Florida Keys Lionfish Derby and Arts Festival, and now our education team is ready to dive in to a busy season of Ocean Explorers Education programs. While some of the lionfish caught during the derby are immediately prepared into delicious, fresh lionfish ceviche for derby attendees, we also save some lionfish to use during REEF's invasive species-focused education programs throughout the year.
Last weekend, 13 teams of scuba divers took to the water and collected 1,618 invasive lionfish during the 2025 REEF Florida Keys Lionfish Derby & Arts Festival. Teams fished from sunrise to sunset on Friday, April 25 and Saturday, April 26. The derby weekend concluded on Sunday, April 27 at the REEF Campus in Key Largo, with a festival celebrating the intersection of art, science, and marine conservation. The festival included lionfish scoring, cooking and dissection demos, plus numerous educational activities, games, and vendor booths.
KEY LARGO, FLA. – Last weekend, 13 teams of scuba divers took to the water and collected 1,618 invasive lionfish during the 2025 Florida Keys Lionfish Derby & Arts Festival, hosted by Reef Environmental Education Foundation (REEF). Teams fished from sunrise to sunset on Friday, April 25 and Saturday, April 26.
If you missed our recent REEF Field Survey Trip to Fiji, you're in luck because we are headed back next year, on April 18-28, 2026. We had an incredible time this year on the lovely NAI’A liveaboard. Fiji is known as a hotspot for diving, with massive schools of pelagics such as Bigeye Trevally, Scad, and Barracuda, Gray Reef and Whitetip Reef Sharks, and unusual creatures like the Leaf Scorpionfish and Ornate Ghost Pipefish.
There's still time to register for the Fish Out of Water Virtual 5K, coming up on June 8-14! If you haven't registered yet, visit www.REEF.org/5K to sign up now! When you register, you will choose to join one of five Fish Teams.
Which Fish Team will you choose? Check out the descriptions below to learn more about each fish, and learn more about their "race personalities" at this page.
2025 Fish Out of Water 5K Fish Teams: