After several years of planning and collaborating with local marine scientists and divers, REEF has expanded the Volunteer Fish Survey Project into another region: the South Atlantic States (SAS). Recreational and scientific divers in North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia now have survey materials specific to the local ecosystem, including waterproof color ID cards, waterproof survey paper, teaching curriculum, data entry, and online data summaries.
As part of our efforts to address the lionfish invasion to the western Atlantic, REEF received a grant from the US Fish and Wildlife Service Aquatic Invasive Species Program to organize and lead lionfish workshops throughout the Southeast United States. Between August and October, REEF staff Keri Kenning and Lad Akins will be traveling to more than a dozen coastal communities to present information on the lionfish invasion and hands-on demonstrations on collecting and handling.
Under sunny Florida skies, 27 teams of lionfish hunters took part in the Fourth Annual Key Largo Lionfish Derby on Saturday, September 14 at John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park. Exceptional weather and growing awareness of the lionfish issue facilitated record catches of the invasive species.
Join Smoky Mountain Divers-Carolinas for 2 days of wreck diving with SAS group fish identification. Trip fee of $295 includes 2 regular day 2-tank offshore boat dives and airfills. Lodging, tanks, and dive gear is on your own. Dive Saturday and Sunday (Sept 28-29). Fish ID Data sheets are availble if needed.
A brief history of REEF's Volunteer Fish Survey Project and other programs...
Federal and state fisheries lift spearfishing restrictions in certain areas for REEF's lionfish derby.
Divers aboard Discovery Diving's Boat
Contact:
Christine Ward‐Paige; Halifax, NS; globalshark@gmail.com, www.eShark.org
Boris Worm; Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS; bworm@dal.ca; (902) 494‐2478
The authors describe the behavioral interactions of piscivorous mid-water and demersal fishes at subtropical live-bottom reefs off the coast of Georgia and off the west coast of Florida in the northeast Gulf of Mexico. The observations are used to construct a topological behavior web of the interactions of mid-water and demersal piscivores, their prey, and those associated species that modify predator-prey interactions. Results show that inter-specific behavioral interactions are common attributes of piscivores in these reef fish communities.
Despite being the world’s largest rays and providing significant revenue through dive tourism, little is known about the population status, exploitation, and trade volume of the Mobulidae (mobulids; Manta and Mobula spp.). There is anecdotal evidence, however, that mobulid populations are declining, largely due to the recent emergence of a widespread trade for their gill rakers.