On Saturday, February 9, REEF hosted the first annual For the Love of the Sea benefit dinner and auction at Amy Slate's Amoray Dive Resort in Key Largo, Florida. The event was a huge success! More than 150 guests attended a sold-out event, enjoying a picturesque sunset set to island music and the awe-inspriring underwater photography of authors and REEF founders, Paul Humann and Ned DeLoach. REEF raised more than $25,000 thanks to successful silent and live auctions and the generosity of event sponsors in the Keys and greater REEF community.
REEF Director of Science, Dr. Christy Pattengill-Semmens, joined a dozen other scientists in presenting the findings of monitoring the marine protected areas (MPAs) in the Channel Islands, California, earlier this month during a special session of the California Islands Symposium. The presentation highlighted the effect of reserves on common nearshore rocky reef fishes based on 10 years of REEF survey data. During this time, REEF volunteer divers have collected 1,595 visual fish surveys from 113 sites throughout the Channel Islands before and after state marine reserves were established in 2002.
The REEF 2008 Field Survey Schedule is in full swing. Many of the trips are already sold out, but we wanted to bring your attention to one that still has some space on it -- the Field Survey to Baja Mexico aboard the Don Jose in the Sea of Cortez this October. This is a great trip, with spectacular diving and lots of tropical fishes, warm and clear water, and beautiful topside scenery. Some of the highlights include giant hawkfish, jawfish the size of your leg, whale sharks and manta rays, and spectacular sunsets over unpopulated desert islands.
Four spots recently opened on our Turks and Caicos Field Survey aboard the Aggressor II, April 19-26, 2008. This is a wonderful opportunity for new and experienced REEF surveyors to spend a week diving in one of the jewels of the Caribbean. You can take advantage of our live-aboard accomodations and make up to 5 dives per day at all the best sites these islands have to offer.
This week aboard the sailing vessel Cat Ppalu will focus on data gathering and observational behavior in and around Eleuthra (weather permitting). The trip will be led by REEF Director of Special Projects Lad Akins and will have a maximum of 12 participants. During the week of diving, we'll tag and track lionfish as well as collect specimens for researchers in the Bahamas and in the US. We'll also conduct new activity observations to determine when and how lionfish are most active.
Give back to the coral reef... become a REEF fish counter!
Two evening program, March 4th & 5th, from 7 to 9pm.
If you wish to complete the home study, join us on March 5th only for a review and quiz.
A couple of months ago, REEF launched our new website. Along with the new website, REEF launched some new membership Discussion Forums that will become more valuable as the survey season ramps up this spring/summer.
As part of a current REEF training project in the Pacific Northwest that is funded by The Russell Family Foundation, regional REEF instructor, Janna Nichols, has organized free training sessions around the region in order to enlist new divers into the Volunteer Survey Project. The TRFF project also includes funding for periodic boat dives that are open to active REEF surveyors in order to provide opportunities and incentive for existing REEF surveyors to stay involved and increase their surveyor skill level.
Pacific Northwest diver and REEF surveyor, Nick Brown, recently discovered the invasive tunicate, Ciona savignyi, during a dive in the San Juan Islands in Washington. This was the first record of the unwanted species in the San Juans. Nick learned about the invasive tunicate, and two other species that are monitored by REEF surveyors in the Pacific Northwest, during a recent REEF training seminar taught by Janna Nichols. Volunteer divers are serving an important role in the early detection and removal of invasive tunicates in the Pacific Northwest.