Happy Holidays! On behalf of the Board of Directors and staff at REEF, I urge you to show your support of our crucial marine conservation programs, which resulted this year in important long term victories.

In a matter of minutes, you can contribute at www.REEF.org/contribute, mail your donation to P.O. Box 246, Key Largo, FL 33037, or call REEF Headquarters (305-852-0030). For donations of $250 or more, you will receive the 2012 limited edition, signed print of a Nassau Grouper spawning aggregation. REEF is a registered 501(c)(3) US charity and your donation is tax-deductible.

In 2012, REEF program milestones included:

• Working with the Cayman government to pass a new Grouper Amendment Law granting Nassau Grouper permanent protection through complete closure of the fishery throughout the reproductive season.

• Co-authoring Invasive Lionfish – A Guide to Control and Management, which tackles the invasion on an international level and provides direction on how best to deal with this emerging lionfish risk to marine systems.

• Coordinating 34 online "Fishinars" through the Volunteer Fish Survey Project, which allow members worldwide to learn interactively about marine life from the comfort of their home.

Donate today so REEF can continue making these critical accomplishments! We sincerely appreciate your support and thank you for your dedication to healthy ocean ecosystems around the world. We hope you are enjoying a wonderful holiday season and have a great new year!

7/7/07 marked a successful GAFC Kickoff Party here at the REEF Headquarters, while across the country in Seattle, people gathered to celebrate the art, ecology, and culture of Puget Sound at the Puget Soundscape. Environmental groups were welcomed to this event to share each of their unique contributions to conservation. The renowned Foster/White Art Gallery of Seattle arranged an event in the afternoon dedicated to linking the gap between art and nature through “watchable wildlife.” Master Artist, Tony Angell spoke at the event along with our Director of Science, Christy Semmens, who shared information about the Great Annual Fish Count and REEF’s mission . The gallery generously agreed to donate a portion of the proceeds from the event to REEF.

So far, over half of the registered events have already been completed, and we are eager to hear back of their success. We would like to extend great thanks to all of the coordinators, and best wishes to those coordinators whose events are coming up very soon. Events and their locations still to come include:

California: Discount Dive Trips for the entire month of July hosted by Paradise Dive Club, Santa Barbara, CA

US Northeast/New England: Fish Count Dives onJuly 28^th conducted by the New England Aquarium Dive Club, Gloucester, MA;

Caribbean and Bahamas: Weekly multimedia fish ID classes held at CoCo View Resort, Roatan, Honduras through August 4^th.

For all of you Great Annual Fish Fanatics who have participated in fish seminars across the country, thank you for your support and don’t forget that you can complete fish survey dives anytime!

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. There are 3 forums: ID Central for posting mystery fish and invert pics for other members to help identify and to post interesting fish behavioral observations; Trip Reports, where members can post trip reports for Field Surveys, Exotic Species, AAT, and any REEF or other group efforts; and the General Discussion forum where you can post stories and links about marine conservation concerns, ideas for REEF programs, and myriad other things. These forums are for our 35,000+ members to interact and create a synergistic connection around our conservation diving and snorkel efforts worldwide. Below is a post from long-time member, Todd Fulks, who recently witnessed Hairy Blenny (Labrisomus nuchipinnis) courtship/mating and took a really great picture of the mating pair. I have pasted it here so you can get an example of what could be posted in the ID Central Forum. To post to the forums you have to be a registered REEF.org website user which you can do easily from our homepage in the top left corner under the heading, "Register for an account on our new site." Once registered, you can visit our forums by going up to the menu bar at the top of the homepage and moving your cursor over the Resources option, then clicking on Discussion Forums which is the second item down.

Dive Encounter by Todd Fulks -

"There I was at the end of our dive in just a few inches of water near shore, when I noticed a brilliant bright green fish with red hues on its lower jaw and streaking down its belly. It was sitting near a textbook example of a hairy blenny. I’d been told the males can have brilliant colors when mating so I knew I’d stumbled upon something interesting. As I looked around, I found two more drab olive green females. The girls were just blah-looking in comparison to the clownish colorations of the male hairy blenny. I lurched in the surf a bit as I watched a female slip up against a rock next to the brightly colored male. She jittered and shook violently. Then the male convulsed a few times and shook his body as he finned the underside of the rock. The female flitted a few feet away and the male convulsed again and then jolted to a new perch. The surge was such that I wasn’t able to look under the rock without causing damage so I’m not sure exactly what I witnessed. I’ll have to defer to the experts. Perhaps this was a courtship dance, perhaps they were actually breeding, or maybe egg care by proud parents. Or it could have been something else entirely… I mean it is Carnival time here in Bonaire and I’ve seen some guys wearing strange colorful costumes recently. None of the blennies left the two foot area the entire time and I was able to show all of them to two giddy divers that barely had room on their slates for the 100+ species we saw on the dive. I was determined to catch a good photo of the male, but it was tricky. He was more elusive and shy than the females and moved around frequently. Finally he settled between some rocks and one of his partners nuzzled in close and they posed. ‘Click.’"

Following the most recent Indo-Pacific Lionfish expedition at Stuart Cove’s in Nassau, Bahamas, we kicked off the next phase of our critical research on this invasive species in Eleuthera. Supporters, Trish and David Ferguson, served as hosts for the week. Earlier this summer, REEF staff set up 11 study sites, tagging 30 fish on six different patch reef and clearing the other 5 sites of lionfish. This past week, I revisited those tagging sites and documented any movement of lionfish. We then following up with early morning, mid-day and evening activity observations to see what the fish were up to and when. The observations involved pre-sun up dives and 2-3 hour bottom times. With some very early and late dive times, the data collected is showing interesting patterns of low light activity.

After five days of intense data collecting at the Ferguson’s we headed down to Cape Eleuthera to meet with staff and students at the Island School and Cape Eleuthera Institute(CEI). The facility is completely self contained, producing their own electricity via solar and wind, their own biodiesel, raising cobia and tilapia in an aquaculture facility and even growing their own hydroponic vegetables. A very impressive operation and an incredible group of staff and students. We were able to conduct collecting and dissecting demonstrations for the coral research class and then do a packed house talk to all of the staff and students from TIS as well as a number from the local Deep Creek Middle School. There is strong interest in collaborating on future lionfish studies as well as incorporating fish surveys into the regular research curriculum at the IS and CEI. Look for future REEF projects to be scheduled here in 2009.  Visit our Lionfish Research page for more information.