Welcome to the Citizen Science Corner, our quarterly feature to celebrate those who recently reached a milestone in our Volunteer Fish Survey Project. Here are achievements from October, November and December 2024.
Ultra Golden Hamlet Award
A new collaborative project SMILE (Size Matters: Innovative Length Estimate) is now underway in the Florida Keys to help collect information about fish lengths. These data are critical for fisheries stock assessments, which are used to manage ecologically and economically important marine species. Funded through NOAA’s Coral Reef Conservation Program (CRCP), the SMILE project involves volunteer divers, innovative underwater camera technology, and the expansion of a citizen science approach to collect length data for reef fish in the South Atlantic.
Sun, Jan 12 8am - 1pm
Saltwater State Park, Des Moines, WA
Learn what lives in our local marine waters and how to identify them.
Welcome the New Year with a dive - Wednesday, January 1, 2025!
Divers will meet at 11:30am and plan to enter the water at 12:15pm.
Saltwater State Park is an advanced dive with a long surface swim. Plan accordingly.
Want to try conducting a REEF survey? Marine life ID materials will be available and helpers to assist.
Hot cider/drinks and munchies provided.
Park Free day!
This event is weather dependent so RSVP and stay tuned for updates.
RSVP for this event here:
Has it been awhile since your last survey? Or maybe you’re just curious about REEF’s Volunteer Fish Survey Project and want to know how it works?
Join Jackie Myers on Wednesday evening January 8, 2025 for a mini-review of South Puget Sound fish and invertebrates including a brief tutorial on how to enter survey results in the REEF database. This will be an online meeting.
Everyone is welcome, whether new or experienced.
The holidays are here, and if you need to find a gift for the ocean lover in your life, check out the new merchandise we recently added to the REEF online store, including lightweight zip-up hoodies and hats with our new logo. Be sure to check out www.REEF.org/store to see these items as well as plenty of other swag. We also have educational materials, books, and survey gear, all of which make great gifts for divers, snorkelers, and marine life enthusiasts. We suggest placing your order early to allow time for shipping during the holidays.
This winter, REEF has an opportunity for you to involved in ocean conservation from the comfort of your home! We are seeking remote, dedicated volunteers to help create artificial intelligence (AI) training datasets for two collaborative, technology-based citizen science projects, the SMILE project and Grouper Spotter. You can read more about both of these projects below. Volunteers are needed to help build training datasets that are essential for finalizing the AI workflow for these projects, including automated laser detection, fish boxing and outlining, and fish identification.
With a new year approaching, it's a great time to plan your next dive or snorkel vacation, and we hope you'll join us on a REEF Field Survey Trip! There are some spaces available on upcoming REEF Trips in 2025 and 2026, including an amazing 10-night one-way charter in the Philippines, which includes the chance to dive the Tubbataha Reefs Natural Park, a UNESCO World Heritage site. This incredible trip is happening on June 28-July 8, 2026, and you don't want to miss it!
You can give the gift of healthy oceans by supporting REEF! Thanks to your support, we are able to protect marine habitats and species, educate countless individuals, and preserve marine biodiversity worldwide. We're so grateful to everyone who has made a donation this winter. If you have not yet donated, please consider contributing to REEF today. Your year-end gift will help set us on a path for success in 2025 and beyond.
2024 is winding down, and if you have any REEF surveys that you haven't yet entered, now is a great time to get them submitted so you can start off 2025 with a fresh "slate!" The marine life information collected by REEF volunteers is used by scientists and researchers to learn more about our oceans and how to best protect them. Each survey you conduct as a citizen scientist can help make a difference, but these data must be submitted to the REEF database.