REEF’s Summer Donation Matching Campaign is winding down, but we still need your support to reach our goal! Please consider making your donation today - click here to donate online! We are $12,000 from our goal of $60,000, and we know we can count on the support of our members. Thanks to a generous matching pledge from three of our supporting foundations, your donation will be doubled. Your support helps ensure that we can continue the critical work to protect our world oceans through education and research.
REEF members are at the heart of our grassroots marine conservation programs. Over 50,000 divers, snorkelers, students, and armchair naturalists stand behind our mission.
This month we highlight Doug Biffard, a REEF member since 2000. An active surveyor who lives in Victoria, British Columbia, Doug has conducted 455 surveys to date and is a member of REEF's Advanced Assessment Team for the Pacific region. Here's what he had to say about REEF:
How did you become involved with REEF?
If you haven't checked out the 2016 REEF Trips schedule yet, now's the time. We have an exciting lineup of destinations planned, and we hope you will join us. These trips offer a great introduction to fish identification for novice fishwatchers, and are a fun way for experienced surveyors to build their life-list while interacting with fellow ocean enthusiasts. We are also offering three of the ever-popular Invasive Lionfish Research Studies trips.
We have a SIX great Fishinars planned for July. These hour-long sessions enable you to learn and have fun from the comfort of your living room. We hope you will join us - it's free for REEF members. Check out the full schedule and links to register at www.REEF.org/fishinars.
Join us in Key Largo this fall for REEF Fest 2015, September 24 - 27. Celebrate the success and impact of REEF's marine conservation programs and education initiatives with diving, learning, and parties. Festivities begin Thursday with afternoon seminars and then a welcome party at the Caribbean Club. Friday and Saturday are full days, with diving in the mornings, seminars in the afternoons, and social events in the evenings (Friday Open House at REEFHQ and Saturday Celebration Dinner Party). The fun wraps up on Sunday with more organized dives. All REEF Fest events are open to the public.
Every month, scientists, government agencies, and other groups request raw data from REEF’s Fish Survey Project database. Here is a sampling of who has asked for REEF data recently and what they are using it for:
- A research group at Palm Beach State College is using REEF data on South Florida fish assemblages to evaluate beach renourishment projects.
- Researchers from NOAA's Biogeography office are including REEF data in the development of a management plan for the marine portion of the NE Ecological Corridor Reserves in NE Puerto Rico and Culebra Island.
We are proud to release REEF's 2014 Annual Report, reviewing accomplishments from our ocean conservation and education programs. Click here to view the Annual Report. In the report, we highlight many achievements and successes in 2014, such as:
REEF’s Summer Donation Matching Campaign is going on now. Please consider making your donation today - click here to donate online! Our supporters have pledged $60,000 to match your donations this summer dollar for dollar. We are about a third of the way to our goal, and we know we can count on the support of our members. Your support helps ensure that we can continue the critical work to protect our world oceans through education and research. Please consider donating today to help us reach our fundraising goal.
REEF members are at the heart of our grassroots marine conservation programs. Over 50,000 divers, snorkelers, students, and armchair naturalists stand behind our mission.
This month we highlight Phil Green, a REEF member since 2005. An active surveyor who lives on Orcas Island in the San Juan Islands of Washington State. Phil has conducted almost 400 surveys to date and is a member of REEF's Advanced Assessment Team for the Pacific region. Here's what he had to say about REEF:
How did you become involved with REEF?
We are encouraging all REEF surveyors in the Tropical Western Atlantic region to be on the lookout for a new non-native fish! Researchers from the University of Veracruz have documented a new non-native species in the southwestern Gulf of Mexico with the potential to spread throughout the region. Sightings of the Regal Demoiselle (Neopomacentrus cyanamos) have recently come from the nearshore reef systems south of Veracruz, Mexico. The species is native to a broad region of the Indo-Pacific and Red Sea.