On Friday, November 30, REEF welcomed more than 100 local members and new friends to REEF HQ in Key Largo, Florida for the first annual Holiday Open House. The event was intended to raise awareness about REEF in the community and educate REEF neighbors about critical conservation projects going on in the Florida Keys. The first in a series of signed, limited edition Paul Humann prints was raffled off, authors and photographers Ned and Anna DeLoach signed books and everyone enjoyed celebrating the season with friends and fellow fish watchers.
Happy holiday week! I hope you are looking forward to Thanksgiving and the upcoming holiday season.
REEF is pleased to bring you our monthly update on the many projects that continue to actively engage you, our valuable members, in marine conservation. Before we get there, though, I want to ask for your help in meeting an ambitious but critical goal to keep these projects going: please help REEF raise $100,000 by the end of the year. Please click here to make a secure, tax-deductible donation today.
If you plan to be in the Keys at the end of the month, please join us!
What: REEF Holiday Open House
When: Friday, November 30 at 5 PM
Who: Friends, family, members of REEF
Where: REEF HQ: 98300 Overseas Highway, Key Largo, FL (yellow conch house on the median)
Why: Educate the community about REEF conservation programs
REEF will be making changes to the REEF Store over the next few months in an effort to streamline order processing and provide REEF members with the highest quality merchandise. We will keep you posted as these changes occur. A few highlights:
1. The apparel section of the store is temporarily unavailable. Please look for unique REEF apparel in January.
REEF Executive Director, Leda Cunningham, is featured in the latest edition of Sanctuary Watch, the quarterly publication of the National Marine Sanctuaries Program. Read about how REEF volunteers actively contribute to preserving the natural heritage of these national treasures.
KEY LARGO, Fla. – The Reef Environmental Education Foundation has adapted its popular classroom course into a home study DVD package aimed at beginning “fishwatchers.” Reef Fish Identification – A Beginning Course teaches the basics of “fishwatching,” including identification of 50 commonly sighted species found in the tropical western Atlantic. A waterproof fish identification booklet, underwater survey slate and REEF survey materials are included. The DVD course is available online at www.REEF.org and at dive retailers and resorts.
KEY LARGO, Fla.–Six expert surveyors from REEF completed final fish biodiversity surveys as part of a 9-day mission by NOAA’s National Marine Sanctuaries Program (NMSP) to the world’s only undersea laboratory, the Aquarius Reef Base.