REEF members are at the heart of our grassroots marine conservation programs. More than 65,000 divers, snorkelers, students, and armchair naturalists stand behind our mission.
Last month, REEF’s Explorers Education Program had the pleasure of working with two collegiate groups in Key Largo, Florida. Each group of students spent one fun-filled week working alongside REEF staff and interns to learn about TWA (Tropical Western Atlantic) fish identification and the REEF survey method. The first group was nine students from Georgia State University, accompanied by their professor, Dr. Amy Reber. This weeklong education program has become an annual component of Georgia State's marine ecology course.
Twenty-five years ago, REEF began collecting data on the abundance of marine fish populations, and since then the Volunteer Fish Survey Project has grown to be the world's largest marine life sightings database, made up of more than 200,000 surveys conducted by over 15,000 volunteer divers and snorkelers worldwide. To celebrate 25 years of citizen science, REEF is hosting a 25th anniversary Field Survey this summer in Key Largo, Florida, where the very first REEF Trip was held in 1993.