The 15th annual REEF Florida Keys Lionfish Derby & Festival is quickly approaching! The event features two full days of lionfish hunting, plus a fun lionfish awareness night and an awards ceremony at the REEF Campus. You can check out all the details at www.REEF.org/derby. The weekend kicks off with a Captain's Meeting to discuss safe collecting and handling procedures and derby rules on Thursday, August 15. If you haven't yet signed up and want to participate in the derby, you can register a team of 2-4 people until 6:30pm on August 15.
It's back to school time, and our August Fish of the Month is the Schoolmaster, Lutjanus apodus!
Survey Regions: Schoolmasters are common throughout REEF's Tropical Western Atlantic (TWA) survey region, and can also be found as far north as Massachusetts and as far south as Brazil. Click here to see a distribution report for this species in the TWA region.
We recently said a fond farewell to Madalyn “Moose” Mussey, who served as REEF Education Manager for the Ocean Explorers Program for the past five years. Moose started at REEF as a Marine Conservation Intern during the Spring 2019 semester. Following this, she served as Lead Intern for the Invasive Species Program, and joined the staff in November 2019.
REEF Into the Blue Book Club will discuss our latest book selection, The Extreme Life of the Sea, by Anthony R. Palumbi and Stephen Palumbi
All are invited to join in this meeting, whether you have read the book or not. For more details about Into the Blue Book Club, visit www.REEF.org/bookclub.
This meeting will be led by Hilary Penner, REEF Education and Conservation Programs Manager, and Carolyn Corley, REEF Education Coordinator.
There are just a couple spots left on our upcoming REEF Trip to the Maldives, coming up on January 12-22, 2025. Maldives liveaboard diving is a must-do for every avid scuba diver! This trip will follow a southern itinerary including South Ari, South Male, Vaavu, and Meemu atolls, perfect for fish enthusiasts. Made up of nearly 1,200 islands, the inner and outer reefs of the atoll are a haven for wildlife like Whale Sharks, mantas, and more!
We're gearing up to host the 15th annual REEF Florida Keys Lionfish Derby & Festival on August 15-18! A Lionfish Derby is a competition where teams of divers and snorkelers compete to collect as many invasive lionfish as possible. REEF Lionfish Derbies educate the public about invasive species, gather important scientific information on lionfish populations, and help to develop a consumer market for invasive lionfish.
Join REEF at the Public Library as we dive into what conservation genetics is and how it can help us combat difficult ecological problems like invasive species! After a brief presentation, participants are welcome to take part in extracting DNA from a strawberry and see how we can use DNA to find out what invasive lionfish are eating.
Presented by Annika Olson, REEF Marine Conservation Intern
Tropical regions are, in general, more diverse than ecosystems at higher temperate latitudes. A commonly held hypothesis is that the diverse predators in tropical regions cause predation to have a relatively stronger role in shaping communities. Data from the REEF Volunteer Fish Survey Project (VFSP) were used by Michele Repetto and colleagues from the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute to test for underlying differences in regional fish diversity that could contribute to variation in predation intensity and impact.
Biogeographic and Seasonal Differences in Consumer Pressure Underlie Strong Predation in the Tropics
Tropical regions are, in general, more diverse than ecosystems at higher temperate latitudes. A commonly held hypothesis is that the diverse predators in tropical regions cause predation to have a relatively stronger role in shaping communities. Data from the REEF Volunteer Fish Survey Project (VFSP) were used by Michele Repetto and colleagues from the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute to test for underlying differences in regional fish diversity that could contribute to variation in predation intensity and impact.