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REEF
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By Joseph K. Gaydos This July the SeaDoc Society is sponsoring an amateur underwater photography contest for the inland marine waters of Washington and British Columbia, an area often called the Salish Sea. The contest will be coupled with the Reef Environmental Education Foundation's (REEF) Great Annual Fish Count and entry is free. Any diver who conducts and submits a REEF survey during the month of July will be eligible to submit one photograph taken during that survey. The number of entries per photographer is only limited by the number of REEF surveys conducted - conduct 10 surveys, submit 10 images. Photo categories will be linked to REEF fish and invertebrate groupings and will include divisions such as best rockfish, best sculpin, best echinoderm, best crustacean, most surveyed species in one photo and best picture of a diver conducting a REEF survey. All entrants will receive a Northwestern Seashore Life pocket field guide as well as a SeaDoc Society sticker. The winner of each category will get a SeaDoc Society hat and aluminum water bottle. If you have never conducted a REEF roving dive survey, don't let that stop you. The REEF Fish an Invertebrate Survey Project enables SCUBA divers to monitor fish and invertebrate presence and abundance while diving recreationally. The more data volunteer SCUBA divers collect, the more valuable the REEF database becomes in its capacity to help monitor trends in the region's marine fish and invertebrate populations. Anybody can sign up and become a REEF member for free at www.reef.org. When conducting a survey, divers swim freely throughout the dive site and record every observed and identifiable fish species and a suite of select invertebrate species. The only rule is to just report those species that you are 100% sure of on their identification. After the survey, divers enter the name and number of species sighted directly into the REEF on-line database. In addition to the species seen, divers also enter data on survey site location (most common dive spots have already been entered), bottom time, dive depth, water temperature, and habitat type surveyed. You will join the hundreds of other regional divers who contribute to this important marine life database. Divers are encouraged to conduct REEF surveys year round, not just during the Fish Count event. To date, over 6,500 surveys have been conducted in the Pacific Northwest. This is a great opportunity to promote the REEF Great Annual Fish Count and for amateur underwater photographers to have their work used to support marine conservation. While the creatures we love to watch underwater are facing unprecedented obstacles to their long-term survival, most citizens from Washington and British Columbia have no idea what cool creatures live under the water. Divers will be credited with the images, which the SeaDoc Society will use to inspire non-divers in the region to care about the health of the Puget Sound Georgia Basin and to educate them about the importance of marine conservation. The SeaDoc Society is a science-based marine wildlife and ecosystem health program of the UC Davis Wildlife Health Center. Since 2000, the SeaDoc Society has had a regional focus on the Puget Sound Georgia Basin where it uses private donations and grants to fund and conduct critical research. The results of this research help inform better management of marine fish and wildlife and their ecosystem. Projects have ranged from abalone and bottomfish recovery to killer whale and marine bird recovery. The SeaDoc Society firmly believes in the power of SCUBA divers to help monitor marine fish and invertebrates and with the help of Janna Nichols of Pacific Northwest SCUBA has taught fish and invertebrate identification classes to hundreds of local divers. For more information about the SeaDoc Society or the July underwater photo contest, please see www.seadocsociety.org . Joseph K.
Gaydos is a wildlife veterinarian, SCUBA diver and Regional Director of
the SeaDoc Society. He lives and dives in the San Juan Islands and is
passionate about marine conservation. |
