June 19, 2009
Possible Closure of Point Lobos, CA State Park
S. Point Lobos by D. Kutz
This is a topic I feel passionately about, both because I'm on the board of the Point Lobos Association, and because I've been diving at Point Lobos since 1993. It is arguably one of the best places to dive in California (if not the world?), and the site of much marine research (it was the US's first underwater reserve). This may end soon if the state of California closes down 220 state parks. Because of this seriousness of this problem, I have decided to depart from what I generally post here, and pubish a letter written by Point Lobos Association President Judd Perry to our members.
If you'd like to become a member and help us preserve Point Lobos, please join by clicking here. -- Dida Kutz
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Dear PLA Member:
I am taking this unusual step of contacting you by email because the fate of the California State Park System hangs in the balance. The Joint Budget Committee of the legislature has determined that, to help close the budget deficit, 220 State Parks will be closed after Labor Day, 2009. However, the Committee is proposing an alternative which, if adopted by both houses of the legislature and signed by the Governor, would save all of these parks from closure. It is called the State Parks Access Pass (SPAP) which, if adopted, would give every automobile licensed in the State of California FREE ACCESS to all of our State Parks on an unlimited basis. The cost of the SPAP would be $15 annually, per car.
Passage of the SPAP is now the only alternative left to the legislature, other than closing 80% of all State Parks. In Monterey County, only one park – Asilomar State Beach – would remain open.
The decision to close the State Parks System makes no sense on any level: economic, operational or political. While we are all aware of the terrible economic condition in which the State of California finds itself, closing virtually the entire State Parks System would save only about 0.01% of the total State budget. Furthermore, a California State University, Sacramento study shows that State Park visitors contribute about $4.2 billion to the California economy, most of which would be lost if there is a closure of the State Parks System.
Operationally, thousands of trained Park Rangers and other personnel will be laid off. If the closure were to last for even a year, many of these people will no longer be available when the parks reopen. That means a massive recruitment and training effort to populate the parks with personnel. In addition, the thousands of volunteers who now contribute hundreds of thousands of hours to the Parks will have largely vanished, as these volunteers go on to other interests.
Lastly, once closed, and without the presence of Park Rangers, the natural and cultural resources of our parks will be at dire risk, subject to being vandalized and destroyed by people who will surely use and abuse them, if left unsupervised. The risk of a major forest fire from unregulated use will increase dramatically, as will the loss of life on beaches without lifeguards, and the cost of only one major fire would dwarf the amount sought to be saved by the closings. Furthermore, once closed, the trails and other facilities left untended will deteriorate very rapidly, making it much more expensive (and perhaps impossible) to re-open a park.
Point Lobos Reserve and all of the other State Parks, Beaches and Reserves belong to the public, and it is up to the public to stop this political insanity. Time is very short for you to make our voice heard. Supporting the SPAP is our last hope for saving the State Park System from the worst catastrophe it has ever faced.
Please contact your local State Assembly Representative, State Senator and Governor Schwartzenegger to demand that the SPAP legislation be passed, allowing all of our State Parks, Beaches and Reserves to remain open and fully functioning. The most effective communication is a phone call, postal mail or FAX, but email is better than no contact at all. You can determine your local legislators by going here and typing in your ZIP code. Contact information for the Governor’s office can be found here . Contact information is also available in the front portion of your telephone book. To make your voice heard by email, go to Cal Parks Foundation and click the “Take Action” button.
Thank you. I hope to see you at Point Lobos Reserve for many years to come.
George Perry
President, Point Lobos Association
Posted by Dida at 12:53 PM
PRESS RELEASE: Citizen Scientists Converge in Monterey (CA) to Document Ocean Populations
6/21/09 NOTE: these dives were canceled due to very bad conditions. --Dida
RELEASE DATE
06/17/2009 CONTACT
Christy Semmens PhD, REEF Director of Science, (206) 910-4822, Cyndi Dawson, Reef Check California Director of Science, (831) 331-5189 John Wolfe, REEF Advanced Assessment Team, (510) 812-9313,
On Saturday morning, June 20, SCUBA divers will converge on Coral Street Cove, a popular dive site in Pacific Grove, to collect marine life population information on the nearshore rocky reefs. The surveys are part of two citizen science programs that train volunteer recreational SCUBA divers and snorkelers to conduct field surveys - REEF (Reef Environmental Education Foundation, www.reef.org) and Reef Check (www.reefcheck.org). The survey methods of both organizations differ in complexity and training required to conduct surveys. Both groups produce important information that helps better understand and monitor California’s coastal ecosystems and increases awareness about the value of healthy ocean ecosystems.
Reef Check divers, led by Cyndi Dawson, Director of Science, will meet at 8:00am. Diving along thirty meter transect lines, divers previously certified by Reef Check’s California program (RCCA), will count the number of 73 “indicator species” of fishes, invertebrates, and seaweeds; record sizes of economically or ecologically important species such as urchin and abalone; as well as characterizing the sea floor habitat. The Coral Street survey is part of RCCA’s partnership with state agencies and academic institutions to monitor 65 reefs located from Eureka to San Diego. Upcoming training opportunities for divers to join RCCA’s efforts are posted on the Reef Check website.
The REEF program at Coral Street, which will be led by John Wolfe, REEF Advanced Assessment Team volunteer, will begin at 9:30am. Experienced REEF surveyors will be paired with divers new to fish and invertebrate identification and REEF survey methods. Two dives focusing on learning fish identification will be conducted. In the afternoon, following the dives, Gil Falcone, Senior Dive Safety Officer for the Monterey Bay Aquarium, and John, will present a seminar on underwater identification of local marine fish species at the Monterey Bay Aquarium. All interested divers are welcome to participate in both the dives and the free afternoon workshop. The day’s activities are kick-off events for REEF’s Great Annual Fish Count (GAFC, www.fishcount.org), held every July and modeled after the Audubon Society’s annual bird counts. Additional REEF fish and invertebrate identification seminars and dives, organized as part of the GAFC, have been scheduled in California in June and July and are posted online.
Reef Check and REEF play a critical role around the world building educated communities engaged in monitoring their local marine resources. These citizen science organizations not only build long-term databases of marine life, but also deepen divers’ knowledge and appreciation of the underwater world they explore. Both groups post their data online (http://ned.reefcheck.org/map.php and http://www.reef.org/db/reports) and make the datasets available to researchers, government agencies, and all other interested parties.
RCCA has trained over 300 citizen scientists in California since 2006, and monitors 65 rocky reefs from Eureka to San Diego. Reef Check has completed 6,440 surveys at 3,201 sites around the world since 1997. Over 1,300 REEF volunteers have conducted 15,200 surveys at 1,139 sites from British Columbia (Canada) though California; 6,000 of those surveys have been conducted in California. The world-wide REEF Volunteer Survey program has generated over 128,000 surveys.
Posted by Dida at 10:54 AM
June 8, 2009
REEF Survey Report Carmel/Montery 2009
Michael Bear, REEF Volunteer Surveyor, San Diego, California. Publisher of Rapture of the Deep.
Masking Crab Offers Up a "Twofer":
the masking crab and the stalked tunicates
living on its carapace allow the surveyor
to report 2 species. Photo by D. Kutz
On Saturday, May 30, 2009, a team of 18 REEF volunteer divers completed a nearly week-long series of marine life surveys covering 9 dive locations up and down the coast of Monterey and Carmel, under the supervision of REEF Director of Science, Dr. Christy Pattengill-Semmens and Dr. Steve Lonhart, Senior Scientist, Sanctuary Integrated Monitoring Network (SIMoN) at the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary.
The pace was sometimes grueling: 2 dives a day for 5 days in a row, with the 3 dives on the 3rd day, but the rewards were well worth the effort: with over 55 separate species of fish and invertebrates identified and counted, including some fish species rarely found in these areas, including bococcio, stripefin ronquils and rainbow surfperch, to name just a few.
Spaces on the boat Cypress Sea were paid for by a science grant to REEF, and the volunteers worked with energy and enthusiasm in making the 2 dives per day up and down the coast of Monterey and Carmel, including sites such as: “Mono/Lobo” (Monastery Beach/North Pt Lobos Wall), Lobos Rocks, Malpaso Creek South, Outer and Inner Pinnacles, the “Butterfly House,” and Dali's Wall (Stillwater Cove).
Red abalone and coon stripe shrimp
at Dali's Wall, Stillwater Cove.
Photo by D. Kutz
Each dive team used a technique known in REEF as the “Roving Diver” method, in which each team surveys an area within a roughly 300 ft radius of the entry point, in this case a dive boat, and notes the presence of various species of fish and/or invertebrate on their REEF data sheet.
For fish and individually identifiable invertebrates, such as sea urchins or abalone, the animals are counted as: 1 (Single], 2-10 (Few), many (11-100), and abundant (>100).
Some species of sponges are not readily “countable” as individuals and are therefore listed as 'Present' on the REEF data sheets.
At the end of each day, the volunteers attended an “After Action Report” meeting, in which problems or issues with species identification and/or the data collected were “hashed out” with the resident marine life experts, Dr. Pattengill-Semmens and Dr. Steve Lonhart, and later, the volunteers entered their data online in the REEF.org online database set up for this purpose.
Speaking personally, the experience was both fun and rewarding and served to reinforce already acquired knowledge of Pacific Coast marine life fish and invertebrates, as well as provided the opportunity to contribute to an on-going scientific database being maintained by REEF.org.
For more information on how REEF.org utilizes and trains volunteer “citizen scientists,” please click here.
Posted by Dida at 6:32 PM
May 27, 2009
*NATIONAL PARKS MANAGER* Saba Conservation Foundation
Great job opportunity on the small but beautiful island of Saba, in the northeastern Caribbean.
Please contact Saba Conservation Foundation directly via address provided below. Do NOT contact me (Dida Kutz).
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*NATIONAL PARKS MANAGER*
The Saba Conservation Foundation (SCF), a nonprofit nature management organization based in Saba, Netherlands Antilles is seeking a National Parks Manager to manage the Saba National Marine Park plus a land park.
The SCF has five full time staff to support field, operational and administrative aspects of the organization. The incumbent will be responsible for the overall management of the organization, staff and its functions.
*DESCRIPTION*
*Organization Management*
- Institutional Development: Responsible for overall integrity of the organization: Preparation of budgets, action plans, and work programs; manages and supervises staff and volunteers, financial management and reporting, compliance and development of SCF Manual Procedures,
Implementation of Strategic Planning, compliance and development of nature legislation and national park management plans.
- Fundraising, Grant writing, Income Generation: Responsible for all fundraising and grant writing from established sources, manage donor relations, strengthen income generating capacity to collect user fees, promote souvenir sales and develop new income generating g opportunities.
*Supervision and Compliance*
- Operational management: Oversees all aspects of pa ark operational activities including maintenance of SCF assets (boat, truck, moorings, machine, compressors, scuba gear, decompression chamber etc) staff and budgetary m management.
- Legislation: Monitoring, Compliance and Inputting Responsible to ensure compliance with h existing nature legislation reports on violations and proposes new rules/legislation.
- Marketing and Public Relations: Responsible for managing stakeholder relations (especially island government and local NGOs) promoting the organization and its objectives, maintaining website and all public information, providing and developing, user Information for national parks.
- Education and Awareness: Supervises education and awareness program to stimulate public awareness and education campaigns on major environmental issues, in particular issues related to protected areas and species.
- Project Design a and Execution: Supervises the design and execution of all projects in accordance with Project Management procedures. Reports to the Board on project progress.
- Hyperbaric Chamber: Serves as technical and safety director of the Saba Hyperbaric Facility (SHF) and is responsible for compliance with DAN safety standards, supervision of facility maintenance and staff/volunteer training. Training provided.
*Technical Management*
- Monitoring, Data Collection and Analysis (quality control): Oversees monitoring programs in accordance with monitoring procedures and protocols, supervises collection of relevant data on status and use of indicated habitats within Park boundaries. Interprets data to support proposals for policy interventions or amendments, increase public awareness, use in public reports, etc.
- Database: Maintains a database for Parks management on key indicators.
- Research: Responsible for prioritizing research needs In accordance with partners, arrange resourcing for research, determine relevance of research requests for organization, assess logistical requirements, prepare research frameworks (MoU or TOR) and inform all stakeholders,
supervision of researchers/ consultants, ensure all regulations are compiled with and permission granted by authorities as relevant.
*Reporting*
- Reports to the Board on all issues pertaining to SCF management and stakeholder relations. Responsible for all reporting obligations to donors and stakeholders.
- Represents the SCF on the Dutch Caribbean Nature Alliance Board (DCNA)
and at regional conferences, meetings and forums.
*QUALIFICATIONS*
- Seven + years of organizational management experience preferably with nature management, national park or related organization.
- Masters degree in marine biology, coastal management, natural sciences or related environmental sciences.
- Advanced diving experience. Some commercial diving experience an advantage.
- Technical skills in boat handling, navigation and marine protocols.
- Strong understanding of project management methodologies, tools and best practices.
- Strong Communication skills (written and oral), fluency In English. Dutch an advantage.
- Advanced knowledge of management, organization or operational procedures
- Experience with use of decompression chamber an advantage Training provided.
- Experience working in small island states also an advantage.
Please send resume and cover letter to:
Johanna vant Hof (Chairperson),
Saba Conservation Foundation,
PO Box 18, The Bottom, Saba,
Netherlands Antilles.
Or e-mail
Closing date: June 30th 2009.
Only short listed candidates will be contacted.
Please review website . See here.
--
Paul C. Hoetjes
Senior Policy Advisor
Department of Environment & Nature (MINA)
Ministry of Public Health & Social Development (VSO)
Schouwburgweg 26 (APNA building)
Cura?ao
Netherlands Antilles
tel. +(599-9)466-9307; fax: +(599-9)461-0254
e-mail
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Posted by Dida at 9:11 AM
May 11, 2009
Internship CIEE Research Station Bonaire -TropicalMarine Ecology
please do not contact me about this internship-Dida
part-time temporary position
Job location: Bonaire
job site
Job Title: Tropical Marine Ecology Internship Fall 2009
Organization: CIEE Research Station Bonaire
Location: Bonaire, Netherlands Antilles
Internship dates: 22 Aug - 19 Dec, 2009
Application deadline: 15 June 2009
Description: The CIEE Tropical Marine Ecology and Conservation Program in Bonaire is a study abroad program for undergraduate students. The Tropical Marine Ecology Intern at the CIEE Research Station Bonaire will assist in program delivery, academics, research, group dynamics, logistics, dive safety, student transportation, and site security. Duties include assisting with: preparations for classes and labs as instructed by faculty, SCUBA diving in support of 3 CIEE courses, long-term research data collection on coral reefs, undergraduate student education and research projects, and record keeping for the dive safety program. This is an intensive program of study lasting 15 weeks with students.
Minimum Qualifications: BA/BS in Biology with an emphasis in Marine Biology/Ecology or Biological Oceanography (MS preferred); current certifications in First Aid, CPR, DAN Oxygen Rescue, and Advanced Open Water; scientific diving experience (minimum of 50 dives logged) and a comprehensive dive physical required; drivers license; ability to work as a team member, a commitment to education and research in marine ecology and conservation; a willingness to work flexible hours and live on site at the research station with a group of up to 12 undergraduate students.
Compensation: A small stipend (commensurate with experience), round trip airfare, lodging (private room with bath) will be provided to the successful applicant.
To apply: Send cover letter, CV with 3 references, and one letter of recommendation from a major faculty member from your degree granting institution to r peachey. For more information about the semester program go to www.cieebonaire.org.
Posted by Dida at 12:31 PM
April 22, 2009
Florida International University: Coral Reef Ecology Technician beginning June 1
please do not contact me about this position-Dida
Hiring a technician to work on coral reef ecology in Key Largo, FL in the Florida Keys for this coming summer. We will be studying the movement and feeding ecology of herbivorous fishes on coral reefs. Duties will include, but are not limited to: herbivorous fish surveys, algal/coral
surveys, herbivore behavioral observations, sample sorting, data entry. Almost all field work will be conducted on SCUBA. Typical field days would consist of 7-8 hours on the water with 3-4 dives per day.Qualifications: Bachelor’s in Biology/Marine Biology (or upper division undergraduate) or related field, SCUBA certification (NITROX certification preferred), experience with coral reef ecology/fish ecology preferred. A valid driver’s license is required. Boating experience and current SCUBA certification with AAUS (American Academy of Underwater Sciences) is a plus. Successful applicant needs to be hardworking and willing to potentially work weekends. This position will come with the possibility of extending until Dec 31, 2009. Pay rate will be ~$400 per week. Housing will be provided. This would be an ideal job for a recent college graduate looking for research experience before continuing on with graduate school. Please apply by sending cover letter, CV/resume including academic background, work experience, overall GPA and major, an unofficial transcript, and contact information for 3 references to: Deron Burkepile, Florida International University, Marine Biology, 3000 NE 151st
St, North Miami, FL 33181 Email Electronic applications are greatly preferred. Position is open until filled with an application
deadline of May 1, 2009.
Posted by Dida at 10:39 AM
April 15, 2009
Tropical Marine Ecology Internship Fall 2009
Please do not contact me about this opportunity-Dida
Dear Coral-List:
I would like to share the following announcement for an internship with you:
Job Title: Tropical Marine Ecology Internship Fall 2009
Organization: CIEE Research Station Bonaire
Location: Bonaire, Netherlands Antilles
Website
Description: The CIEE Tropical Marine Ecology and Conservation Program in Bonaire is a study abroad program for undergraduate students. The Tropical Marine Ecology Intern at the CIEE Research Station Bonaire will assist in program delivery, academics, research, group dynamics, logistics, dive safety, student transportation, and site security. Duties include assisting with: preparations for classes and labs as instructed by faculty, SCUBA diving in support of 3 CIEE courses, long-term research data collection on coral reefs, undergraduate student education and research projects, and record keeping for the dive safety program. This is an intensive program of study lasting 15 weeks with students.
Minimum Qualifications: BA/BS in Biology with an emphasis in Marine Biology/Ecology or Biological Oceanography (MS preferred); current certifications in First Aid, CPR, DAN Oxygen Rescue, and Advanced Open Water; scientific diving experience (minimum of 50 dives logged) and a comprehensive dive physical required; drivers license; ability to work as a team member, a commitment to education and research in marine ecology and conservation; a willingness to work flexible hours and live on site at the research station with a group of up to 12 undergraduate students.
Compensation: A small stipend (commensurate with experience), round trip
airfare, and lodging (private room with bath) will be provided to the successful applicant.
Internship dates: 22 Aug -- 19 Dec, 2009
To apply: Send cover letter, CV with 3 references, and one letter of ecommendation from a major faculty member from your degree granting institution to rpeachey @ ciee.org. For more information about the semester program go here.Application deadline: 15 June 2009
Thank you,
Rita Peachey
Posted by Dida at 9:09 AM
