May 3, 2006
Reef Check California: Report on First Training Event
Photo courtesy of Reef Check California
I am still decompressing, figuratively speaking, from a momentous 3 days of diving with Reef Check California at the Channel Islands April 28-30, 2006. A group of us successfully completed the first ever official Reef Check California surveys (see my earlier entry), after 3 days of rigorous training under the auspices of director Craig Shuman and his crack team of helpers. There is so much I want to say about this organization and what they are attempting, that I hardly know where to start. (But a piece is in the works--promise!) In the meantime, one of the many very good people that participated, Brian Meux, graciously agreed to write a piece for this site. You can also read a lengthier report here on ScubaBoard. ---Dida
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I am a master's student attempting a study on California kelp forest restoration. A large problem I have discovered in trying to do my study is that we Californians are still very unaware of a lot that is going on in our underwater backyard. How are the rockfish doing? The abalone? The kelp forests as a whole? How are we going to get enough data to give us an informed idea of how to interact with one of the most productive marine ecosystems on the planet? How do we know when restoration is necessary? How do we measure the “health” of our kelp forests? Fact is, we don't have enough scientists in the water to cover this massive coastline.
I had to volunteer for Reef Check. It's not like I have a lot of time on my hands, being a graduate student, but at the very least, if I didn't do the classes and field training, I knew I would be missing out on a budding temperate water community-based research diving movement that would mark oceanic-human history. And I was lucky enough to get into the first ever field training experience in California for Reef Check (they are booked into late summer I hear!).
We had a solid weekend of classroom learning trying to absorb the rigorous surveying methods and techniques expected of us as VOLUNTEERS. Right away I knew this was something special when I met all the other volunteers. They ranged from concerned dive instructors, Fish and Game research diver, photographer/journalist, university professors, environmental leaders, and eco-aware divers with vast underwater experience. So many different kinds of people all wanting to do something about the ecological degradation going on under the waves.
We passed our classroom tests and met three weeks later on a dive charter boat to take us to Anacapa and Santa Cruz Islands. Since we were all guinea pigs, there was no cost! We were expected to have our 50 species memorized, and have the methods down. Prior to the boat trip, I heard through the grapevine a constant murmur of "damn, I need to get going on those flashcards!" The trainers, Craig Shuman (Director of Reef Check CA) and Chris Knight (chief of Reef Check CA training), put so much into the planning, and it paid off. Everything went pretty smoothly considering the logistical nightmare it could've been. Three additional volunteer research divers assisted Craig and Chris. They were superb and singular fountains of knowledge themselves. And for the whole 3-day trip there was not one swell that was over a foot!
The dives were, of course, breathtaking. We started our dives trying out the methods and we all stunk pretty bad. It turns out we all have some sort of bias in counting species underwater and it needs to be beaten out of us. Luckily all the trainers were patient and persistent, and by the end of the trip we were good enough to operate as a team. We actually collected the first Reef Check data set ever in California and temperate waters!
We are all very proud, but like true scientists, we will have to be skeptical of our results and make sure our future data reach a high standard of excellence. It will take discipline, but I think every diver on that boat is more than capable of creating high quality data sets. We have a lot to prove. There are now plans underway to begin surveying some of our favorite dive sites in Southern California. Good luck to all who take on this challenge.
---by Brian Meux
Master's Student of Regenerative Studies at Cal Poly Pomona, CA;
Posted by Dida at May 3, 2006 11:44 AM
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Comments
It's great to see all the enthusiasm for taking stock of underwater California! It's an important task, and a labor-intensive one. Dedication makes the difference.
Of course, the Channel Islands, including Anacapa and Santa Cruz, are part of the CI National Marine Sanctuary, monitored by NOAA cooperatively with professional and volunteer involvement. I hope all the parts will fit together.
It's said that the ideal California diver has brains of steel and nerves of custard (or is it the other way round? -- unh, whatever). I'm not sure how much that diver has to be beaten on the head, before reliably counting both the camoflaged sculpin and the elusive kelp clingfish, in a scientifically reproducible way. The trip sounds a little bit like boot camp, followed by -- well, something that might approach actual work.
Posted by: Carl at May 8, 2006 10:45 PM
A couple of very important points were brought up in the last post, coordination and scientific reliability.
One of the primary goals of Reef Check California is to develop a coordinated monitoring network to accurately and precisely monitor the status of key species and attributes of our nearshore rocky reefs. One of the major challenges the State faces now is not necessarily the dearth of information, but the lack of a standardized monitoring protocol, and perhaps more importantly, the lack of a standardized reporting format. We have worked closely with the academic community and government agencies (including the Cal Dept of Fish and Game and the Channel Islands National Park Service) to develop a protocol and training curriculum that provides useful and scientifically reliably information. One of the ways we will achieve this is through our target species list. Rather than try to train divers to accurately and precisely count every organism out there, we have specifically chosen species to minimize the level of inter-observer variability. The primary selection criteria for target species are listed below:
- Ease of identification
Therefore, species like the “camouflaged sculpin” and “elusive kelp fish” were specifically left off the list because they tend to be difficult to precisely sample.
Our database has been designed to match the format used by the Department of Fish and Game for their CRANE sampling program, and we will employ a rigorous Quality Assurance/Quality Control program to ensure the validity of all data collected. Our emphasis on high quality data exemplifies the need for a thorough training program.
While the training is indeed rigorous, we have designed the program to be accessible to experienced recreational divers and all participants appeared to thoroughly enjoy the learning experience. Trainees who successfully complete the course are then able to submit data to our new California database and will receive a Reef Check California Specialty Certification (PADI or NAUI) as well as an accreditation from the Reef Check Foundation.
While the data collection component of our program may not be for everyone, we encourage all divers in California to join our efforts to support sound science-based management of our precious nearshore resources. One easy way to do this is through our 1000 diver campaign, because as our Director of Training, Chris Knight says, “you may not dive with us, but when the time comes, we hope you will stand with us.”
More details of the specific protocol and target species list can be found in the
Reef Check CA protocol.
Posted by: Craig Shuman at May 9, 2006 10:29 AM
