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 June 8, 2009 6:32 PM
