Volunteer Divers Invited to Participate in Great American Fish Count
Throughout the month of July, divers and snorkelers will dive into our oceans to survey fish for the Great Annual Fish Count. Reef Environmental Education Foundation (REEF) coordinates the Great Annual Fish Count along with the support from NOAA’s National Marine Sanctuaries Program.

The GAFC began in 1992 when a small group of recreational divers and marine biologists conducted a visual fish count in the Channel Islands National Park. The effort was modeled after the Audubon’s Christmas Bird Count and has grown into an international event.

The GAFC serves to introduce and inspire recreational divers and snorkelers to participate in year round volunteer fish monitoring programs, raise awareness among both the diving community and the public at large regarding marine environments and trends in fish populations, and provide researchers, marine resource managers and policy makers with valuable information when making decisions regarding our marine resources. The GAFC also helps promote fish surveys within the nations National Marine Sanctuaries and to educate divers and snorkelers on the value the resources within each sanctuary site.

Throughout all the US, Caribbean, Gulf of California, and Canada, divers and snorkelers are invited to attend free fish ID seminars during May, June and July to learn how to identify local fishes and conduct surveys. After training, divers and snorkelers will conduct fish surveys during the month of July as part of the Great Annual Fish Count event. Fish are surveyed using the roving diver technique. The goal is to find as many fish species as possible so divers are encouraged to look under ledges, and up in the water column. Any sea turtle species seen during your dive are also recorded. The fish counts are done by assigning each recorded species an abundance category based on about how many were seen throughout the dive [single (1); few (2-10), many (11-100), and abundant (>100)]. All that is necessary is an underwater slate, computer survey scan forms and a comprehensive fish identification book. Volunteers are encouraged to attend one of REEF’s free fish ID seminars and to participate in a survey dive. A complete schedule of seminars and dive events are posted on the GAFC web site at www.fishcount.org.

Fish survey kits, which include an underwater slate, underwater paper, fish ID card, computer scan forms, REEF BC tag, GAFC sticker and survey instructions will be available along with the official GAFC-T-Shirt. All survey participants will be entered into a drawing to win a grand prize and regional prizes. The grand prize is a weeklong dive/accommodation package at Hawk’s Nest Resort in Cat Island, Bahamas.

To register for a seminar or dive, register online at www.fishcount.org, e-mail GAFC@reef.org, or call Alex Score, GAFC Coordinator at 305-852-0030.

L.A. Passes Strictest Water Quality Laws; Nation May Follow
Los Angeles recently passed the nation’s strictest regulation limiting bacterial contamination at area beaches. For decades, L.A. has been the nation’s testing ground for water pollution laws. That’s why environmentalists and city officials across the U.S. are keeping an eye on L.A. — to learn what the ramifications of the new law are, and to see if it will be picked up in other cities and states.

The law goes far beyond the current California Health Department requirements to inform the public about beach water quality problems, which includes posting warning signs at polluted beaches. The regulation, called a “Pathogen Total Maximum Daily Load,” stipulates that more action has to be taken. The regulation calls for cities to identify and stop sources of beach pollution by 2005 or face serious fines and other types of enforcement. Putting up a “beach closed” sign will no longer suffice.

“This type of pollution limit is the first of its kind in the nation,” said Dr. Mark Gold, executive director of Heal the Bay, a Santa Monica, California, based environmental organization that helped fight for the tougher legislation. “It will greatly help reduce the amount of bacteria and viruses that can cause skin rashes, respiratory infections and gastrointestinal illness for Los Angeles-area beachgoers. We are only three years away from a summer when all of the Santa Monica Bay beaches will be safe for swimming and surfing during dry weather!”

Gold added that this was the first of a two-part battle.

“While this pollution limit is vitally important for protecting beachgoers’ health in the dry, summer months, this is only the beginning. The wet-weather limits, which will be voted on in the next couple of months, will be even more far reaching.”

According to Gold, most pollution violations occur in the winter, when heavy rains overload storm drain and sewage systems. “It will be much more difficult to convince the cities that we can, and should, stop bacterial pollution not just in the summer, but throughout the whole year.”

Heal the Bay, founded in 1985, is dedicated to making Santa Monica Bay and Southern California coastal waters safe and healthy again for people and marine life.

LAUPS Rogest Art Auction to Benefit Marine Mammal Care Center
Artist Ron Steven and the Los Angeles Underwater Photographic Society (LAUPS) are proud to present an original Rogest painting for auction. The proceeds from the auction will be donated to the Marine Mammal Care Center at Fort MacArthur in San Pedro, California. The primary work of this nonprofit organization is the treatment and return to the wild of rescued, sick and injured California Sea Lions, Northern Elephant Seals, Northern Fur Seals and Harbor Seals.

Bidding is currently underway at http://www.laups.org. The auction will close at 12 noon (PST) Sunday, June 30, the last day of SCUBA Show 2002. The SCUBA Show is held at the Long Beach Convention Center in Long Beach, California, June 29 and 30. During the show, the painting will be on display at the LAUPS booth. The winner will be announced at the show and on the Web site.

This original Rogest painting is 18" x 24", acrylic on canvas. The painting depicts a male Cardinal Fish safeguarding eggs in his mouth. The image was chosen as the Best of Show in the 39th Annual LAUPS International Photographic Competition. The photo contest is one of the oldest and largest of its kind, focusing on underwater and aquatic related images. This year’s contest received 943 images from 15 countries, with results announced in December.

Since its formation in 1992, the Marine Mammal Care Center at Fort MacArthur has functioned as a hospital for sick, stranded and injured marine mammals. In addition, through the Center for Marine Studies, the Care Center helps to educate students, schoolteachers, other professionals and the public about the marine sciences and the marine mammals. The Care Center, with only two full-time staff members, is staffed primarily by volunteers. The organization collaborates and networks with other agencies, museums and universities toward ongoing research in the marine field to help in the treatment of their patients. More information about the organization can be found at http://www.mar3ine.org/mmcc.

Artist Ron Steven, better known as Rogest, is a leading painter of aquatic related images. He has been influenced by the Australian Aboriginal style of dot painting and utilizes seawater (salt) and sand from the dive sites for texture, making the paintings truly a part of the dive. His paintings are done on stretched canvas with acrylic paints. More information on the artist can be found at http://www.rogest.com.

First Underwater Resource Program Established
Indiana University has established the first underwater resource management certificate program in the nation. The program emphasizes research, education and interpretation of underwater resources.

Charles Beeker, director of the underwater science program in the School of Health, Physical Education and Recreation (HPER), will administer the 24-credit program that started this fall for both undergraduate and graduate students.

“The emphasis will be on park development, management and sustainable use of significant submerged cultural and biological resources,” said Beeker, an avid scuba diver who has pursued underwater research exploration for 25 years.

The program is expected to interest students in such academic fields as archaeology, biology, geology, museum studies, recreation and park administration. All students interested in the certificate program must first complete a scientific diver certification course that focuses on dive physics, physiology, safety, scientific documentation techniques and underwater research.

Beeker said a major component of the new curriculum is completion of at least one underwater science field research project. “Underwater research projects provide students with a wide variety of diving experiences augmented by research and publication opportunities,” explained Beeker.

Courses offered as part of the certificate curriculum will include underwater science documentation, shipwreck parks as underwater museums, research in underwater sciences, natural history, ecosystem management, fresh-water limnology, coral reef ecology, and environment and people.

Beeker added that the certificate program is not a scuba degree and is not aimed at developing professional dive instructors. “Our goal is to provide students with an opportunity to use their knowledge and skills in meaningful underwater research projects,” he said. “We want students to recognize the historical and geological importance of underwater resources, understand the complexities of an underwater archaeological site, and be aware of the legal, social and environmental implications of resource protection.”

For more details on the underwater certificate program call 812-855-5748, email cbeeker@indiana.edu or visit http://www.indiana.edu.

Exotic Species Sighting Program
An exotic species are species that are not native to an area but have been brought in through human activities. There are several pathways that species find their way into a strange area, but captive releases from home aquaria and hitchhikers (either larvae or adults) on ships from other oceans are the two primary vectors in marine systems. 

The threat of exotic species to aquatic environments has gained attention in the media through cases such as the zebra mussel and lamprey in the Great Lakes and Caulerpa taxifolia algae (a.k.a. the killer algae) in California.  Incidences of exotic marine fish species have not been widely reported until recently.

REEF (Reef Environmental Education Foundation) reported recently on sightings of the Indo-Pacific Batfish in the Florida Keys and ultimately removed as a result of a team effort between REEF, the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary, the New England Aquarium, and local marine life collectors. And now, several news agencies are picking up sightings of lionfish off the Eastern U.S. coast and these populations are reportedly growing.

Recreational divers and snorkelers a valuable source of information for tracking exotic fish species because they are looking, taking notice of rare things and often know what doesn’t belong. REEF is hoping to take a more active role in exotic species and act as a clearinghouse of information.  To this end, we are asking our surveying members to report all exotic fish species that they encounter. Sightings data will then be used to track exotic species introductions, document populations that appear to be spreading, and serve as an early warning system to hopefully prevent harmful impacts to the native ecosystem.

If you are conducting a REEF survey and encounter an exotic species, please report the species as a write-in species on the back of the scansheet. Whenever possible, please include an extra sheet of paper with extended details about habitat the fish was in, behaviors noted, other species it was hanging out with, and approximate size.  Also indicate if you have photo/video of the fish. If you see an exotic fish species when you are not surveying, please use our online sightings form to submit your information.

Please contact exoticspecies@reef.org for more information about REEF’s Exotic Species Sighting Program. For more information on REEF, visit their web site at http://www.reef.org.