James_Boyle

Hello everybody, Today is the final day of the internship. The last three months have been an incredible learning experience for me both professionally and personally. Alex, my co-lead intern, and I, finished the experiment from my last update. Interestingly, the corals showed no significant difference in survivorship for how long they spent out of the water, which has led us to discover two new experiments for the organization to try in the future. While the results have created more questions than answers, the experiment has provided valuable information to CRF as they try to move forward and has given me a sense of significant contribution to the foundation. The other interns also conducted research projects over the last month, as I mentioned previously, and they presented their findings to the staff last week. One group studied new outreach methods, another studied how to improve our citizen science monitoring program and make it more accessible, and the last analyzed our early monitoring data and compared statistical tests that could be used on it to gather information. These were the culminations of the pioneering work for the redefined intern projects. Starting with the coming fall round of interns, these projects will begin in the second week of the internship to provide them maximum time to delve into the topics they choose. As we move forward and are constantly trying to offer an even more educational and beneficial internship, these projects will become an ever larger portion of the internship, and this group did a great job paving the way for future interns. For me, the next step is to return to Bonaire this fall as I have been offered a divemaster position at Buddy Dive Resort, which is a close affiliate with the Coral Restoration Foundation Bonaire. While working with that shop, I will be able to contribute a significant amount of time to CRFB and hope to take the principles I have learned here down there and continue to conduct experiments that will educate the organization about its methods. All of us here at the Coral Restoration Foundation are extremely appreciative of your donation and efforts to provide this experience for interns. I hope that you have enjoyed reading about it from the inside and that you continue to keep up with the events here at CRF. Thank you, James Boyle

Hey everybody, I know it has been a long time since my last update but we have been very busy here! First, I will give a little recap of the highlights from our July events, and then give a look ahead to the end of August, which will have one of our biggest annual events. On July 16th, in honor of PADI Women’s Dive Day, we had a table and presentation at John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park to celebrate and recognize the women here, and in other organizations, that are working to improve our oceans. We also presented ourselves at World Wide Sportsman in Islamorada at an event to kick off mini-season, which is two days in July every year in the keys where lobstering is legal for recreational fisherman in anticipation of the commercial lobster season opening in August. Mini-season is a major event in the keys and participating here was a great way for us to expand our outreach to the local community. For the interns in particular, the end of July was marked by the beginning of the intern projects. As the internship is developing, it strives to give the interns more opportunities to conduct research, whether primary scientific research or through studying the latest primary literature on a topic. The goal is to give us the chance to bring new knowledge to the foundation, as well as gain valuable experience. The interns have all picked extremely valuable topics ranging from biostatistics to marine policy to citizen science monitoring. As for the lead interns, we were given a research question by CRF and tasked with designing and conducting an experiment to answer that question. Having wanted to get involved with scientific research since I started working here, this presented an exciting opportunity. We are studying how the time spent out of the water affects the corals after they are returned to the ocean. This will hopefully tell us how we may need to alter our transporting methods between harvesting and outplanting corals. Looking ahead, the second half of August is always one of the busiest and most enjoyable times of the year for one reason: coral spawning. I am sure many of you know that many species of coral in the Florida Keys synchronously spawn once a year around the full moon of August. The corals in our nursery offer a prime location of study for scientists looking to understand more of the dynamics of coral spawning. From the night of the full moon of August 18th until August 30th, we will play host to scientists from the Florida Aquarium and Georgia Aquarium as they use our corals to collect samples for their labs. It is an extremely exciting time, and a particular treat for interns of the summer session to be able to see coral spawning in action. I should have more updates, and hopefully some experimental results to share, at the end of the month, and if you have any questions please feel free to let me know! James

It is great to hear all of your interest! As Tom alluded to, our recreational dive programs are the best method for getting involved short-term. We have group programs for 8-20 divers as well as public programs where you can sign up as an individual, space allowing. Public programs are generally one day. You arrive at the education center at 9am and are given a presentation that includes a little coral biology, history of the reefs and their decline, and details about Coral Restoration Foundation and our methods, followed by hands-on training for all of the tasks you will complete that day. In the afternoon, we all meet at the boat of whichever dive shop is hosting the event and proceed to do one dive in the nursery to harvest corals and hang new corals in their place on the trees, and one dive on the reef to outplant the harvested corals. It really is a great experience to get a taste of and contribute to the work we do. I, myself, was a dive program participant in August, 2014, which is what led me to become an intern. Group programs are similar except that they also have a two-day option, which would include four dives and likely be one day in the nursery and one day on the reef. Both types of programs also offer the PADI Coral Restoration Specialty I or II, depending on if it is a one or two-day program, as an add-on. We are not currently taking reservations for group programs as we are booked for the summer, but If anybody is interested in joining a public program, our next one is hosted by Amy Slate's Amoray Dive Resort on August 13th, and you should reach out to them directly. I hope this is helpful! James

Hello everyone, I’ve decided to set up a thread here for all of my updates. First of all, I would like to express my appreciation of your contribution to the foundation that helps allow people like me to pursue my desire to work in ocean conservation. Since Tom has already introduced me to the forum, I will jump straight into the latest goings-on here at Coral Restoration Foundation. We are almost through our first month of the internship here, and it began with one of the foundation’s biggest events, Coralpalooza. For those of you who may not know, Coralpalooza is an annual event that we orchestrate along with our domestic partners and international locations to celebrate World Oceans Day. On June 3rd, we held a training event where volunteers were taught how to work in the nursery, outplant corals, and monitor our previously outplanted corals. June 4th was the big day where, including all partners and locations, we had over 200 participants on 17 boats, which outplanted 1,865 staghorn and elkorn corals. Aside from Coralpalooza, I have been helping the new interns to learn and adjust to our methods and working environment, which is as valuable and rewarding an experience for me as I try to make it for them. As I teach them, I find myself in a constant learning process of how best to handle all of the situations that arise here for an intern. At the same time, the summer is our busiest time of year for recreational dive programs, where we have small groups of eight to twenty divers come and receive a presentation, as well as, nursery and outplanting training in the morning, and head out to dive in the nursery and on the reef in the afternoon. These programs are one of our biggest modes of outreach and allow us to engage the public about our mission by giving them the chance to experience our work first-hand. Given the vital role that education plays in the conservation world, it is an extremely important function, in addition to an enjoyable and rewarding one, to lead groups of divers on these programs. It is nice for them to be able to give back to the environment, and it is nice for us to be able to talk with them, answer their questions, and really engage them in thinking about our impact on the environment and the positive change we can make in a world where the environmental conversation so often focuses on the negative. This is a busy time for us right now, and I am sure that I will have more to talk about soon! Thank you, James