Introducing WAMAS CRF Intern, James Boyle

[Origami]

I'd like to extend a welcome to James Boyle, WAMAS' newest intern serving at the Coral Restoration Foundation in Key Largo, FL. 

 

 

In this post (from earlier this year), WAMAS announced that it had awarded a $25,000 grant using proceeds from MACNA 2015 to fund an educational/research position at CRF for a 2-1/2 year period. CRF was created to develop offshore coral nurseries and restoration strategies for critcally endangered coral reefs at the local, national and international levels.

 

The first intern benefiting from our donation was Justine Dill. James is the second and assumed the WAMAS-sponsored intern position on May 24th of this year.

 

James graduated from Emory University a year ago where he pursued a pre-med curriculum, earning a degree in Physics. He's been diving from a young agea and has always had a love and fascination for the ocean. This naturally led him to become invested in ocean conservation, and his discovery of the work going on at the Coral Restoration Foundation. 

 

In James' words,

 

"I had heard about the Coral Restoration Foundation and been a participant on one of their dive programs in August 2014, which led me to  apply for the internship after graduation. It became immediately apparent the passion that everybody here brings to their work and the cause. Over the course of the fall, I greatly enjoyed contributing my time and effort to CRF and the work they do to make a difference, and decided that I could not leave just yet. Therefore, I went to work from January until May at the Coral Restoration Foundation Bonaire, learning their modified techniques and coming up against fresh challenges, and have brought that experience back to the Keys to help guide the newest round of interns."

 

James is very excited to be back at work with CRF in Key Largo, and very appreciative of the WAMAS donation that makes his work and education possible there.

 

In closing, here's a picture of James working CRF's projects in Bonaire.

 

 

 

 

 

[Sharkey18]

That is so awesome. It is great to see our donation in the ocean.