meganwilliams September 29, 2016 Share September 29, 2016 Hello! My name is Megan Williams, and I am one of the new Fall interns at the Coral Restoration Foundation. Let me first start off by saying thank you all for your support. You are helping make a lifelong dream of mine come true, and I am very excited to share the experience with you! Throughout this internship, my fellow intern, Emma, and I will be posting updates and information about our internship and the work we are doing at CRF. I would like to first start out by just saying a little bit about myself and what led me to CRF. Growing up in the suburbs of Chicago, I fell in love with the ocean at a young age through my family trips to the coast. When I was 14, I traveled to Australia, and got to snorkel the Great Barrier Reef. I was taken aback by the beauty and wonder of coral reefs. After becoming scuba certified in the Caribbean in my Junior year of High School, I knew that studying, restoring, and working with coral reefs was what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. I attended the University of Miami, where I graduated this past May with a Bachelor of Science in Marine Science and Biology. I am beyond excited to be working with the Coral Restoration Foundation to put my dreams and passion to work, and hope to be able to share this experience with all of you! It has been a busy first couple of weeks, with a lot of orientation and training taking place to get us comfortable in the new roles that we will be taking on as interns here. We met with all of the staff, learned what they do, and will get the chance to work with them more one-on-one on a semester long project of our choosing. While not in the office, we have been busy at the warehouse and out on the water, learning the various tasks and jobs that can be done when off the water, as well as how to tag and plant corals, clean trees, and monitor while diving. It has been a phenomenal first two weeks here at CRF, and I am looking forward for all that is to come! Please post any questions you have for me or responses, and I would be happy to answer and respond! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Origami September 29, 2016 Share September 29, 2016 Welcome, Megan! Welcome, and thank you for starting this thread as a way to keep us updated on your experience and activities. We look forward to hearing more. For those that aren't aware, WAMAS made a $25,000 donation to Coral Restoration Foundation (early this year from MACNA 2015 profits) to directly support their intern program, becoming a patch reef sponsor. Megan is one of the interns that is benefiting from that donation. To learn more about the restoration efforts of CRF, visit www.coralrestoration.org. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
meganwilliams October 10, 2016 Author Share October 10, 2016 Hello! We had a busy week last week in making preparations for Hurricane Matthew. Last Tuesday, we took boats out into the nursery for storm prep, which included fixing floats on trees that were heavy with corals, pulling trees down further into the water column, and changing out ropes that were fraying or damaged. Fortunately, the Florida Keys were not hit, and were in fact barely affected by Hurricane Matthew! We were able to get back on the boats and out to the nursery this weekend, and noted little to no damage for any of our trees or corals. The days here continue to be busy and exciting! We are collaborating with a number of scientists in their research, and each have been coming down throughout these past few weeks to perform some of their research in both the nurseries and on some of our outplanted reef sites. This has included working with the long-spined sea urchin, Diadema antillarum, laying transect lines across a variety of reef sections that have our corals, and setting up an experiment to determine the best transport conditions for our corals from the nursery to our outplanting sites. We are also busy at work in our Education Center as we prepare for its makeover. We are excited to revamp the center to have more up-to-date and interactive information available to visitors who stop in. Hopefully, the construction for this will begin during my internship, and I will be able to send along pictures on its progress! Again, please do not hesitate to ask any questions. Emma and I check this forum thread frequently and will be happy to respond! Thanks to all that are reading! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dbartco October 10, 2016 Share October 10, 2016 Glad you were not affected by the storm! Lets hope to call this storm season done. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hilary October 19, 2016 Share October 19, 2016 Megan, can you tell us more about the experiment to determine the best transport conditions for your corals to the outplanting sites? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
InternEmma October 19, 2016 Share October 19, 2016 Hello, all! I'm Emma, one of the other interns this semester and I'd love to jump in on this topic! (Also sorry for the long message but there's a good joke at the end!) Hillary, let me see if I can help - Our normal operating procedure for transporting the corals is to put the coral pieces, or fragments, in milk crates while still underwater so that the corals stay co-located. Then when we bring them up to the boat, there are large bins (like ones used for storage in a garage) aboard that we fill with water right off the side of the boat and sink the milk crates into, so that the corals stay submerged in sea water. The corals stay in these bins for the ride out to the planting site which, depending on where we're going, can take up to 20 minutes. As soon as we are moored up or anchored by the planting site, we try and set up a 'home base' on a sandy patch underwater so that we can get our coral fragments back in the ocean as soon as possible. Even if they won't be planted for another few hours, we would rather have them underwater than on the boat. So one of the experiments that we are doing is questioning whether it is necessary to have the large bins of water on the boat for the corals to sit in during the drive to the planting site. It isn't a particularly long drive and the bins are rather cumbersome so we're testing to ensure we are being efficient with our methods. For the set up of the experiment there are 5 different time periods and one control (where the corals never leave the ocean). Each time period has a "wet transport" set of corals where the corals are sunk in the bins on the boat, and a "dry transport" set of corals where the corals are not sunk into bins, but instead sit dry in their milk crates on the boat deck (out of the way of all the movement and swinging dive equipment, of course!). I work better visually so here's a handy little chart: 0 minutes out of water - Control 15 minutes out of water - 1 crate of corals in the bins - 1 crate of corals on deck 30 minutes out of water - 1 crate of corals in the bins - 1 crate of corals on deck 60 minutes out of water - 1 crate of corals in the bins - 1 crate of corals on deck 90 minutes out of water - 1 crate of corals in the bins - 1 crate of corals on deck 120 minutes out of water - 1 crate of corals in the bins - 1 crate of corals on deck Each crate will have 30 corals in it so that's a lot of fragments we're dealing with! There's an additional component in this experiment where we're tracking different genotypes and how each individual genotype responds to each of our treatments, but that gets very nitty-gritty and confusing. I'd be happy to go in to it if you all would like, but it seemed like too much for this (already very long) message! Ultimately we want to see if corals we place in the water buckets really do survive better than the corals that were kept dry, or if there's only a noticeable difference after a certain amount of time has passed. There's another experiment we are considering as well that instead of having half of the corals in water and half in the air, that we would have half of the corals in water buckets with no bubblers, and half in buckets WITH bubblers, to determine if air circulation has an impact on survivorship of these corals. But that's another experiment for another day, seeing as we have our hands quite full with this one, already. As you can see there's a lot going on with just one experiment in the works, but we'll be sure to keep you all updated as we go! The weather has been super windy recently so we haven't been able to get out on the boats for a week and a half, but Friday looks like it could be the day. Fingers crossed!! As promised, here's the joke: What lies at the bottom of the ocean and twitches? (A nervous wreck) Have a good day!! -Emma Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hilary October 20, 2016 Share October 20, 2016 Thanks for the reply, Emma (and the joke)! Interesting experiment! How are you measuring stress on the corals? That's great that the results should help the replanting process become more efficient. Since our club members also move frags around a lot I think your results can also be useful for the hobby. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
InternEmma October 25, 2016 Share October 25, 2016 Hello again, folks! We performed the experiment this past Friday with only a few bumps along the way. As any experiment goes there are always a few last-minute changes but all in all we got it done as expected! What we're looking for as we begin to monitor the trees is any occurrences of diseases, bleaching, or general poor health in the coral fragments. For instance we've already noticed that one of the genotypes we're using is holding up much better than the others when it's dry. Most of the dry corals (especially at the longer time frames) are paling in color, and just generally seem ill. We'll know a lot more as we go along but it seems like we could be getting some interesting results! Especially if those corals that seem to be 'sick' bounce back now that they're in our nursery. Megan and I will keep you guys updated on any findings, especially because it seems like the results would be useful to your interests, as well! I may be able to post some pictures from the nursery soon, I just have to upload the pictures from my camera and, frankly, I'm dragging my feet on that for some reason. Hopefully soon, though! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Origami October 25, 2016 Share October 25, 2016 Emma, is anything done to shield the the "dry" corals from light during transport? Or are the containers open-topped? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
InternEmma October 26, 2016 Share October 26, 2016 Originally we were going to place a tarp over all the corals to keep them out of direct sunlight. But we forgot the tarp (oops!). SO instead we just did our best to keep the corals in shade on the boat. They were just sitting in open-topped milk crates the whole time so exposure to the 'elements', if you will, was very high. However in my opinion it was better to not have a tarp because if we were to transport the corals dry we wouldn't have used one anyway; this way our experiment was more similar to an actual day of harvesting and planting! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Origami October 26, 2016 Share October 26, 2016 Originally we were going to place a tarp over all the corals to keep them out of direct sunlight. But we forgot the tarp (oops!). SO instead we just did our best to keep the corals in shade on the boat. They were just sitting in open-topped milk crates the whole time so exposure to the 'elements', if you will, was very high. However in my opinion it was better to not have a tarp because if we were to transport the corals dry we wouldn't have used one anyway; this way our experiment was more similar to an actual day of harvesting and planting! My thought was two-fold. Without cover, they were exposed to more sunlight, but also to more drying wind (as the motion of the boat would have created a sustained, artificial breeze) which would/could accelerate drying of any protective slime they might have formed. The effect of the wind would be comparable to increased out-of-water exposure. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
InternEmma October 28, 2016 Share October 28, 2016 Exactly! And because on any normal transport day we'd be driving the boat to a separate planting site, this little amount of wind was (in my opinion) actually beneficial to the experiment as a whole! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Origami October 28, 2016 Share October 28, 2016 Exactly! And because on any normal transport day we'd be driving the boat to a separate planting site, this little amount of wind was (in my opinion) actually beneficial to the experiment as a whole! It would seem that light and wind become uncontrolled variables in your experiment relative to your control. That is, on any given transport, you may see differences in outcome based upon these uncontrolled factors as well as your controlled factor of time-out-of-water. For example, corals out of water for 45 minutes on the dock may have a different survival rate than corals sitting on the dock for 20 minutes and then transported in the open for 25 minutes (for a total of 45 minutes out of water). Likewise, you may see different survival rates for corals kept out of water but under cover when compared to corals of the same genotype transported at the same time without cover. It might be interesting to see if protective coverage affects outcomes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
InternEmma December 16, 2016 Share December 16, 2016 Hello all! Emma here. Just wanted to give you guys an update on the goings on of CRF! The past month has been filled with a lot of movement within the organization as we adjust our practices to comply with our new NOAA grant! We're very excited about this opportunity. It's a $2.1 Million 3-year project to fully restore 8 reefs along Florida's reef tract. This means by the end of this project we're hoping to bring back quite a handful of Key Largo's reefs to their full potential! It's very exciting being able to work with such a prestigious organization on a project that will surely make an impact for generations to come. We're moving a lot of things around in our nursery, as well. Currently we have over 150 genotypes of staghorn coral, but in accordance with the NOAA grant, we will only be using 50. Instead of getting rid of all of these genotypes, we are creating a 'gene bank' area in the nursery where a few clippings of each extra genotype will be maintained to preserve genetic diversity. Additionally we have a 100 gallon aquarium that has only had three little fish in it for a long time. Luckily a local fish collector has given us a few additions! Now we have two rock beauties, some jawfish, two jackknife fish, a juvenile blue tang, and an ocean surgeonfish, in addition to a handful of atlantic pygmy angelfish and our urchins. It's looking like quite a festive tank! The sad news is recently one of the jackknife fish has died, and we have no clue as to why. The water quality is stable, and we take readings almost every day because we've had problems with it in the past. Any suggestions or general tips are always appreciated from people who definitely know what they're doing! We're all better with coral than fish. Today (Friday the 16th) is the last day of my and Megan's internships. However! We were lucky enough to be hired on next semester as Program Assistants for the Reef Restoration department so you all get us for another four months or so! As always, ask any questions you guys may have and we'll keep you updated on new experiments or developments as we get them! Happy Holidays! -Emma Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hilary January 4, 2017 Share January 4, 2017 Congratulations on the Program Assistant spots! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
InternEmma February 21, 2017 Share February 21, 2017 Hello everyone! Thanks for sticking with us through this long absence. We've been away for the holidays and then picking up work again with four new interns has been much busier than we were expecting! The four newbies are adapting quite well to life here at CRF, although I don't think they were expecting it to be so intense right from the start. To be fair we are in full-blown production mode to try and get our corals ready to outplant according to the NOAA grant that we received. Every time we are in the nursery, now, we are working on one of the 50 genotypes that we have selected by cutting the corals into smaller pieces and hanging them back up on two trees per genotype. We need a LOT of corals to make this outplanting endeavor work, but with the mild winter we've had they should be growing pretty quickly, keep your fingers crossed for us! If it turns out we do not have the amount of corals we need to outplant them all in two waves before the end of the year there could be some serious issues for us, but let's not dwell on that. Megan and I have been putting together the new outplanting protocol for this grant which has proved to be incredibly difficult. The grant has very specific parameters to follow but coral reefs don't care about that, so it's been a struggle to alter the protocol to fit within both the limits of the grant, and the limits of the physical reefs. However, when all is said and done we will have beautiful thickets of staghorn and elkhorn corals for you all to come visit! Megan and I have been kept so busy that this is our only day in the office all week! As new Program Associates to the reef restoration department, we are often the first to be assigned to go out on boats, which is where we will be for the rest of the week! As always let us know if y'all have any questions or want to get in to the nitty-gritty details of anything we talk about; we're here to help! Best, Emma Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
meganwilliams April 4, 2017 Author Share April 4, 2017 Hello all!It has been awhile since we have posted, but it has been a busy and successful period here at our organization. This past weekend we had our 5th Annual Gala, Raise the Reef. The night was a huge success! We had over 270 guests attend where they mingled, bid on our Silent and Live Auction items, and enjoyed a wonderful dinner, during which our guest speaker, Bob Talbot, gave a wonderful and inspiring speech. The event brought in over $100K for our organization, which is the most we have ever raised through one of our Galas!Following the Gala on Saturday evening, we also hosted a series of Conservation Seminars on Sunday. A variety of speakers gave presentations throughout the day on a variety of marine conservation topics. These included speakers such as Margaret Miller from NOAA, who discussed the restoration of coral in the upper keys, Tracy Nolan from Debris Free Oceans discussing marine debris, and Mike Terrell and Scott Graves from the Florida Aquarium, who spoke about the collaboration between them and the Aquario Nacional de Cuba concerning coral restoration. I think it is safe to say that it was a busy, but very fun and rewarding weekend!In addition to our gala, Emma and I have continued to gear up and prepare for CRF's NOAA restoration project. This week, we are training the other staff members and dive trip leaders on the new protocol, and, if the weather cooperates, will begin the actual harvesting and outplanting of these corals next week. We are very excited to see our work over these past few months begin to come together and be carried out. Some big changes in our outplanting methods have come from this grant, but with such a well organized method, it will make it easier for collaborators to conduct their own studies on our outplants and outplanting method due to the more scientific nature of this shift in outplanting. Thanks for sticking with us through this busy season! More updates to follow on how our outplanting is coming along! As always, feel free to ask any questions, we appreciate them! Best, Megan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mari.harutunian April 4, 2017 Share April 4, 2017 I'm a biology major at UMBC. I'm only a freshman, but I plan to take the scuba diving course here and specialize in marine bio. Do you know ways I could get involved with projects like this? Or get some experience? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
InternEmma April 4, 2017 Share April 4, 2017 So glad to hear you're jumping in to marine biology! It can be a challenging field but the view is spectacular. Megan and I work at Coral Restoration Foundation where we offer 3 internship opportunities a year, in the summer, fall, and spring for about four months each. The internships are quite dive-heavy; some weeks I'm on the water four to five days in a row, so it's definitely an amazing place to gain experience underwater. Additionally, being that we are a small non-profit group, you're exposed to every aspect of the organization like marketing, development, education, you name it. Personally, I've had an incredible time with CRF and they've been absolutely invaluable in helping me towards my future goals. If you have any questions about our internship program, or if you want to come down to Key Largo and volunteer with us, you can email me at emma@coralrestoration.org and I'll be more than happy to answer your questions! Happy diving! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mari.harutunian April 23, 2017 Share April 23, 2017 So glad to hear you're jumping in to marine biology! It can be a challenging field but the view is spectacular. Megan and I work at Coral Restoration Foundation where we offer 3 internship opportunities a year, in the summer, fall, and spring for about four months each. The internships are quite dive-heavy; some weeks I'm on the water four to five days in a row, so it's definitely an amazing place to gain experience underwater. Additionally, being that we are a small non-profit group, you're exposed to every aspect of the organization like marketing, development, education, you name it. Personally, I've had an incredible time with CRF and they've been absolutely invaluable in helping me towards my future goals. If you have any questions about our internship program, or if you want to come down to Key Largo and volunteer with us, you can email me at emma@coralrestoration.org and I'll be more than happy to answer your questions! Happy diving! It'll take probably a year or two of school before I get scuba certified and have taken all my core bio requirements but I'll definitely keep you guys in the back of my mind! Volunteering definitely sounds like something I would love to do in the future. I remember the first time I went snorkeling I was constantly looking for new things and trying to dive to get a bit closer :-) thank you so much for the information! Happy diving! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
InternEmma June 1, 2017 Share June 1, 2017 Hello WAMAS! Things have been incredibly busy for us over here in Key Largo! We have three new interns joining us this semester and they all seem quite enthusiastic about diving right in to the job (pun intended). Also this weekend is one of our biggest projects as an organization: Coralpalooza!! The two-day coral planting extravaganza kicks off tomorrow (Friday June 2nd) with presentations on what we do here at CRF and hands-on training on how to outplant coral on the reef. Then, on Saturday, we're going to bring over 150 guests and volunteers on about 7 different dive boats out to the reef to outplant as many corals as we possibly can! After all this excitement the whole gang is meeting up for food, drinks, and good times at a local restaurant to wind down and exchange stories from the day. This weekend is sure to be a whirlwind of movement and excitement with all hands on deck, but I can't wait to see how many corals we end up planting in one day. Keep your eyes on our Facebook and Instagram pages because I'm sure there are going to be tons of awesome pictures posted throughout the weekend! All of this is in celebration of World Oceans Day which this year falls on June 8th. That's a very not-subtle hint to plan a celebration of your own! Even if it's just taking a stroll on the beach and picking up one straw, the ocean thanks you for it. Happy early Oceans Day! -Emma Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bruleyii June 1, 2017 Share June 1, 2017 This weekend is sure to be a whirlwind of movement and excitement with all hands on deck, but I can't wait to see how many corals we end up planting in one day. Keep your eyes on our Facebook and Instagram pages because I'm sure there are going to be tons of awesome pictures posted throughout the weekend! What are the facebook and instagram links? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paul b June 1, 2017 Share June 1, 2017 Very cool. I visited you guys 2 years ago. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
InternEmma June 2, 2017 Share June 2, 2017 So happy to see you've made the trek down here! We have a new office now a little further south in Islamorada because we're turning the office in the picture into an interactive exploration center. There are new panels on the walls and new spaces for classroom activities so it's already looking like a whole new building! Once it's fully complete we'll use it as an education and visitor center and keep the new office as a work-only building. You should come visit us again once all the renovations are complete to see how much we've grown as an organization! As for the social media links: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CoralRestorationFoundation/ Instagram: @coralrestorationfoundation Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paul b June 2, 2017 Share June 2, 2017 I am there once a year as my closest friend moved to Key largo so I visit him. We both have been diving for over forty years and I think he will volunteer with you guys if he gets time. He spends most of his time with the Coast Guard Auxiliary. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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