At Pro Dive USA we offer a program called Resort Operation Specialist (ROS) which gives our students a chance to get more instructor ratings and shadow a working dive boat. In the ROS we certify them as Reef Check Instructors which is a great way to get the ocean conservation knowledge out there to divers. If you are a follower of my blog…you would know what Reef Check is because I became a Reef Check Trainer this year. Here are some photos of us doing our reef Check survey on May 28, 2009…we were on Barracuda Reef in Ft Lauderdale and our dive profile was 35ft for 63 mins using our Suunto Dive computers. What was neat about this survey was Brendal and I got to try out the OTS Full Face masks with communicators to work the survey…we tried it out in the pool first then took it in the ocean. This was a great tool to use for the survey because we were able to ask questions about which organisms to count for the survey.
Please I encourage you to check out Reef Check’s website…and if you are a diver you should consider getting the Reef Check Eco Diver/survey certification so that you too can join in on monitoring the ocean’s reefs. Contact me if you live in Florida and want this training.
So my co-worker Marissa is leaving for a summer internship at the Shark Lab in Bimini which is located in the Bahamas. Sounds like fun…and I wanted to see what the lab does for ocean conservation.
Bimini Biological Field Station (BBFS) was founded in 1990. Dr. Gruber came to Bimini decades ago after discovering what a vital habitat the islands were to an array of marine life, especially the Lemon Shark (Negaprion brevirostris). The station was set up as a place for Dr. Gruber, and his students, to carry out field research on elasmosbranchs (sharks) full time.
The BBFS offers volunteers the opportunity to get in-depth experience in many aspects of marine field biology, as well as with the workings of a remote field station.So if your ever wanted to work with sharks here is a great opportunity!
Anyways…we wanted to send Marissa off in style so Brendal, Alex, and I took her to play mini golf…and boy was that an experience. Brendal lost her ball most of the time, Alex won the round, Marissa made friends with a frog, and I tried to be like Tiger Woods but that didn’t work out.
On May 20, 2009 my buddy Shaun & I went to dive the Blue Heron Bridge. We didn’t have the best of vis but that didn’t stop us…we got some great marco photos of this dive. And I have pictures of the cutest little drum fish and some type of goby with a funny head-piece. Also what was neat about this dive was the crazy schools of bait fish, they were swimming all around us in every direction and I don’t know why. Dive profile for this dive 10ft for 37 mins using my Suunto D4.
