When I first became a scuba diving instructor in 1989, I was a student in college. For college students quarters were the "currency of survival" for vending machines, laundry machines, photo copiers, and parking meters at the time. In order to obtain more of this ever so precious metal, I started assessing what I called "Pepsi Points" to my scuba students. Three strikes of a "bad habit" would get you fined a quarter. At that time, two quarters would buy me a Pepsi from the school vending machines and one quarter would snag me a cup of coffee or hot chocolate. I got the idea from my girlfriend at the time. In her family's home if you said a "bad" word you had to drop a quarter into a jar.
On Saturday at Beneath the Sea, I met a young marine biologist named Stephanie Roach who is the science and education director for the Coral Restoration Foundation located in Tavernier, Florida. Through the Coral Restoration Foundation you can adopt staghorn and elkhorn coral nubbins, colonies, and sites. I immediately thought of my last trimix class that I taught in the Keys and the fact that my students managed to bump into the coral reef during a no mask line following exercise to retrieve stage bottles by touch while sharing gas due to inappropriate positioning. I had thought that I had run the line far enough away from live corals to prevent any damage, but they managed to prove me wrong. While the correct technique would have allowed them to pass through a couple of coral heads, I take responsibility for the minor, yet permanent damage the team created.
Thanks to the Coral Restoration Foundation, I discovered a way to attempt to make amends for any such damage. In the future should a team make any contact with the reef, I'll have them go to Coral Restoration Foundation. and adopt a nubbin for $50.00. If the team contacts a reef due to any poor judgement on my part as to the location of a skill challenge or drill we'll adopt a colony for $100.00.
With 97% of the elkhorn and staghorn coral populations having died in the past 30 years in the Florida Keys and Caribbean, remaining populations are fragile and cannot sexually reproduce. The Coral Restoration Foundation out plants corals from nurseries in dense groups to provide larval sources to enhance population recovery downstream from the restoration site.
I urge other instructors and divers to do the same. Whether you impact hard or soft corals during a class or on a dive trip, be your own scuba cop and fine yourself a nubbin! "You break it. You buy it."
Visit Coral Restoration Foundation to learn more.
On Saturday at Beneath the Sea, I met a young marine biologist named Stephanie Roach who is the science and education director for the Coral Restoration Foundation located in Tavernier, Florida. Through the Coral Restoration Foundation you can adopt staghorn and elkhorn coral nubbins, colonies, and sites. I immediately thought of my last trimix class that I taught in the Keys and the fact that my students managed to bump into the coral reef during a no mask line following exercise to retrieve stage bottles by touch while sharing gas due to inappropriate positioning. I had thought that I had run the line far enough away from live corals to prevent any damage, but they managed to prove me wrong. While the correct technique would have allowed them to pass through a couple of coral heads, I take responsibility for the minor, yet permanent damage the team created.
Thanks to the Coral Restoration Foundation, I discovered a way to attempt to make amends for any such damage. In the future should a team make any contact with the reef, I'll have them go to Coral Restoration Foundation. and adopt a nubbin for $50.00. If the team contacts a reef due to any poor judgement on my part as to the location of a skill challenge or drill we'll adopt a colony for $100.00.
With 97% of the elkhorn and staghorn coral populations having died in the past 30 years in the Florida Keys and Caribbean, remaining populations are fragile and cannot sexually reproduce. The Coral Restoration Foundation out plants corals from nurseries in dense groups to provide larval sources to enhance population recovery downstream from the restoration site.
I urge other instructors and divers to do the same. Whether you impact hard or soft corals during a class or on a dive trip, be your own scuba cop and fine yourself a nubbin! "You break it. You buy it."
Visit Coral Restoration Foundation to learn more.
