Protecting Marine Life Through Education, Service, and Research
REEF was founded in 1990, out of growing concern about the health of the marine environment, and the desire to provide the SCUBA diving community a way to contribute to the understanding and protection of marine populations. REEF achieves this goal primarily through its volunteer fish monitoring program, the REEF Fish Survey Project. Participants in the Project not only learn about the environment they are diving in, but they also produce valuable information. Scientists, marine park staff, and the general public use the data that are collected by REEF volunteers.

Want to know more about the Fish Survey Project and the data that are collected? Visit the Survey Project page to learn more about the Project, the survey methodology, and how the Project data are used.

Mission

To conserve marine ecosystems for their recreational, commercial, and intrinsic value by educating, enlisting and enabling divers and other marine enthusiasts to become active stewards and citizen scientists. REEF links the diving community with scientists, resource managers and conservationists through marine life data collection and related activities.

Vision

REEF envisions divers and marine enthusiasts actively engaging in marine conservation. With knowledge, training and the opportunity to get involved, these marine citizen scientists make significant and ongoing contributions through REEF’s strategic partnerships with government agencies, science and academic institutions, the non-profit sector, and local communities. Divers and snorkelers are in a unique position to observe and document the many valuable and vulnerable living marine resources. They play an important role in bringing information to the surface that adds to the knowledge base of ocean ecosystems and facilitates informed decision-making. Through REEF’s efforts, marine citizen scientists impart an ethic of stewardship to current and future generations.

Where does REEF work?

REEF's marine conservation and citizen science programs currently operate in the coastal areas of North and Central America, the Caribbean and Hawaii. Our specfic project regions include the Tropical Western Atlantic (Florida, Caribbean, Bahamas, Bermuda, Gulf of Mexico, and Mid-Atlantic States), Northeast US & Canada (Virginia through Newfoundland), West Coast (California through British Columbia),Tropical Eastern Pacific (Gulf of California to the Galapagos Islands), and Hawaiian Islands (main islands, the northwest chain, and Johnston Atol).