The Transect Line – July 2011

Reef Check California’s survey season is in full swing. Teams of volunteers all over the state are going out every weekend to survey the reefs and kelp forests along the coast. We just completed our final public trainings for the year and, armed with a very solid group of volunteers, are ready to tackle new challenges. This year promises to become another successful one for RCCA of monitoring established sites and steady growth of our monitoring network. 

In June, the California Fish and Game Commission voted for the new marine protected areas (MPAs) in southern California to go into effect on October 1st, 2011. This is exciting news, not only for southern California, but for the entire state moving one large step closer to completing the state-wide network of MPAs as mandated by the Marine Life Protection Act. When these MPAs are implemented, the state’s network will range from San Diego to Point Arena in Mendocino County. More information about the implementation and maps of the new MPAs can be found at the Department of Fish and Game website.

Reef Check will be one of the groups charged with the state-mandated baseline monitoring of these new MPAs! This month the MPA Monitoring Enterprise announced who was awarded funding to conduct this monitoring over the next three years. Reef Check will receive funding to monitor the rocky reefs in this region and will be working alongside several organizations and institutions to establish a comprehensive picture of the state of the ecosystem inside and outside of the MPAs. We are really excited to be part of this monitoring team! RC is now part of the MPA monitoring in all three regions of the state. In the central coast region we are working with our partners and the Monitoring Enterprise on the first five year review of the MPAs. Further north, we are in the second year of baseline monitoring of the MPAs established last year and we will now start the baseline for the new MPAs in the south. For more information on baseline monitoring and other groups involved, click here.

In our sixth year of data collection, RCCA has grown to be one of the key monitoring programs for the rocky reef and kelp forest habitats that California state agencies and marine managers rely on to develop and evaluate management strategies. This success is a reflection of the hard work of all the dedicated volunteers and of the quality of the data they collect. I would like to thank all of you – let’s keep up the good work!

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By Reef Check Executive Director Dr. Gregor Hodgson

Brunei, a tiny country located on the north coast of Borneo, is probably best known for its Sultan – who is one of the richest people in the world. Perhaps because of the immense wealth coming from oil production, Brunei has not focused on marine conservation as much as neighboring Malaysia and Indonesia. Located within the Coral Triangle, close to the world center of marine biodiversity in the nearby Philippines, Brunei is an important coral reef country. A just published book by Lyndon Devantier and Emre Turak describes over 400 species of reef building corals found there.

Since 2010, Reef Check has been training a team from the Fisheries Department to monitor Brunei’s coral reefs and to design a national monitoring network as part of implementation of its first Marine Protected Area network.

In June, during World Ocean Day celebrations, Reef Check’s Executive Director Dr. Gregor Hodgson invited Brunei’s Minister of Industry and Primary Resources, Pehin Orang Kaya Seri Utama Dato Seri Setia Hj Yahya Begawan Mudim Dato Paduka Hj Bakar, to scuba dive for the first time. An avid mountain biker, the Minister had grown up on the water in a “stilt house,” so despite a strong current and less than ideal visibility, the minister was relaxed in the water and enjoyed the dive.

After the dive, the Minister stated, “We're doing this to bring light to the richness and the potential threats [and] dangers to coral reefs. I happened to see netting caught in the coral reefs damaging the coral life, [and] plastic floating around,” he said. He also suggested that all students in Brunei should have the chance to see the coral reefs.

Later, during a speech, the Minister formally announced that Brunei will establish a network of MPAs and place a moratorium on trawl fishing licenses. As part of the MPA plan, Reef Check has helped the Fisheries Department to formulate a draft “Coral Reef Monitoring Plan.” The plan stipulates carrying out 65 surveys twice per year at 15 reef areas. It also includes monitoring sites that will fall inside and outside the MPA network for comparative purposes once the MPAs are in place.

“It will be fun to watch the fish come back to the reefs once the MPAs are implemented,” said Dr. Hodgson. “We don't need to prove anything. We know that if you allow a system to return to its natural state, the fish are part of that equation. It is wonderful to have a scuba diving Minister who understands the importance of marine conservation.”

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Submitted by Kevin Roberts of Punta Sayulita

  On June 18th, the Sayulita (Mexico) chapter of Reef Check performed its first quarterly survey on the reefs at the Marietas Islands. The reefs are located in the waters off Puerto Vallarta, about 12 miles south of Sayulita. The Marietas Islands survey site is a government-protected environmental zone and it hosts the most abundant amount of coral in the Banderas Bay. This is the same location where Reef Check’s Executive Director Dr. Gregor Hodgson performed an EcoDiver training course last year, generously sponsored by the Punta Sayulita Foundation. Dr. Adrian Maldonado, a marine biologist and member of the Sayulita EcoDiver program, will be presenting the data gathered in the Sayulita survey, as well as the monitoring protocol established by Reef Check, at the Mexican Congress for Coral Reefs in Ensenada, Baja California Sur, on August 24 – 26. For more information on RC Sayulita, contact Kevin Roberts.

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