The Transect Line - January/February 2024

URGENT: California budget cuts are affecting the Reef Check kelp monitoring program

As Reef Check California gets ready to enter our 19th year of ecosystem monitoring, we are facing some unexpected funding challenges related to the California budget crisis. Read more to learn what’s at stake and how you can help.

Reef Check Announces Newest Dive into Science Program with Coastal Chumash

Reef Check is excited to announce that our newest Dive into Science Program will be in collaboration with the Coastal Chumash and Tongva communities. Funded by the California Natural Resource Agency through the Youth Community Access Program, this program will provide experiential on-and-under-the-ocean stewardship training and marine science opportunities to 24 youth ages 16-26 from the Coastal Band of Chumash and Tongva communities.

2024 Kelp Forest Monitoring Trainings Now Open –
Sign up Today!

Reef Check’s Kelp Forest Monitoring training classes for 2024 are now open for registration, providing six opportunities in California, Oregon and Washington for divers to get involved as citizen scientists along the West Coast! Visit our training page for details and to sign up! If you have been previously trained as a Reef Checker, you can sign up for a recertification class to get ready for the upcoming survey season at http://calendar.reefcheck.org.

Video Spotlight: Spotted! Sunflower star in Northern California

This video highlights the first phase of the Reef Check Dive into Science program for the first cohort of foster youth students from California’s Antelope Valley and their experience diving and learning about the marine environment. The program will continue to train the students in marine science and scuba culminating in a professionally recognized scientific scuba certification from The American Academy of Underwater Sciences (AAUS). The program will support long-term education and career goals for participants and create pathways into marine conservation, restoration, resource management and scuba.
Video by Marco Mazza

Reef Check Malaysia’s Latest Survey Report and Updates on Community Initiatives

Our colleagues at Reef Check Malaysia stepped into 2024 with a flurry of activities. Read on for updates on their many community initiatives and programs, including homestay owner training in Mantanani, waste management in Kota Kinabalu and Larapan, coral restoration in Selakan, and the early successes of the newest “Cintai Redang” program. RCM also released its 2023 Annual Survey Report, an analysis of the health of coral reefs in Malaysia following surveys at an impressive 326 sites last year.