The Transect Line - March/April 2025

Reef Check and Aqualink Partner Up for Coral Reefs

Reef Check is excited to announce Aqualink as an official Global Reef Tracker partner for Reef Check’s coral reef data. Aqualink, a groundbreaking nonprofit, offers an open source tool for people on the front lines of ocean conservation and showcases Reef Check’s worldwide coral reef database of over 17,000 surveys alongside Aqualink’s collection of data from sensors, models, satellite observations, community member surveys, images, and video to give an instant view of real-time reef conditions.

Surveys Show Kelp Forest Persists After Urchin Culling Ceases at Tankers Reef

After permitting unlimited take of sea urchins at Tankers Reef in Monterey since 2021, coordinated urchin culling efforts led by the Giant Giant Kelp Restoration Project (G2KR), concluded in July 2023. With funding from Seatrees, Reef Check monitors the Tankers restoration site twice a year to evaluate the effects of the removal effort and how the kelp forest persists without ongoing urchin removal. The most recent surveys from September 2024 suggest that the kelp forest has remained relatively stable, even without continued culling efforts.

Data Now Available from the 2024 Kelp Forest Monitoring Season

Reef Check’s Kelp Forest Monitoring Program continues to expand with 2024 being our biggest year yet! We completed over 190 surveys in California, Oregon, Washington, Baja California, and British Columbia. Since data collection began in 2006, Reef Check has conducted almost 1,900 surveys. Additionally, over the past year, staff has been hard at work formatting the kelp forest monitoring data into easy-to-use formats, so that scientists, managers, and members of the public can quickly and easily analyze our dataset. All data is now available through our Data Request Form.

Video Spotlight: Reef Check’s Winter Webinar Series Concludes

Reef Check recently concluded its winter webinar series with talks highlighting the successes of the Kelp Forest Monitoring Program 2024 season and an introduction to Reef Check Baja.

Previous Talks:
Reef Check Hawai’i with Brad Giles
Washington Kelp Farming with Mike Spranger
Dive into Science with Morgan Murphy-Canella

Reef Check Participates in 2025 AAUS Symposium in Washington

Every year, scientific divers from all over the world come together for the American Academy of Underwater Sciences (AAUS) symposium to learn about organizational updates, participate in professional certification courses and share current scientific diving research with the goal to advance and facilitate safe and productive scientific diving. In March, the 2025 symposium was held in Seattle, Washington and hosted by the University of Washington, NOAA and the Seattle Aquarium. With the symposium being in the backyard of our Washington region, Reef Check was asked to lead a couple of events throughout the week- a local fun dive and a Reef Check experience workshop.

Reef Check Malaysia Celebrates Community Conservation Achievements

Reef Check Malaysia recently has made great strides in its community conservation efforts. Click to read more about their reflection on the 10-year anniversary of the Tioman Marine Conservation Group, a Sabah Community Environmental Leadership Camp aimed to empower communities in addressing the challenges of climate change, a workshop aimed to introduce sustainable tourism programs to various stakeholders in Sabah, a bleaching exercise on Tioman Island to assess the level of coral bleaching and support more effective management measures, and the planting of healthy mangrove saplings along the coast of Johor.