Five years after I first learned about CRF and their volunteer & dive programs, I was finally able to join them for a dive!
The morning session was great – we learned about the economic and environmental cost of losing coral reefs as well as CRF restoration methods and techniques.
There was a good deal of surge that day so we weren’t able to actually outplant coral – the methods used require a calm day so the outplants don’t get uprooted before the marine epoxy has a chance to set. However, as the schedule says, we got a fun alternative! After the morning session we went out to Carysfort Reef and got a tour of all the outplanting restoration work CRF has done over the past 5+ years. It was pretty amazing to see all the elk and staghorn corals!
After our tour, we hopped over to the Carysfort Nursery and worked on cleaning algae from the nursery trees – they needed it! Unfortunately, I don’t have as many pictures here because I was busy cleaning – hopefully I’ll have another chance to go out soon!
Erica Lauer Vose 