Southeast Florida Reef Review Newsletter
September 2024
The Florida Department of Environmental Protection's (DEP) Office of Resilience and Coastal Protection (ORCP) presents the Southeast Florida Coral Reef Initiative (SEFCRI) 2024 Summer newsletter.
Action Items:
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Out on the water? Report to SEAFAN/Bleachwatch!
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SEAFAN now has its second newsletter! Here you can read about what types of reports were sent throughout the year, success stories, outreach events and more.
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The SEAFAN reporting form has been translated to Spanish, so more South Floridians can report what they are seeing on and in the water!
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This summer, we continued the Florida’s Coral Reef campaign to let South Floridians know about the reef in their backyard! You may have seen the PSA in a theatre, at the mall, on bus wraps, or images popping up on social media.
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Get connected by visiting the new website for Friends of Our Florida Reefs (FOFR)!
DEP announces the Kristin Jacobs Coral Reef Ecosystem Conservation Area Aquatic Preserve!
This year, the Florida Legislature passed a bill that included approving an Aquatic Preserve designation for the Coral ECA that took effect July 1st, 2024. The Aquatic Preserve will include the same boundaries as the Coral ECA.
The new Aquatic Preserve designation formalizes the managing relationship between the Coral ECA and ORCP’s Coral Reef Conservation Program, as well as provides additional biological, aesthetic, and scientific protections for the northern portion of Florida’s Coral Reef.
Updates from our Southeast Florida Action Network (SEAFAN):
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Bleaching season is here.
SEAFAN encourages the BleachWatch Network to submit reports on coral bleaching and disease after every dive on the reef. This includes reports of 'No Bleaching' and 'No Disease'. Frequent observer reports will be critical to help determine where coral bleaching is happening this warm season.
For program materials, current condition reports and viewing citizen reports live please visit our website at SEAFAN BleachWatch. If not already part of the network, sign up for a BleachWatch Training and participate in monitoring Florida’s Coral Reef. For any questions about the BleachWatch program, please contact the Reef Resilience Coordinator at 561-681-6609 or email Coral@FloridaDEP.gov.
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July kicked off the 13th Annual Southeast Florida Reef Cleanup series, including cleanup dives in Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties throughout July and into August. We hope to exceed our 484 pounds of debris removed from last year.
DEP also sponsored the 17th Annual Treasure Coast Waterway Cleanup in Martin County.
Community Connections:
Maya Bhalla-Ladd (Awareness & Appreciation Coordinator)
New Teaching Trunks and Upcoming Coral Reef Curriculum Videos.
The new school year means our Coral Reef Teaching Trunks are available for teachers in Southeast Florida. Register your classroom to use our fabulous coral biology and ecology resources using this sign-up link.
Our Coral Reef Teaching Trunk program had a fantastic year and is coming out with a new virtual component to our curriculum. To make our educational materials more accessible, four videos are being created for each grade bracket we serve that will be available in English, Spanish, and American Sign Language!
Raising awareness of Florida’s Coral Reef.
This year CRCP raised awareness and appreciation of the wonders of Florida’s Coral Reef by connecting with our community at outreach events and other education initiatives.
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2023 ReeFLoirda Symposium.
At the inaugural 2023 ReeFLorida Symposium in Miami in November, CRCP staff provided BleachWatch Training for participants to raise awareness of coral bleaching and disease conditions and to further share our community resources.
The ReeFLorida Symposium gathered coral reef researchers, practitioners, and subject-area specialists to get together to share knowledge to champion conservation initiatives on Florida's Coral Reef.
You can register for the 2024 ReeFLorida Symposium this November here.
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Annual Tortugas Music Festival's Conservation Village.
The Coral Reef Conservation Program (CRCP), Southeast Florida Coral Reef Initiative (SEFCRI), and Friends of Our Florida Reefs (FOFR) participated in the annual Tortugas Music Festival’s Conservation Village where local coral champions congregated to inspire festival attendees to help the reef through some positive actions including reducing their single-use plastics, wearing reef-safe sunscreen, educating their loved ones on the Coral Reef Protection Act’s (CRPA) anchoring policies, and others.
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Upcoming SEAFAN-RIPR Outreach PSA!
A new outreach PSA is being developed by the Reef Injury Prevention & Response and SEAFAN teams with the help of a videographer contractor. This footage will show safe anchoring practices in the sand away from coral reef and how to properly use a mooring buoy when boating offshore. DEP intends to use this footage for future outreach and social media platforms to promote more awareness on safe anchoring and Florida’s Coral Reef!
Check out the current SEAFAN PSA here!
Updates from our Fishing, Diving and Other Uses Program:
Stephanie Stinson (Fishing, Diving, and Other Uses Coordinator)
CRCP and Local Action Strategy project products are available on the DEP website.
The final report for Phase II of FDOU 51 is entitled “Identification of Regimes in the Kristin Jacobs Coral ECA using combined Benthic Composition and Fish Abundance” and is available on the SEFCRI products website. The major tasks of Phase II were to compile a dataset pairing together two biological subsystems (benthic habitat + reef fishes) in the Coral ECA, and to analyze them simultaneously in search of patterns in the composition and abundance of the benthic and fish categories. Promising patterns were discovered, which could be further examined and clarified in future work.
SECREMP Project Year 21 was also completed this summer!
The corresponding Executive Summary is available on the SEFCRI products website. At the same time, SECREMP Project Year 22 is underway with Dr. Gilliam’s team at NSU already collecting data at the Martin County sites and at some Broward County sites.
Updates from our Reef Injury Prevention & Response Team:
Jessica Price and Megan Miller (CRCP Assistant Manager and RIPR Technician)
Enforcement updates.
Last year the Reef Injury Prevention and Response (RIPR) program performed 30 site checks to look for suspected damage to coral reef habitats by commercial vessels. RIPR also closed one outstanding case. There are currently three open CRPA enforcement cases.
Help protect Florida's Coral Reef by always checking the area for coral, seagrass and other sensitive habitats before anchoring, either visually, or from a nautical chart, or using the Southeast Florida Reefs Map.
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RIPR education and outreach.
A new Mooring Buoy Brochure for 2024 with updated site coordinates in Broward County and new buoy sites added in Miami-Dade County is in print!
Educational packets were created for both recreational and commercial boaters including letters that will be sent to vessel owners who have been observed anchoring in the vicinity of coral reef habitat via AIS, a partner agency or through SEAFAN reports. The goal of the letters is to avoid future impacts to coral reef habitat through targeted education and awareness.
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Updates about the Southeast Florida Coral Reef Initiative (SEFCRI) team:
Jessica Price and Lara Bracci (Assistant Manager and Land-Based Sources of Pollution Coordinator)
This year, CRCP hosted a one-day meeting on August 13th for all SEFCRI and Technical Advisory Committee members. The focus of the meeting was to introduce the newly designated Kristin Jacobs Coral Reef Ecosystem Conservation Area Aquatic Preserve and to review what that would mean for the Coral ECA and its stakeholders. CRCP also presented how the feedback from SEFCRI collected at last year’s meeting was incorporated into the Coral ECA action plan, and began conversations on how that action plan can form the basis of the aquatic preserve management plan.
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There is one open seat on the SEFCRI Team in the “Other” stakeholder group. This group is comprised of members of the general public who participate in the conservation of the northern portion of Florida’s Coral Reef.
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If you know someone interested in developing strategies to protect Florida’s Coral Reef, please have them email Coral@floridaDEP.gov for more information.
SEFCRI TAC Meeting, 2024
CRCP Staff Updates:
Meet our new CRCP Manager: Alycia Shatters
Alycia Shatters moved into the role of CRCP Manager after the former manager, Rachel Skubel, moved to Washington. Alycia was formerly the Land-Based Sources of Pollution Coordinator and Assistant Manager, and before that had started with DEP as the Associate Coordinator. Before starting with DEP Alycia received an M.S. in Biology from FAU’s Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute.
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Say hi to our new Assistant Manager: Jessica Price
Jessica Price has moved into the role of Assistant Manager. Jessica joined the CRCP as the Reef Injury Prevention and Response (RIPR) Technician in 2021 and was promoted to RIPR Coordinator in 2022. Prior to joining DEP Jessica obtained a M.S in Marine Biology from Nova Southeastern University in 2018 and worked at a small consulting firm in Palm Beach County.
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Meet our new Land-Based Sources of Pollution Coordinator, Lara Bracci
As Allie Shatters has moved on to her new position as CRCP manager, Lara Bracci was excited to take on the role as Land Based Sources of Pollution Coordinator. Lara started with DEP's CRCP program in July of 2022 as Associate Coordinator. She is excited to be re-introduced to water quality projects and what that entails for Florida's Coral Reef. Lara attended Southern Connecticut State University, where she was a Water Quality Analyst for the Werth Center for Coastal and Marine Studies. In this role she had experience calibrating and troubleshooting water quality technology, data analysis and trend observation, qualitative and quantitative environmental chemistry.
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Meet our new Reef Injury Prevention and Response Technician: Megan Miller
Megan Miller began working with DEP as the Reef Injury Prevention and Response Technician in March 2024. Prior to joining DEP, Megan worked for NSU’s Physical Oceanography Laboratory and completed her M.Sc. on utilizing computational fluid dynamics to model the effects of internal waves on coral reefs. Before graduate school, Megan obtained her B.Sc. in Coastal Environmental Sciences from Louisiana State University.
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Meet our new Associate Coordinator: Matthew Ringstad
Matthew Ringstad began with DEP on March 29th as the Associate Coordinator. He will be managing the SEAFAN and Marine Debris Programs. Prior to DEP he was working at Coral World Ocean Park in the US Virgin Islands.
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