Researchers have been busy the last two weeks conducting surveys at the Redfish Rocks Marine Reserve.

The Oregon Coast Aquarium and Oregon State University volunteer scientific divers completed two days of SCUBA diving, surveying invertebrate species such as urchins and sea stars. Three days of longline surveys and three days of hook-and-line surveys were conducted, with our ODFW scientists recording the species of each fish caught and measuring the size of each fish before the fish were released back into the water. And, we again collected juvenile fish samples from the SMURF sampling devices.

Thank you to our vessel captains Jeff Miles (F/V Top Gun), Mark Lottis (Five Star Charters), Tim Foley (F/V Mach1), and Jim Burke (Gracie Lynn). Also, a big thank you to our volunteer scientific SCUBA divers and hook-and-line anglers.

Oregon State University (OSU) is now operating an air fill station to provide tank fills for SCUBA divers at the OSU Port Orford Field Station. The air fill station will initially support scientific divers conducting dive surveys as part of ODFW's ecological monitoring of the Redfish Rocks Marine Reserve. Air fills will be made available to certified recreational SCUBA divers later this year. This will make SCUBA diving in the area more accessible by providing a local source for filling air tanks.

OSU's Diving Safety Officer Kevin Buch is supervising the air fill station training and operation, and daily operations are being managed by Field Station Manager Tom Calvanese. Trained operators have already filled 11 tanks for OSU's Scientific Diving Program. 

This project was made possible through a partnership between the Redfish Rocks Community Team, ODFW, OSU, Travel Oregon, and the Wild Rivers Coast Alliance.