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Reef Environmental Education Foundation is a grass-roots, non-profit organization of recreational divers who regularly conduct fish biodiversity and abundance surveys during their dives.
View collection data for Massachusetts
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The Massachusetts Bays Program is a partnership of citizens, communities and government that strives to protect and enhance the coastal health and heritage of Massachusetts and Cape Cod Bays |
The New England Aquarium's hotline for any stranded marine animal is (617) 973-5247
All reports of living or dead marine animals should be reported to the hotline #, which is manned 24/7. Land animals and marine birds should be reported to town/city animal control.
What to do
More info
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Northeast Seafood Watch
A program of Monterey Bay Aquarium designed to raise consumer awareness about the importance of buying seafood from sustainable sources.
NEW: Seafood watch by text message: text the word: "FISH" and the fish type to 30644 (normal text rates apply)
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| Coastsweep 2007 |
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Great Family Event! Beach and Underwater Cleanup and Marine Lab Open House Nahant MA
Saturday October 6, 2007 10am-3pm Canoe Beach, Nahant MA (East Point)
Contact: alicia_lenci@yahoo.com or Gloves/Bags will be provided Extra catch bags will be available for divers to collect underwater trash
Guided Tide Pool and Solar Observatory Tours and other activities provided by NEU Marine Lab. Free Parking
Restrooms, Free Food/Beverages for beach cleanup participants
For more information, view the flyer
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| Stellwagen Bank Report Card |
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NOAA's Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary has released the sanctuary's first-ever *Condition Report*, a "report card" on the status of sanctuary resources, the impending release of the draft management plan which we anticipate will be available for public comment in the early summer. The documents can be accessed at http://sanctuaries.noaa.gov/science/condition/.
The sanctuary appears to be working toward their goals, - the only declining conditions are the invasive [MORE INFO]species and the the negative impacts of fishing gear on maritime archaeological resources.
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| Cleanups across America |
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WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (June 7) - Smokers are littering shorelines and waterways worldwide with millions of cigarettes, and their filters topped the list of trash items culled during last year's annual international coastal cleanup, according to a new report.
More than 350,000 volunteers removed about 7 million pounds of debris from 34,500 miles of coastlines and waterways, along with ocean, river and lake bottoms, The Ocean Conservancy said in the report, released Thursday.
Sixty-eight countries participated in the daylong cleanup last September. This year's cleanup is set for Sept. 15.
Of the 7.7 million items of debris collected worldwide in 2006, cigarettes and cigarette butts accounted for roughly 1.9 million, the sixth consecutive year they have topped the list. Coming in second at about 768,000 items were food wrappers and containers that can be extremely dangerous to wildlife.
"A plastic sandwich bag floating in the ocean may look like a jellyfish, a favorite food of sea turtles," said Sonya Besteiro, the cleanup project manager. "If a sea turtle ingests a plastic bag it may feel full and stop eating, which results in starvation. Or the bag could block the animal's digestive system and cause death."
During the 2006 cleanup, volunteers found 1,074 animals entangled in debris, including fishing line and nets. Only one of those animals survived - a female seal found in Hobe Sound.
Discarded fishing gear and plastic debris kill an average of more than 1 million sea birds and more than 100,000 marine mammals and sea turtles each year, the conservancy estimates.
Last week, an endangered Hawaiian monk seal drowned after becoming entangled in a fishing net off Oahu. In October, Hawaiian wildlife officials found a 5-month-old monk seal dead in another net.
"With only 1,200 monk seals left, this is such a terrible loss," said Christine Woolaway, who coordinates the coastal cleanup in Hawaii, the state with the most threatened and endangered species at 329.
Since 1986, more than 6.5 million volunteers in the project have removed 116 million pounds of trash from beaches and waterways in 127 countries, according to the conservancy, a Washington-based environmental advocacy group.
The United States had the most participants in 2006, according to the report, with 182,100 people cleaning about 4.1 million pounds of trash from 10,550 miles of waterways and coastlines.
Canada saw the second best participation with about 26,550 people, followed by the Philippines, where 25,500 volunteers helped out.
California and Florida saw the most participation in the U.S., with about 56,000 and 28,000 people participating, respectively. The two states collectively removed about 1.5 million pounds of debris over 4,600 miles of shorelines and waterways.
Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. The information contained in the AP news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press.
Accessed 2007-06-07 14:54:53
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| Nahant Beach Cleanup |
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Saturday, June 9, 8 a.m. - 4 p.m., Rain date: June 10.
Coast Guard Station — Beach Cleanup/Earth Day Celebration.
SWIM, the Nahant Woman's Club, and the Town of Nahant are joining forces to clean up the beaches and celebrate Earth Day.
Volunteers needed to work on cleaning up ALL the Town beaches and to help with Earth Day activities. Fun for kids and adults, music, food and merriment.
For more information or to volunteer, contact Linda Jenkins (Nahant Woman's Club) at nahantenterprises@hotmail.com or 781-581-0660, or Julie Arnold (SWIM) at juliearnold@comcast.net or 781-592-2514.
NEADC Divers can contact: Alicia Lenci, alicia_lenci@yahoo.com 617 285 6737
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| Dive into Earth Day 2007 |
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Dive
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Snorkel
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Kayak
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Beachcomb!
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| When? |
Sunday, April 22, 2007 10am – 3pm |
| Where? |
Lane’s Cove, Gloucester MA |
| Why? |
Because you love the North Atlantic! And…
This popular fishing, boating, diving sunset viewing site needs some underwater and shoreline cleanup. Early season enables us to get to trash and rogue fishing gear near the seawall (later in the year too many fisherman and boat traffic makes underwater cleanup difficult for divers.) PHOTO CONTEST! Take photos of this special event and enter your photo to win prizes. Some prizes include TUSA BCDs, masks and fins sets. (Photos can be above and/or below the water but must be of this event. See Alicia for more contest rules)
Gloves and trash bags provided
Hot Beverages and light snacks for participants |
Contact? Alicia Lenci, alicia_lenci@yahoo.com or 617 285 6737
Directions? Click Here
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| Save the American Eel |
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American eels have a complex life cycle that makes them vulnerable to environmental change and difficult to conserve and protect. There is concern for the American eel throughout its range from Greenland to South America. Several long-term datasets indicate that numbers of juveniles and young adults have plummeted in many areas of the species’ range during the last two decades. Several agencies are working on this problem, led by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC), which produced a comprehensive eel management plan in 2000 and has since provided updates on how the plan is being implemented and addresses emerging concerns. In 2006, ASMFC completed a stock assessment for American eel that concluded that the abundance of eels has declined in the last two decades and is at or near record low levels.
For more info, read this info package |
| At Long Last . A Marine Debris Bill |
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Friday, December 8, 2006, was a historic day for the ocean and the fight against marine debris. The Marine Debris Research, Prevention, and Reduction Act finally passed the Senate. The bill creates a program within NOAA for the prevention, monitoring, and removal of marine debris, while strengthening Coast Guard prevention and enforcement efforts and improving agency coordination. "This legislation prevents marine-life entanglement by addressing some of the major sources of dangerous marine debris," said Vikki Spruill, president of The Ocean Conservancy. For more on the Marine Debris bill, visit: www.oceanconservancy.org/marinedebrisbill. |
| Wow! . Worldwide Results Are In |
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The 20st anniversary International Coastal Cleanup (ICC) took place Saturday, September 16, 2005. Worldwide, we saw an incredible 47% increase in volunteers to more than 448,000 people who descended upon our waterways to remove ugly, dangerous debris. When they were done, 8.2 million pounds of trash was removed from 18,242 miles of shoreline, streams, and waterways in 74 nations. After 15 years of data collection, we are quite pleased to say that our work is making a difference. Volunteers report picking up fewer marine debris items per mile with each passing year. Now, that is a sea change! Get all the details at: www.coastalcleanup.org/.
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| 2006 Great Annual Fish Count |
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The 5th annual SBNMS celebration event is the largest fish count event in the USA (this will be the 5th year in a row) and will have over 100 divers conducting fish and invasive invertebrate surveys around Cape Ann, MA at Folly Cove, Cathedral Rocks, Lanes Cove, Pebble Beach, Old Garden Beach, Magnolia Rocks, Halibut Shores, Back Beach and Nubble Light, York, Maine.
Legal Seafoods will be there with their "Chowder Van" from 12:00-2:00pm with free chowder for all participants and their families!!! We will also
provide a complete picnic with all the fixins for divers and their families!!
Our $7400.00 free fish counters raffle will be drawn at 3:00pm. Prizes include regulators, fins, BCD, wetsuits, masks, dive lights, dive trip to Bonaire, etc., etc.
We have made arrangements with Gortons of Gloucester (2 block walk to the Gloucester Maritime Heritage Center) to have all of our participants park in
their secured/private parking lot with security guard to watch our vehicles at no cost.
Once you check-in with the registration table after you return to the Gloucester Naritime Heritage Center submit your forms and collect your ticket - help yourselves to the food offering at the picnic. The raffle will be drawn promptly at 3pm - if you are late - you will miss the raffle. Where the event continues to grow, there is less flexibility to postpone the raffle to accomodate late-comers - hope you understand.
As with last year, the raffle will be run as follows: Each diver who submits data upon their return to the Heritage Center after your morning dives (fish, invertebrate or both) shall receive one raffle ticket per diver. There will be an ample supply of REEF scanforms with pencils to enable you to fill out forms upon your return. Each diver will then select which grand prize they wish to pursue and place their ticket in the approporiate container. If you win a grand prize, then you are done with the raffle. All non-winning grand prize tickets will then be entered into the general raffle. Winners will then be called from the most valuable prize, down to least (cash value of prize).
Divers need to select their prefered dive site and register with Bob Michelson no later than wednesday, 7/12/06 in order to be eligible for the raffle. He needs each divers complete mailing address, telephone and e-mail info. to complete their registeration. Divers will check-in with our volunteer coordinators at the time called by that coordinator (between 7-8am typically). As time gets closer, Bob will circulate a list of coordinators, cell numbers and meet times.
Bob still needs coordinators for several dive sites - any volunteers would be appreciated (you do NOT need to be a divemaster to do this). RSVP – Bob Michelson, pbm.inc@verizon.net |
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Dive into
Earth Day 2006 Recap |
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April 22, 2006
10am - 3pm Location Lane's Cove
Photo Contest! Prizes for Participants. Underwater/shoreline
cleanup!
Contact: Alicia
Lenci, environmental@neadc.org
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Dive Into Earth Day 2005 Recap |
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 Dive
into Earth Day 2005 was a great success thanks
to Dano Norris, Michael Schruben, Eileen Byrne,
Cheryl Hill, Jim Karos, Aaron Burke, James Karos,
and Anna Krowczynska.
The foggy weather did not keep
these divers from participating in this event.
Seas were calm and vis was about 25 feet. About
180 pounds of trash were removed from the water’s
edge. Mostly bottles, cans and food wrappers.
Much fishing line and gear as well as plenty
of plastic bits and plastic lobster id tags.
Some of these tags were Maine lobster pot id
tags. Dano found some green army men (we seem
to collect these every year here). Jim Karos
removed a hair brush from underwater and his
grandson James removed a golf club. I also found
a golf club along the coastline as well as a
few golf balls. What made this day even better
was that we finished just before the deluge
of rain, it was perfect timing. Thanks again
to all participants, you made a difference.
Want to participate in a cleanup this year?
You still can, check the dive calendar to learn
more.
There are more photos in the scrapbook,
take a look
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Do Marine Protected Areas Really Work? |
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Here's an interesting aticle from
Wood's
Hole's Oceanus Magazine about whether closing
parts of the ocean to fishing really works to
preserve fish stocks. It specifically focuses
on George's Bank
"These
closures have given us a unique opportunity
to examine a marine protected area in a temperate
system under a “macroscope”—to
examine how marine ecosystems are structured
and how they function and recover. The long
history of research on Georges Bank adds a foundation
of scientific knowledge that makes the Georges
Bank MPA an ideal system to test the effects
of year-round fishery closures."
More
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©2004 by the New England Aquarium Dive Club, Inc. All rights reserved.
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