About Us

Reef Relief® is a nonprofit membership organization dedicated to improving and protecting our coral reef ecosystem.

Reef Relief began in 1987 with the installation of reef mooring buoys in Key West. That first step became a system of 116 buoys at 7 reefs that we maintained for 10 years. Led by founder Craig Quirolo, Reef Relief has created coral nurseries to save storm-damaged corals in the Florida Keys and Bahamas. Craig led a 15 year Coral Photo Monitoring Survey of reef health that is currently being loaded onto an online archive at www.reefrelief.org. This survey has led to the discovery of several new coral diseases. Craig has worked with Reef Relief’s Scientific Advisory Board and numerous other researchers to identify the causes of decline at the reef. This past March he was coauthored on a scientific publication that studied the spread of aspergillosis, a common soil-based fungus that has adapted to the saltwater environment and is now attacking Purple Sea Fans.

We have supported the creation of marine protected areas such as the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary, the Negril (Jamaica) Marine Park, and established the Key West Marine Park in cooperation with the City of Key West. We’ve helped install buoys and establish programs throughout the Caribbean, including mooring buoys, a coral survey and operation of the volunteer-staffed Captain Roland Roberts House Environmental Center in Green Turtle Cay in the Abaco, Bahamas.

History

Focus of Activities

    Increase public awareness of the importance and value of living coral reef ecosystems
    Increase scientific understanding and knowledge of living coral reef ecosystems
    Strengthen grassroots community-based efforts to protect coral reef ecosystems
    Design, develop, and help implement strategies for marine protected areas associated with coral reef ecosystems
    Encourage and support eco-tourism as part of sustainable community development that protects and preserves coral reef ecosystems
    Strengthen our organizational capacity to carry out our mission
    Reef Relief’s goal is S.E.A. for C.P.R.

How to donate

Your secure charitable donation is 100% tax deductible.  Your donation will be used to directly support Reef Relief programs such as the Discover Coral Reef School Program, Coral Camp for Kids,  our Clean Water Campaign, and the Reef Relief Environmental Education Center.  Donations from members like you allow us to continue to work for our coral reefs.

http://reefrelief.org/act/donate/

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The measure of global warming

May 11th 2013.The Economist AT NOON on May 4th the carbon-dioxide concentration in the atmosphere around the Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii hit 400 parts per million (ppm). The average for the day was 399.73 and researchers at the observatory expect this figure, too, to exceed 400 in the next few days. The last time such values prevailed on Earth was in the Pliocene epoch, 4m years ago, when jungles covered northern Canada. There have already been a few readings above 400ppm...

Naples residents outraged about possible oil drilling

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Airline exposed as shark fin trafficker

MICHAEL FIELD. 5/05/2013. http://www.stuff.co.nz/ International airline Air Pacific – soon to be rebranded as Fiji Air – has been exposed as one of the world’s major carriers of shark fins into Hong Kong. In an extensive investigation, the South China Morning Post has reported that the airlines’ new Airbus A330 aircraft were, according to a group of pilots familiar with its operations "basically a thinly-disguised freighter" carrying shark fins to the...

Sea turtle comeback in a corner of the Caribbean

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Action Alert: Don’t allow the state to get away with selling public lands

The South Florida Water Management District (SFWMD) has embarked on a process to potentially declare some conservation lands as surplus, and subsequently sell or trade them, or dedicate lands to uses other than the conservation purposes for which they were purchased.   Unlike the Land Assessments recently conducted by the St. Johns River Water Management District and Southwest Florida Water Management District, the staff at SFWMD is not releasing a information that  reveals which...