Conservation Restoration Foundation Invites Divers to Volunteer in Florida Keys

Florida Key's struggling Elkhorn coral populations are showing sign of recovery thanks to conservation efforts carried out by the Coral Restoration Foundation.

Divers taking scuba diving holidays in Florida can take part in volunteer programmes where they can become citizen scientists and go on educational working dives to coral nurseries to clean and prepare corals for planting.

President of the Coral Restoration Foundation, Ken Nedimyer, is leading the volunteer diving programmes which also includes orientation dives to a restoration site where visitors can see firsthand the evolution of corals over time.

Image by derekkeats, on Flickr.

A dive operator in Key Largo that hosts annual coral restoration workshops, seminars and working dives is encouraging divers to join marine scientists during scuba diving holidays to help save the only living contiguous coral barrier reef in the continental United States.

Amy Slate, the owner of Amoray Dive Resort, said: "We're inviting divers to become citizen scientists."

According to Nedimyer, Elkhorn and Staghorn are two of the reef-building species that have the best chance of creating new habitats within a couple of years.

The Key Largo-based Coral Restoration Foundation has unveiled a 120-gallon aquarium at this year's DEMA Show which showcases native sponges, gorgonians and nursery-raised staghorn corals that are now thriving in the reefs of Florida Keys, thanks to the organisation's conservation efforts.

Image by directdivers, on Flickr.

The organisation planted coral clippings that were about the length of a knuckle, and the marine plants have since grown to 30 or 40 centimetres. After a year on the reef, the corals grow several inches tall with multiple branches, and within five years, the plants are strong structures that provide a habitat for tropical fish and marine animals.

Florida is one of the most popular scuba diving destinations in the United States and thriving ocean waters attract thousands of professional and recreational divers every year.

The Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary covers an area of 2,900 square nautical miles and boasts waters that are teeming with beautiful marine creatures. While scuba diving in Florida, divers' can catch sighting of turtles, whales, dolphins, rays, eels, tropical fish, colourful corals and much more.

The DEMA (Diving Equipment and Marketing Association) Show is taking place from 2nd to 5th November, 2011 in the North Hall of the Orange County Convention Centre in Orlando, Florida.