UVI Scientific Diving

We kicked off the fall field season going all out on NCRMP STT! The National Coral Reef Monitoring Program collects data on the health of coral reefs around US waters. Over two weeks, the team collected data at 287 sites, crushing our goal of 250! UVI completed almost a quarter of them. Go team!
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That’s a wrap on NCRMP STX 2023!
Our awesome team completed 276 coral reef survey sites, crushing our goal of 250!
Please give a virtual high five to our 15 UVI divers, and all our friends and teammates at NOAA, NPS, and more!
📸:
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NCRMP 2023 is in full swing! This first week of the National Coral Reef Monitoring Program we have 11 UVI divers across 4 boats doing fish and coral surveys all around St. Croix. This week has included lots of new fieldwork skills and new (and old) friends!
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The Smith lab and Brandt lab recently worked together to kick off Adeline Shelby’s thesis project that is looking at the relationship between ambient water quality and coral restoration 💧🪸Through a reciprocal transplant experiment, she hopes her results will show the importance of sourcing outplants from areas that will enhance their endurance and survivability for the future.

📸 credits: Nicole Krampitz

Photo captions:

1) Adeline weighs her corals underwater to help measure their growth

2) Brandt Lab technician Brad Arrington hammers in a stake that will anchor the outplant arrays

3) Brandt Lab technician Sonora Meiling sets up the tile arrays so they’re ready for corals to be planted

4) Smith Lab student Erin Hollander uses epoxy to attach the corals to tiles

5) Brad shows off the cool .power.tools underwater drills he used to install the anchoring stakes

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Some cool shots by Dan Mele Photography of the recent Krum Bay coral rescue efforts.

Our divers have been spending a lot of time underwater lately!
Fall tends to be our busiest field season. We’ve been diving to count and size fish on reefs, observe coral spawning, outplant rescued corals, monitoring endangered Acropora corals, observe parrotfish behavior, and more!
📸 .heidmann

🚨Look out!🚨Carnivorous sponges have been sighted on Virgin Islands reefs. This diver was unfortunate enough to be the first victim… keep an eye out so you’re not next!
📸 by Rick Nemeth
😂😂😂
April Fools! There are no man-eating sponges in the ocean. Sponges actually make reefs healthier by filtering particles out of the water, feeding themselves while cleaning up water quality for everyone!
So go give a sponge a (gentle) hug with no fear of predation.

We haven’t posted in a while, but that doesn’t mean we haven’t been diving!
2022 is shaping up to be a busy year for UVI divers. (When is it not?) Wish us luck and stay tuned to see what we’re working on!
📸: .heidmann
Model: Joe Townsend

We’re proud to share the completion of the new coral nursery at Lovango Cay! This project has been in the works for a long time and we are so excited to see coral begin growing on it.


・・・
The new VI Reef Response] coral nursery at Lovango Resort + Beach Club] is complete!

At the start of the new year we will be stocking the nursery with Staghorn (Acropora cervicornis) and Elkhorn (Acropora palmata) coral.

Go and see the nursery for yourself! It’s located slightly west of the Lovango Resort + Beach Club] dock off Lovango Cay. There are plenty of mooring balls available. Please be respectful and do not touch or grab onto the nursery structures.

University of the Virgin Islands diver () Jason Quetel () looks like a boss after installing two of the nursery letters.

Follow VI Reef Response] to see updates on the coral nursery as well as some of our recent coral outplants!

We were blessed with calm, clear water for a few weeks in September. These conditions make it easy to keep an eye on our divers in decompression. Can you see the divers in this photo?

Happy Labor Day and Irmaversary everyone!
We’re lucky to be out diving and counting fish on a beautiful day ☀️

Happy hump day! 🐪
NCRMP St Thomas/St John is off to a great start. Today, Team Garuppa beat the rain to do 7 sites 💪 Thanks to Captain Brad and his rain-themed playlist 🎵
The National Coral Reef Monitoring Program (NCRMP) happens every other year in the US Virgin Islands. Divers from several different agencies collaborate with to evaluate the condition of our coral reefs. UVI divers are proud to be a part of it.