Reef Check Update - September 98'

[reefchck at ust.hk]

Reef Check  Update  -- September 1998

STATUS: We are pleased to report that Reef Check 1998 has gone very well.
At latest count we have teams in over 30 countries and territories and
based on last year's events, we would expect to add a few more before the
official field survey "window" closes on 30 Spetember. Due to the
enthusiastic response from our teams in all corners of the globe, we are
sending the team report separately from this update. The accompanying team
report includes news from: Cayman Islands, Hong Kong, Bahrain, Bonaire,
Hawaii, Israel, PNG, Tanzania, Japan, Columbia, Guam.

REPORT: Anyone who would like to receive a copy of the 1997 Reef Check
global summary paper can obtain it from our FTP site or from
<reefchck at ust.hk>

T-SHIRTS: Beautiful 6-color Reef Check logo t-shirts and stickers are now
available. Stickers are free and t-shirts cost US$12 plus shipping, and
all proceeds go to support Reef Check. Contact us at <reefchck at ust.hk> for
orders or see us at ITMEMS. We have already sent out several hundred
Certificates of Participation in Reef Check 98, suitable for framing.

HAWAII: Following the Coral Reef Monitoring Workshop organized by Jim
Maragos in Hawaii in June, Reef Check has been taking off in Hawaii,
thanks to the hard work of Carl Stepath and many other individuals and
organizations. Surveys have been or will be carried out on all the major
Hawaiian Islands for the first time using one method. By the way, the
Hawaii connection is linking Guam (Sandra Romano), Israel (Nan
Chadwick-Furman), and Florida (Bill Tyler) to name a few.

PHILIPPINES: At the end of July, training for trainers was carried out in
Cebu, and Dumaguete Philippines with Mike Ross, Alan White, and Laurie
Raymundo as hosts. We are grateful to the Tetratech CRMP project and
Vaughan Pratt's International Marine Life Alliance for adopting Reef Check
as part of their on-going and extensive programs in community-based
management. The next joint Reef Check/GCRMN training for trainers is
planned for Nha Trang, Vietnam with participants from Myanmar, Cambodia
and China to be supported by UNEP and Japan. We take this opportunity to
remind those with existing monitoring programs that it is normally very
easy to "adopt" the simple Reef Check methods into your regular program.
The advantage is that you will be able to make national and regional
comparisons and to give your participants the incentive of participation
in the global survey.

ISRS FRANCE: In between the heavy wine tasting sessions, Reef Check
coordinators had a chance to compare notes at the ISRS meeting hosted in
Perpignan and French Coordinator Michel Pichon and incoming ICRI Chairman
Bernard Salvat have pledged their support in French Polynesia. Moshira
Hassan made a presentation focusing on Reef Check Red Sea, A. Harborne
gave an excellent talk on generating habitat classification maps and G.
Hodgson presented a summary of the 1997 results and 1998-9 plans.

Fund raising is moving ahead and it looks like we will have additional
funds for teams in 1999 in Asia, the Caribbean and Melanesia. If you are
from a country where there has not yet been a Reef Check - please contact
us so that we can plan for next year.

For those teams still sitting on data - please send them in now! On 19
November, we will be holding our annual Press Conference to announce the
preliminary results for 1998. We need as much data as possible now to give
a convincing report. Since this has been the Year of the Ocean and given
the bleaching event - we expect this will be a good opportunity to get our
message out to the public. We encourage all Reef Check coordinators to
plan their own local Press Conferences for 19 November or later to
multiply the impact. Our Press Release will be available to coordinators
about 1 week in advance of the conference. As the end of the 1998 season
is approaching, we would like to again thank all those dozens of
coordinators and hundreds of volunteers who have made the past two years
global surveys so successful.

Regards
Keith Kei
Assistant Coordinator 
Institute for Environment and Sustainable Development
Applied Technology Centre
Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
Clearwater Bay Kowloon  HONG KONG
Tel:	(852) 2358-6936
Fax:	(852) 2358-1334
e-mail:	reefchck at ust.hk
web site: http://www.ust.hk/~webrc/ReefCheck/reef.html