THEN

Reef Monitoring was formed in 2005 in response to the massive Red Tide and Low Oxygen kill we had in the near-shore waters of Tampa Bay, Florida. At the time, Sean Patterson was an undergraduate student at the University of South Florida. Working under the supervision of Dr. Heyward Mathews of St. Petersburg College, the original project was to track the recovery of one natural reef and one artificial reef in state waters. Fish counts and invertebrate counts were taken by the diver transect method as well as random quarter-meter coverage assesments of the reef substrate. Algae samples were taken and analyzed as well.

With the spectre of off-shore oil drilling becoming more prevalent in Florida, the project continued and shifted direction. More fish counts were needed across a much wider area to asses and establish a base line set of data that was necessary in case we suffer any damage to our ecosystems. There was a bill in the Florida legislature being considered that would allow oil drilling in State waters off Florida's beaches. This would not have been deep ocean drilling. This would have been within 9 miles of the beach. Any pollution resulting from the drilling would have an immediate impact on our beaches and reef systems. In response to this, St. Petersburg College teamed up with a local dive shop, Mac's Sports, to get the local community involved. The goal is to train local sport divers to begin collecting the much needed scientific data on these reefs.

In the fall of 2009, a series of lectures was conducted by Dr. Mathews and several other college professors at Mac's Sports as well as training sessions in their pool to teach divers the scientific method of collecting the data.