The Reef Life Survey Europe Association was officially launched during a successful fifth annual sampling trip to Melilla in June, 2024. Part of the European team, Jose
A. Sanabria-Fernández, Natali Lazzari, Cesc Gordó-Vilaseca, and Ángel Orozco, built on their existing time series of monitoring sites, completing 28 surveys across 16 locations.
Reef Life Survey divers have been regularly collecting biodiversity data at the World Heritage Listed Lord Howe Island Group for over a decade, and have recently returned from a massive survey effort in a continuation of this ongoing monitoring. Completing 82 surveys across 32 longstanding monitoring sites, the data collected enable RLS to report on the condition of Lord Howe's shallow reefs, as well as ongoing and emerging trends through time.
Meeting on turrakana, the Tasman Peninsula, RLS Cofounder Rick Stuart-Smith was joined by interstate RLS Trainer Meryl Larkin, and long-time local RLS diver and collaborator Scott Ling who together would guide a group of new trainees through their RLS accreditation over a four-day temperate surveying extravaganza. Met with playful seals, stunning cryptics, shimmering schools, and even a sevengill shark, the training session went off without a hitch, and RLS Tasmania now welcomes seven new members to the crew.
RLS South Australia returned to the Encounter Marine Park to complete annual monitoring surveys and train some brand new volunteer divers in February, 2024. Completing 32 transects in total, all while training seven new divers, the survey effort was both massive and rewarding! The team recorded 112 different species of fish and invertebrate, including some creepy cryptics and Great Southern Reef icons.
Sailing 640nm in two and a half weeks, the crew aboard Melita set out from Exmouth to explore the reefs of Ningaloo Marine Park and beyond. The team finally said goodbye to the tropics, as Melita descended along the WA coast toward the temperate reefs of the higher latitudes.
