On July 31, 2018, Lystina Kabay, Project Scientist, and Erin Hodel, Senior Scientist and Programs Director, of the Ports, Harbors, and Beaches division at CSA Ocean Sciences Inc. (CSA), participated in a coral disease training workshop conducted by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) for the Florida Reef Resilience Program’s (FRRP) Disturbance Response Monitoring (DRM) program. The workshop was held at the Halmos College of Natural Sciences and Oceanography of Nova Southeastern University and consisted of a half-day classroom session followed by in-water field training conducted on a local reef offshore Ft. Lauderdale.

Established in 2005 following several major coral bleaching events, the DRM program is the largest coral reef monitoring program in the world. Survey teams annually monitor the health of stony corals on the Florida Reef Tract from Martin County south through the Florida Keys during periods of peak thermal stress (late summer, early fall). Survey teams are comprised of marine biologists/scientific divers from federal, state, and local government agencies, universities, non-government organizations, and environmental consultants.

Ms. Hodel and Ms. Kabay are members of the Palm Beach County field team, who will be volunteering time to assist in the FWC- led 2018 FRRP DRM surveys which will be conducted in September and October.

Diseased colony of the great star coral, Montastraea cavernosa, offshore Ft. Lauderdale surveyed by scientific divers as part of the FRRP DRM training workshop on July 31, 2018.