CRF™ TEAMS UP WITH TEDx
Our team was tasked with the great honor of presenting a TED Talk! Our Dive Training Administrator Roxane undertook the monumental task of condensing the 10+ year history of Coral Restoration Foundation™ into a 10 minute presentation that will inspire you to become a coral conservation champion.
CRF™ Dive Training Administrator Roxane Boonstra presents at Tedx
She begins by sharing childhood memories which sparked her infatuation with the underwater world, inspiring the pursuit of her masters degree in marine biology and her eventual employment with Coral Restoration Foundation™ with whom she has dedicated over 5 years of her career.
Roxane's personal experience is one shared by many of our team members at Coral Restoration Foundation™ and reflects a collective drive to conserve the magical world we see when we visit coral reefs.
Watch Coral Restoration Foundation™ entire TEDxTalk here, and learn how a young girl found became a leader in science and is now inspiring other to Raise the Reef!
CRF™ Dive Training Administrator Roxane Boonstra serves as a representative for women in coral conservation and marine science at Tedx in Laguna Blanca California.
FOLLOWING THE LEADER
As the operator of the world’s largest open ocean coral nursery program all our work happens “in-situ” meaning in the field. This causes many people to wonder what Coral Restoration Foundation™ does when we cannot SCUBA dive. Well...we prepare! When our teams can be in the field, we are but when we are land locked, we spend our time preparing and training, honing our skills to be efficient when we get back out to the reef. After being blown out for days, our Lead Reef Restoration and Conservation Interns thought this would be a perfect opportunity to work with new interns to hone the skills they need to become great lead interns in their second term.
CRF™ Lead Interns set up 6 stations to work with new interns on their restoration skills! ©Coral Restoration Foundation™
There are many different skills that are taught to our incoming interns that are vital for their futures at CRF™ and if they wish to pursue a career in coral reef restoration. The lead interns decided it would be best to split the new interns, fondly referred to as our polyps, into groups of three and rotate them among 6 different training stations. Each lead intern demonstrated the skills of a particular station giving their own tips and tricks for making the skill easier and more efficient.
Lead Intern Alexandra worked on nursery monitoring and knot tying. At CRF™ we use something called the taut line hitch knot to tie floats to our Coral Trees™ and to secure Trees to their duckbills (anchors set permanently in the seafloor). Lead Intern Joe covered boat safety briefings, mooring, anchoring and how to help the captain most efficiently at any point while topside or in transit. Meg covered coral outplanting! She focused on the different techniques for each of the 4 species of corals currently outplant. Chandler took it away at the navigation station explaining everything about wind and how to navigate in our largest nursery, Tavernier, which covers 1.5 acres of seafloor. Katie gave the polyps a refresher on trailering our restoration boats and how to launch a boat. Finally, lead intern Alex took the time to teach the new polyps something they have never learned which was how to set up the duckbill anchors that will be installed to grow our nurseries!
Our internships are heavily based around educating new graduates on everything they need to know about working in the field and with endangered corals. These periodic training exercises help our interns form a strong confidence in their skills which allows them to be adaptable, experienced, coral restoration divers.
CRF™ Lead Interns set the example for incoming interns during their dry-land training session! ©Coral Restoration Foundation™
Written by:
Alexandra Sapien found her love of ocean conservation through a volunteer trip to Madagascar where she had so many wonderful diving experiences with the team and became obsessed with coral restoration. The research institute she volunteered at did work with monitoring and implementing artificial reefs as well as monitoring the health of their reef. She immediately began a degree program, once back home, that focused on conservation efforts within all aspects. During her time in university, she worked as a bartender and bar manager in her hometown of phoenix, a place that can sometimes make diving scarce. She is so excited to be able to learn from the Coral Restoration Foundation as well as having diving available right outside her doorstep.
Coral Chronicles Editor
Madalen Howard is CRF's Marketing Associate. Madalen comes to CRF™ via a winding road from the Tennessee hills, to the South Carolina low country, ending here in Florida’s Coral Reef. She earned her Bachelor's degree in Marine Biology and a Minor in Environmental Studies from the College of Charleston in 2016. Her experience ranges from field research to education, and communications.
Madalen spent the last 4 years as a Field Instructor and Social Media Strategist for MarineLab Environmental Education Center. Here she was able to study and teach marine ecology, while snorkeling through mangroves, seagrasses, and coral reefs every day. While at MarineLab she combined her education and research background, entered the world of communications, and developed MarineLab’s social media department from the ground up.
Throughout her life Madalen has had a skill connecting people with nature. With CRF™, she is excited to bring people into the world of coral restoration, creating inclusive pathways to scientific discovery.