As I have posted in the past, I am cautious of many environmental groups/causes due to the tendency to take unyielding positions that are often not rooted in either practicality or an understanding of the “big picture” of how working with business can often lead to genuinely sustainable solutions. And please do not misinterpret that statement – I fully agree that there are numerous areas in which we need to improve when it comes to taking care of Mother Earth and Mother Ocean. With that said, while we were in Orlando at the big dive trade show (DEMA), I had the chance to go by the Reef Ball (http://www.reefball.org) booth although I did not get by the Coral Restoration Foundation one. (http://www.coralrestoration.org/) These are two organizations that are doing extraordinary work in helping to protect and/or restore reef systems in South Florida and around the globe. They take two very different approaches; the details of which can be seen at their respective web sites.
What makes these organizations even more remarkable than the success of their projects is that neither was founded by some well-known, highly credentialed group. In the case of Reef Ball, it was an avid diver and his father who had seen severe reef damage in the Cayman Islands after a hurricane and began to think of a way in which easily manageable modules could be manufactured to serve as artificial reefs. The concept was to have something with a relatively low-cost that could be installed with only a few “experts” and other team members could be volunteers. Twenty years later, more than 4,000 projects impacting 70+ countries have benefitted from this technology.
The Coral Restoration Foundation (CRF) had an even more modest beginning of being a 4-H daughter-father project. As with Reef Ball, CRF has now gained international attention and they are continuing to expand their capabilities. Volunteer divers from around the world join into projects along with notable colleges, universities, and other organizations. If you have some time, do visit their web sites and prepare to be amazed at what you see.
