Looking back at four intense weeks of Reef Monitoring in El Quseir
Good news everyone! The El Quseir Reef Monitoring 2010 reached its final phase. Data collection has been finished after four weeks of hard work. Six different dive sites in the area have been checked. The data analysis is now the primary target of our volunteers at the Red Sea Environmental Center (RSEC) in El Quseir, Egypt.

The international team based on five volunteers and four experienced Eco Dive trainers did their best to gather information on substrate composition, coral coverage, invertebrate and fish abundance, as well as coral damage by diseases, divers and predation. The surveys took place at the more popular dive sites around El Quseir and were done in depths of 5, 10, and 15 m. The survey areas were marked with 100 m transect lines and four buddy teams were responsible for photos, data collection, and laying out and taking in the lines. The underwater communication was one of the more sophisticated tasks, as talking was obviously not possible. The substrate team alone had to agree on 35 different categories while doing their survey. This does not include the signs for fish and invertebrates. In Figure 1 Martin indicates Isabel that he found hard coral cover, which is shown by the plain hand.

Often the dive operations lasted up to 80 minutes or more to finalize one transect. Fortunately our team was highly motivated and constituted by experienced divers. Not only once our divers had to cope with strong currents in deeper waters and wave action in shallower areas. Nonetheless the quality of the data and the safety of our team was always the primary aim and even though exhausting, the work was always seen as fun. Our work was not only observed with curiosity by passing tourist boats but also by a dolphin who was visiting us on one day and distracted us from work for at least 20 minutes (Figure 2).

Additionally to the Reef Monitoring several clean-ups took place after the surveys to recollect fishing lines, nets, and other waste from the sea bottom (Figure 3). Like this several hundred meters of fishing nets were recollected from the coral blocks. Taking this into account the project was a great success not only for the participants but also for the Red Sea environment. The results of this project will contribute to the data base at the Reef Check headquarters and hopefully to a sustainable tourist management in the Red Sea.

It makes a bit sad to leave Egypt behind and some wonderful people who will disperse all over Europe again. Still, there remains the prospect of doing next year’s Reef Check with a group as nice as in 2010.
Thanks to the leaving reef check team for your interest and support of the RSEC and also many thanks to our cooperating dive base South Red Sea in Utopia Bay. We hope to see you soon in El Quseir for the following project.
If you are interested in more detailed information about our organisation or the Reef Check project please contact our office (office.quseir@redsea-ec.org).

your RSEC team Quseir
22nd of August 2010

Beach & underwater Clean-Up
Today (14th of July 2010) the RSEC El Quseir team took part in a big Clean-Up action near El Quseir. The event was organized by the dive center Diving.de at the beautiful dive site in Zerib Kebir, 20 km off the city.

Marlis, the dive center manager, gathers regularly hotel guests and other volunteers for clean-up events embedded in the Project AWARE. Pascal Kriwy of the RSEC El Quseir accepted her invitation and came with part of his team to collect lost fishing nets, hand-lines and other waste material from the corals. These items are easily damaging the corals and can lead to their death by covering them.

Two teams of his six each were checking the outer reef, armed only with small knifes and big plastic bags. The effort was worth it! Within one hour the thirty participants of the Clean-Up collected more than 110 kg of waste. They noted that the dive site is still pristine and fishing robes were only found in the upper meter of the water column at the edge of the reef.

As everywhere in the Red Sea floating plastic was common and therefore such events are necessary to focus the public attention on the marine pollution and to sensitise tourists as well as local Egyptians for the waste problem.

Short outlines:

(1) Study of the distribution and diversity of coral species of the Red Sea at various depths at the Radisson House Reef El Quseir

This study aims at the characterisation of the house reef in terms of coral diversity and distribution. Different sites of the reef provide diverse environmental factors and require different adaptations of coral species. The goal is to provide an overview of coral species, their abundance, density and distribution at different locations in the reef.
This project focuses on the species, the morphology and the size (and age) of coral colonies and tries to correlate these characteristics with their locations. Furthermore, the density of species in different locations is of major interest.

The quadrate method allows recording data during dives by using a waterproof camera and later evaluating recorded data by using the CPCe method (Kohler and Gill 2006).

(2) Observation of coral recruitment in the Red Sea at various depths in situ and on artificial substrate at the Radisson House Reef El Quseir

In order to collect data about coral recruitment in the house reef the tile method is applied (Sammarco and Andrews 1989, Baggett and Bright 1985, Wallace and Bull 1981). The number of new young corals settling on the artificial substrate provided by terracotta tiles may allow estimating the rates of recruitment during defined periods of time. If possible, recruit species will be identified.
This method conducted over an extended period of time will reveal seasonal recruitment of various coral species throughout the year. Tiles are laid in depths of 5, 10 and 15 meters. Later, after defined periods of time (after 1, 3 and 6 weeks in this run of March to April 2010) tiles are removed and analysed for coral recruits with the binocular.

Additionally, the recruitment is observed in situ in the reef during dives combining the quadrate method with fluorescent observation technique of coral recruits (Piniak 2005). This method can be conducted using underwater fluorescent photography or simply recording data by observing and counting recruits. Also a video census is possible, if no adequate photo camera is available. During fluorescence dives coral recruits within the quadrate in the reef are counted at different depths and locations.

Both methods provide data which allows drawing conclusions concerning the characteristics of recruitment of corals in the Red Sea with regard to space and time.

Team size
The Coral Project Quseir needs a team of at least 8 volunteers for adequate implementation.  The maximum is 12 volunteers.

We're looking for Volunteers from 4-8 weeks for August and September 2010. If you're interested or have any question please feel free to contact us: pascal.kriwy(at)redsea-ec.org

NEW! Reef Check Training and Coral Reef Ecosystem Workshop for Dive Professionals NEW!

Coral Reefs are under threat worldwide, including the Red Sea. We, as dive professionals, can help prevent some of these threats by learning more about their functioning as an ecosystem, by doing regular surveys, informing our customers about proper reef etiquette, etc. The workshop will also enable you to provide more information to your customers about fishes and invertebrates common in the area, an introduction to coral reefs and other interesting topics. We offer a Basic Coral Reef Course (4 hours, 25 € per Person) and Advanced Coral Reef Course (8 hours, including Reef Check EcoDiver Training, 50 € per Person). Additional lectures or more comprehensive courses on demand.

Next course starts on: TBA / on demand (min. 4  to max. 8 participants, lectures weekly in the evening)

Please feel free to contact us: office.quseir(at)redsea-ec.org

All courses are given by a certified Reef Check Trainers and experienced Marine Biologist (MSc) and can be held in english or in german.