Hello coral-listers,

We hope the spring is finding you well. The Central Caribbean Marine Institute is offering a summer camp opportunity on marine biology and coral reefs in the Cayman Islands that some of your high school aged students or children may be interested in.

Our Caribbean Marine Ecology Camp is intended for high school students ages 14 to 18 with a desire to explore and learn about the marine world. The week-long course is for either divers and non-divers, and most of the time is spent outside in our ocean classroom. Camp is both fun and educational, and students at the end of the week will be able to identify many common Caribbean fish species, as well as becoming versed in reef ecology and threats. Working alongside our staff researchers gives students a chance to learn about the daily life of a marine scientist, see our coral nursery, and dissect invasive lionfish, all while exploring a tropical island and healthy Caribbean reef.

The coral reefs surrounding our facility on Little Cayman are among the best in the Caribbean thanks to our isolated location in the Caribbean Sea. The diversity of marine life together with 150ft.+ underwater visibility and towering wall dives make Little Cayman an ideal place to conduct research, educate, and instil the love of the ocean from a young age. A low population and low development on island has led to low levels of anthropogenic reef degradation on Little, while the Cayman infrastructure makes life, travel, and diving safe and comfortable.

You can find out more information about our program at http://reefresearch.org/education/primary-and-secondary-education-k-12/#link-1 Please forward this email to any parents or teachers that you know who may be interested, or to any high school science or guidance department in your community. Any questions can be directed to Tom Quigley at tquigley@reefresearch.org

Also see this video showcasing the CMEC program and the diving on Little Cayman:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lW9S1QDmUEo

We hope to see some of your young Jacques Cousteaus at the Caribbean Marine Ecology Camp!

Thomas Quigley
Education and Programme Coordinator
Central Caribbean Marine Institute
Little Cayman Research Centre
Phone: (345) 948 1094
http://www.reefresearch.org
Special thanks to Coral-list

Dear Coral-List,

I wrote last month about the opportunity to see live-streaming footage of a coral spawning event near Grand Cayman Island via an underwater camera system maintained by the student-based nonprofit Teens4Oceans, local dive center Ocean Frontiers, online marine education organization Ocean Classrooms, and imaging company Wild Goose Imaging. We only witnessed minimal spawning last month, and are happy to share with you that an Orbicella (Montastrea) annularis colony in our viewing area began spawning around 10:07 PM CST last night and we have captured the event on our camera. We had over 3,000 viewers on our website for the show and they spawned right on time!

It is likely the coral will spawn again tonight at 9:15pm-ish MST (10:15pm-ish local time in Grand Cayman), and you can view it along with us, live, at http://teens4oceans.org/index.php/cayman-islands-reef-monitoring-webcam/.

To see footage from last night’s spawning event, watch this video clip, with the action starting around 1:57 — http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-JUWueJ5M8&feature=youtu.be

Cheers,
Erin Sams

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