Join REEF and enjoy the underwater world of the Bahamas, Florida Keys and Caribbean

 

CIA Spymaster Corey Pearson is a member of REEF

REEF: Reef Environmental Education Foundation

It was REEF, the Reef Environmental Education Foundation, out of Key Largo in the Florida Keys that turned me on to scuba diving. That’s how my passion for journeying to the Caribbean, Bahamas and Florida Keys began. It’s also why I decided to make the cover for CIA spymaster Corey Pearson to be a marine biologist who studies free-roaming wild dolphins and the dwindling Nassau Grouper population.

REEF has an international reach that promotes marine conservation through hands-on programs that sponsors conservation-focused activities. Founded in 1990 and based in Key Largo, Florida, its mission is to protect biodiversity and ocean life by actively engaging and inspiring the public through citizen science, education, and partnerships with the scientific community. 

It definitely inspired me! I joined its Volunteer Fish Survey Project and began conducting reef fish surveys on my own throughout the Bahamas, Florida Keys, and the Caribbean. I bought the book Reef Fish Identification- Florida, Caribbean, Bahamas by Paul Humann and filled out the “Personal Record of Fish Sighting” in the back of the book. In the spy thriller MISSION OF VENGEANCE, CIA spymaster Corey Pearson used his REEF membership as cover to conceal his true identity on Cat Island, Bahamas. Here’s a snippet from the novel where he conducts a REEF survey there:

Onboard with Corey were agents Ashley Murray and Alexis Phillips along with two hazmat technicians and their bomb-sniffing dogs which were posing as service dogs. He was priming them for the operation.

     “I’ll be kayaking into the thick mangrove marshes along Bonefish Creek on Cat Island, which empties into Fernandez Bay. The cache with all our equipment is hidden in the mangroves. My cover will be a trained volunteer diver for REEF. Marine biologists want to know the numbers of juvenile fishes that use these mangroves as nurseries, so I’ll do some fish surveying and recover the cache as I do. I’ve got the coordinates.” End of Snippet.

Here’s another snippet from MISSION OF VENGEANCE, where Corey begins his REEF survey after landing on Cat Island, Bahamas:

Corey speedily paddled the ocean kayak up Bonefish Creek, which empties Fernandez Bay into the Caribbean Sea. The sun and heat were intense, so he wore a hat and applied a heavy dose of sunscreen over his legs and shoulders. He crossed a small bay and was swallowed up by a thick mangrove forest. The shade felt good. A huge sting ray glided under his kayak while ocean turtles swam around him, sticking their heads out of the water and curiously looking at him.

     The waterways twisted and turned through the mangroves. After a while, he slipped into the clear, warm waters with his underwater camera and slowly snorkeled along the mangroves for several hundred feet, photographing the myriads of baby sharks, barracuda, manta rays and dozens of small fish darting among the maze of roots. He used the “roving-diver” technique he learned at a Reef Environmental Education Foundation workshop: Later, he would identify their species and tally their numbers up: 0 = absent, 1 = 1, 2 = 2-10, 3 = 11-100, 4 = more than 100 individuals. So far, he submitted hundreds of survey forms to REEF and was certified as an “expert”. It made for great cover. Besides, he enjoyed being a citizen scientist and loved coral reefs ever since childhood. Live your cover!     End of Snippet

 

You can join REEF and begin doing your own surveys, too! Visit their online store and get the free scanforms and information about survey materials (All explained in the video below). Or, you can also conduct these surveys as part of an organized REEF Field Survey group and go on exciting one-week trips to get started in fish watching. Between survey dives, you’ll enjoy fish identification presentations by expert fish watchers, learn the most successful surveying strategies, participate in informative discussions, and get plenty of exciting fish behavior tips. You will be amazed how much you learn and how enjoyable diving will be with your expanded knowledge of marine wildlife.

      Here’s some of my first REEF surveys that were officially recorded on their scanforms. It was much fun doing!

July 1994: Soper’s Hole, British Virgin Islands- Spotfin Butterflyfish, Foureye Butterflyfish, Trumpetfish

July 1994: Brewer’s Bay, British Virgin Islands- Blue Tang, Sergeant Major

     I did other fish survey recordings at the Hibiscus Beach Hotel beach on the USVI; on Stocking Island in Exuma, Bahamas; off the beach at the British Colonial Hotel in Nassau, Bahamas; off Radio Beach in Bimini, Bahamas; on Great Guana Cay off the out-island of Abaco, Bahamas; at the Atlantis Beach on Paradise Island, Bahamas; and on beaches in Tortola, British Virgin Islands. The reef fish recorded included: Blue Chromis, Brown Chromis, Longfin Damselfish, Yellowtail Damselfish, Beaugregory, Night Sergeant, Tobacco fish, Nassau Grouper, Schoolmaster Snapper, Yellowtail Snapper, Striped Grunt, Bluestriped Grunt, Casear Grunt, French Grunt, Sailors Choice, Houndfish, Bonefish, Tarpon, Southern Sennet, Great Barracuda, Atlantic Spadefish, Yellowfin Mojarra, Bermuda Chub, Saucereye Porgy, Palometa, Bar Jack, Queen Angelfish, Spotfin Butterflyfish, Rock Beauty, French Angelfish, Gray Angelfish, Spotted Stingray, and Southern Stingray.

     It was so much fun participating in REEF’s Volunteer Fish Survey Project. Since its launch in 1993, this citizen science program has generated a huge marine life database. In 2020, the database surpassed 250,000 surveys conducted at almost 15,000 sites throughout the world’s oceans by over 16,000 volunteer divers and snorkelers worldwide. Join REEF and become one of them!

You’ll enjoy the REEF Volunteer Fish Survey Project Quickstart Video to learn more about their citizen scientist program and how to join up.

Robert Morton is a member of the Association of Former Intelligence Officers (AFIO), enjoys writing about the U.S. Intelligence Community, and relishes traveling to the Florida Keys and Key West, the Bahamas and Caribbean. He combines both passions in his Corey Pearson-CIA Spymaster series. Check out his latest spy thriller: MISSION OF VENGEANCE.