My Nonprofit Reviews

The Ocean Rehab Initiative Board of Directors wanted to thank you for reviewing our cause and projects. Because of the generous support Ocean Rehab received for the Long Term Florida Reef Project in 2011 we were able to celebrate several victories and also joined a few working groups to further promote our mission to “Preserve and Protect Florida’s Reef Eco-system”.

Working Groups and Active Collaborating Stakeholders:
SEFCRI- Southeast Florida Coral Reef Initiative- Florida- Dept. of Environmental Protection
CRCP- NOAA Coral Reef Conservation Program- Federal- US Dept. of Interior
EPA/NOAA CWA- Federal- Environmental Protection Agency Clean Water Act / NOAA
CWCI/FWC- Coastal Wetlands Conservation Initiative- Federal- Fish and Wildlife Commission
PBC RRT- Local- Palm Beach County Reef Research Team
Reef Check Worldwide- Global- We are understood as Florida Reef Check/ Caribbean

Victories Shared during 2011 Reef Check Season:
Expanded our Training Staff to 4 Reef Check Certified Instructors and promoted Nikole Ordway to Board Member/ Reef Check Course Director for Florida and the Caribbean. Nikole has been active in training and course direction for SE Florida, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, and Haiti. She was celebrated by Dr. Gregor Hodgson PhD., President of Reef Check/ OR Scientific Advisory Board, for her training standards and commitment to our Florida Reefs.

Ocean Rehab created a Public Service Announcement with the collaborative support of SSR Video and Allegro Productions with the goal of bringing Ocean Rehab science into 1,700 classrooms Nationwide. We also plan to “Live Skype” scientists for students to directly speak with our Ocean Experts: The PSA is posted on YouTube online for fundraising support of this project.

During 2011, Ocean Rehab trained and certified 28 Reef Check citizen scientific divers and snorkelers, bringing our total number of Task Force Divers to 38. These Volunteer Data collectors surveyed 10 locations in Martin County, 25 locations in Palm Beach County and 15 locations in Broward County. We submitted vital Baseline Data to the global scientific community and local conservation managers. Our scientific data collection in now anticipated by Local, State and Federal government agencies as well as several global interests.




To bring our project and science to the public, Ocean Rehab participated in the Global 2011 Coral Reef Resilience Conference, the 2011 US Coral Reef Task Force Meeting, and the Dive Equipment and Manufacturing Associations DEMA 2011 EXPO at the Orange County Convention Center, Orlando. Members of our volunteer Task Force were celebrated by the Wyland Foundation and Loggerhead Marine Life Center as 2011 Ocean Ambassadors.

We were fortunate that CBS News decided to cover our volunteer divers working on a scientific transect on a Boca Raton Coral Reef in a news story that aired all day and became the headline story for the 7 p.m. news. The CBS videographers and producers created a fantastic news video which is also posted on YouTube Ocean Rehab.

Ocean Rehab is gearing up for a very active 2012 with plans to expand our training and volunteer diver/ science base to Orlando, Tampa, the Florida Keys and Gainesville. These teams will begin to survey our Florida Reef System as early as March 15th. Our Task Force will continue to survey Palm Beach, Martin, and Broward County and should be collecting and reporting vital Baseline Data for Monroe and Dade County by June 2010.

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