Blue Planet divers will be heading down to Key Largo, Florida April 22-28, 2012 to spend the week restoring and protecting our marine environment. 

We'll be volunteering with the Coral Restoration Foundation, a non-profit conservation organization created to develop off-shore coral nurseries and reef restoration programs for critically endangered coral reefs at local, national, and international levels. CRF has developed the largest offshore coral nursery in the United States, with more than 15,000 coral "frags" or "nubbins," (14,000 Staghorn, 1,200 Elkhorn) and transplanted more than 3,000 corals from nursery to reef at 22 different reef areas in the Upper Florida Keys. The goal of each restoration project is to re-establish genetically diverse thickets of coral and nurture them to maturity so they can spawn and repopulate downstream reef areas. 

By the end of the trip, our divers will qualify for not only the Coral Restoration and Monitoring Distinctive Specialty, but also the the Project AWARE Specialty and the  Project AWARE Fish Identification Specialty. We'll be conducting several REEF Fish ID surveys on the trip, too!

Anyone is more than welcome to join us for this amazing week of hands-on activities dedicated to helping the oceans. For more information, visit our website: http://www.blueplanetdc.com/travel/2011/12/16/coral-reef-restoration-trip-to-key-largo-april.html.