Would it surprise you to learn that the great majority of the world's reefs are not mapped, catalogued, or monitored in any way.

Probably not if you stopped to think about it. Surveying and monitoring reefs is time consuming and expensive and funding is usually quickly exhausted. Therefore most surveys are limited in time and duration. Part of the problem is scale; the ocean is massive, even small fringing reefs take thousands of man-hours to map and monitor.
The Reefwatch Worldwide program was started some ten years ago. Initially an information sharing network between independent researchers, the project attracted more members and funded expeditions to the Philippines, Mexico, Egypt, Kenya, the Maldives, Indonesia and Thailand. 

 Whilst providing a valuable chance for the researchers to meet and exchange ideas whilst working together, these expeditions only reinforced the belief that a means of funding full time studies was the only way forward.

Most of the early members of the Reefwatch project had backgrounds in diving and Marine biology, lacking funding the researchers often worked as diving instructors and did survey work on their days off or even during lunch breaks between training dives. So it seemed only logical to strengthen that link between dive centre and research unit. Each project is now funded by the activities of its own dive center. Data collected is added to a global database and is shared with other coral monitoring organizations.

Reefwatch Worldwide has been operating in Krabi for two and a half years, identifying and classifying which species are resident around the local islands, Koh Phi Phi, Shark Point and the King Cruiser. The behavior and abundancy of many fish and invertebrate species is also being studied, using this data we will soon be producing a guide to the local marinelife that should help all divers and snorkellers to accurately identify all the species they are seeing.

A coral monitoring and observation program is also in place and constantly mapping and assessing set areas of the reef. Using digital photography to record the condition of corals allows us to easily track incidents of bleaching, sedimentation and anchoring damage, whilst also learning about coral growth rates and how each species copes with being injured.

We also perform regular checks on the all the areas dives sites to check for lost mooring buoys, dumped garbage, and fishing nets. Any damage to coral is also noted and follow up dives sent to assess and record it.

Although Reefwatch Worldwide has a full time staff working on these projects, a large proportion of our data is gathered by divers we train on site. Interested divers completing PADI courses and doing fun dives often ask to help out with data gathering, mooring buoy replacement, and fishing net removals. The techniques for accurately assessing reefs conditions can easily be learned in a few days. Volunteers prepared to meet their own costs are trained here and interested parties can even go on to found their own Reefwatch projects.

(Reefwatch worldwide would like to assure all divers we don't really go round hitting people who grab coral with hammers… honest)!