In 2014, Dr. Diego Lirman founded Rescue a Reef, the marine conservation program within UM’s Rosenstiel School of Marine, Atmospheric and Earth Science. After 10 years, Rescue a Reef has outplanted 3,985 corals, removed 353.5 lbs of trash and reached thousands of people.
Dr. Lirman created the Rescue a Reef project to combat the depletion of Florida’s coral reef tract, a shallow formation near the coast and the worsening of coral bleaching. 90% of Florida’s corals have been bleached, which means their essential sugars and proteins have been removed. After losing their color, corals become sensitive to disease or starvation, leading to their death.
Originally, Rescue a Reef’s team was just four people: Dr. Diego Lirman, Stephanie Schopmeyer — the lab manager — and two graduate students, Dr. Ford Drury and Dalton James Hesley.
But managing research, event planning and restoration efforts put a lot of pressure on the four-person group.
“It required all of us at that point to be pretty versatile. We had to be scientists, we had to be restoration practitioners, but we also had to be community engagers,” Hesley said. “We had to be science communicators.”
10 years later, Hesley now oversees the restoration program and assists with ongoing lab research. The Rescue a Reef team has continued to grow, employing 17 people in all areas, but its focus is on the community at large.
The heart of Rescue a Reef’s mission is turning community members into “citizen scientists.”
“We want to build a bridge between science and society, specifically around corals, because we know that they’re hard to access,” Hesley said. “They’re hard to see and appreciate and understand. And so through our programming and projects like that, we hope we can help.”
To encourage citizen involvement, Rescue a Reef takes groups on offshore expeditions to their gardens. There, they take care of a community of corals through the Community Coral Garden Project. Two years ago Rescue a Reef opened the formerly private gardens to the public.
“In our case, divers and snorkelers are able to come on the boat with us, meet our team, hear about our work and then actually help hands-on,” Hesley said. “the public is helping with research.”
On land, Rescue a Reef has organized 19 events in the last decade, reaching 4,991 community members.
Rescue a Reef’s participation in the 100 Yards of Hope project, where the NFL sponsored the outplanting of 100 corals to celebrate its 100th season, was one of its biggest crowd engagement events. Some members of Rescue a Reef were featured in the “100 Yards of Hope” documentary.
Besides outplanting, Rescue a Reef offers programs for those too young to dive.
H2O, Hopeful, Healthy Oceans, is a project that combines teaching children about oceanography with creative activities. The project takes place at the Rosenstiel Campus or in partnered schools’ classrooms. Rescue a Reef team members give a brief lesson on corals and then ask students to create art inspired by them.
“Our lab director and the Rescue Program founder, Dr. Lirman, loves art. And so he had always had this vision of combining art and science,” Hesley said. “We wanted to engage classrooms and communities, specifically youth, in marine science, in ocean environments, to inspire, to create some creativity through art.”
During the spring semester, the artwork is exhibited at UM’s Lakeside Expo Center.
“It has really been breathtaking, inspiring to see all the beauty that these kids still see in our oceans and it gives us a lot of optimism and motivation to continue fighting for their future,” Dalton said.
For those who have outgrown H2O meetings, there are plenty of events to look forward to.
The UM Scuba club hosts joint expeditions with Rescue a Reef that are open to those who are 18 years or older with a scuba license. If you can’t scuba dive, the club helps members earn their licenses. You can even snorkel on expeditions.
“We probably average two to three [expeditions] each month, with a number of those being open to the public, meaning any single person can sign up. All they have to do is see the announcement and add their name,” Hesley said.
Hesley and the rest of the Rescue a Reef team are excited for the decades to follow.
“This is an organization that we’re obviously very proud of and appreciative of all the support that ‘Canes have shown us over the years, hopefully for the next 10 to come as well,” Hesley said