p3
Reef Checkews and is held annually.
Reef Check.org - by Dan
Schwartz 
I've been with the Marine Mammal Center for a few years now and thought I'd like to use my SCUBA skills in a Marine Biology Research environment. It pretty much started when I couldn't identify a lot of what I've been photographing and wanted to get better at it. To get a degree in Marine Biology would first of all, for me, suck since it would require many hard hours of study and pretty much heading down to Santa Cruz. A few years ago I took a "Marine Biology for SCUBA Divers", which is held occasionally at City College of San Francisco by Jim Grass and received a PADI Research Divers Card. I leared a lot of how areas are surveyed and learned some species identification.
Now I'm going to taking a training course in Monterey with Reef Check.
Reef Check goals are to: educate the public about the value of reef ecosystems and the current crisis affecting marine life; to create a global network of volunteer teams trained in Reef Check's scientific methods who regularly monitor and report on reef health; to facilitate collaboration that produces ecologically sound and economically sustainable solutions; and to stimulate local community action to protect remaining pristine reefs and rehabilitate damaged reefs worldwide.
I'll be learning jargon like this:
A standard Reef Check California survey at each site will include:
* Site description (1 per year)
* Fish survey (size and identity) (18 fish
transect, 6 core and 12 fish-only)
o The density, size distribution and sex (where possible) of target
fish species will be counted along each 30 x 2 x 2 meter transect.
* Invertebrate band
transect (6 transects surveyed in
spring and fall)
o The density of selected conspicuous, solitary, and mobile invertebrates
will be counted along each of the 6 core 30 x 2 meter band transect.
* Seaweed band transect
(6 transects surveyed in spring and fall)
o The density of selected conspicuous macro algae will be estimated
along each of the 6 core 30 x 2 meter band transect. Four invasive algal
species (Caulerpa. taxifolia, Sargassum. muticum, S. filicinum and Undaria.
pinnatifida) will be noted, as present or absent anywhere on the site.
* Substrate Uniform Point Contact (UPC)
(6 transects surveyed in spring and fall)
o Sampling of substrate type, cover (i.e, sessile invertebrates or algae)
and rugosity (vertical relief) will occur at 30 uniformly spaced points
at every meter along each of the 6 core 30 m transect line.
I'll keep you posted. I'm on May's waiting list for training and signed up for the one in July.