Memorial University is set to launch a Canadian branch of the Reef Life Survey on Oct. 22.

The Reef Life Survey (RLS) program started at Australia’s University of Tasmania and is a volunteer-driven citizen science program in which trained divers undertake more than 11,000 biodiversity surveys of coral and rocky reefs from 54 countries around the globe.

However, since the program began 10 years ago, there has been limited survey data collected from Canadian waters. RLS Canada is hoping to change this.

Underrepresented area

The launch comes after months of planning by Dr. Amanda Bates, an associate professor and Canada Research Chair in Marine Physical Ecology in the Faculty of Science’s Department of Ocean Sciences, and a dedicated team of PhD students. It will involve training SCUBA divers from Dr. Bates’ Physiological Diversity lab, Memorial University’s Field Services Unit, and Simon Fraser University in British Columbia.

“Canada represents a new frontier for the Reef Life Survey, with only a few surveys previously done in the west,” said Dr. Rick Stuart-Smith, Reef Life Survey co-founder and research fellow at Australia’s University of Tasmania.

“We are excited to include new species in the global database and provide more data for the colder parts of the northern hemisphere which have been underrepresented so far in the global picture RLS has been painting of the biodiversity found on shallow coral and rocky reefs.