Floriday Keys Community College first in 3D GPS coral reef mapping
4Mar2009 Filed under: 3D GPS coral reef mapping, Beautiful Oceans Adventures, Educational programs Author: StephanWhat a great week! I just returned form the Florida Keys where I spent one week with students and faculty of the Florida Keys Community College (FKCC) to initiate training on our Beautiful Oceans proprietary GPS coral reef mapping protocol. No better opportunity to escape the Canadian winter … :-)
Under the direction of Dr. Patrick Rice, FKCC’s new head of Marine Sciences, fourteen students got trained on the new protocol and hit the water on Looe Key last Sunday to test their newly acquired skills. It went extremely well and I can’t wait for the mapping data to arrive here in Montreal so that we can run it through our 3D mapping software for the development of beautiful 3D graphical representations of Looe Key reefs!
Miami Herald’s Cammy Clark reported on the event. Her video interview can be accessed here:
http://www.miamiherald.com/video/index.html?media_id=3338981
Incidentally I learned from Douglas Rudolph (”Rudy”), FKKCs diving safety officer and teacher of the underwater photography class that Scuba Diving magazine just rated Looe Key Reef as the #4 dive destination in North America! How did they know what site we were going to map first?… ;-)
How does GPS coral reef mapping work? See here.
The outcome? Looks something like this:
GPS coral reef mapping by Beautiful Oceans
Congratulations to Patrick, Rudy, Lucja, Nick, Jim, Justin, Jenna, Levi, Arnie, Jeremy, Nick, Connor, Kate, Lee and Chad for having successfully completed the first ever 3D GPS coral reef mapping training course offered through an academic institution! Many thanks to Dr. Jill Landesberg-Boyle, Dr. Randy Charles, Dr. Patrick Rice and Mr. Bill Chalfant for having brought this great opportunity to FKCC students. Special thanks to Christa for the cup of hot coffee served every morning in the diving lab… :-)
- Tags: Beautiful Oceans, coral reef, diving, FKCC, GPS, mapping, scuba
4 Responses to “Floriday Keys Community College first in 3D GPS coral reef mapping”
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About this blog
Stephan is the President and Founder of Beautiful Oceans, an international coral reef education, mapping and conservation organization. His company donates 1% of its annual revenues or 10% of its annual profits, whichever is greater, to non-profit organizations working in the field of marine conservation. Beautiful Oceans Coral Reef Adventures and courses are available online and at selected destinations throughout the Caribbean for the enjoyment of the entire family.
To quote Stephan: "My commitment to the protection of the natural world finds its roots in the profound understanding that all life on Earth is interconnected. Being respectful of all forms of life equals being respectful of ourselves." When Stephan is not in the water diving or snorkeling, he likes to practice Yoga on the beach or tell ocean stories to marveled kids..
Jeremy Pond
July 27th, 2009 at 10:13 am
Enjoyed reading this and shared it with others. I am very much interested in working in this aspect of reseach diving and appreciated the experince I had with you. I will be finishing my course work in December and will be sending you my resume.
Jeremy Pond — Florida Keys Community College
IL
November 20th, 2009 at 12:59 pm
Is there any place we can see the mapping?
Stephan
November 20th, 2009 at 1:08 pm
The maps have been developed as a school project only. In my knowledge the data and maps have not been made available to the general public.
Dr. Jill Landesberg-Boyle
February 5th, 2010 at 11:11 pm
Now, with a $2.4 Million congressional appropriation for Underwater Port Security, the work on reef mapping will rise to a new level.
The appropriation will be used to identify objects underwater so as to predict and chart existing and incoming objects. This work will be conducted with Stanford Research Institute who will be leading the technology development while FKCC will supply the means and wherewithal to test and apply the technology in real-life situations through its James E. Lockwood, Jr. School of Underwater Technologies and its Marine Science Department.
Some of the funds will supply the equipment needed to conduct this research, such as underwater sonar technology and ground penetrating radar. Those items will double their use as instructional equipment for a variety of other scientific projects, one of which will be a course Dr. Rice will develop in coral reef mapping systems.