Oyster monitoring season is underway at the Guana Tolomato Matanzas National Estuarine Research Reserve (GTMNERR), marking the start of another year of hands-on data collection across the Reserve’s intertidal reefs. The season began in mid-December with a volunteer training day focused on assessing oyster reef condition, including estimating percent cover and counting oyster clusters. 

This week BBSAP team stayed busy with education events to start wrapping up the year. First the team headed over to Lecanto Primary School for their annual Science Night. This was the team's fourth year attending and it's always a great event. Over 100 students and families attended with opportunities to meet professionals from various scientific fields.

CHAP staff, along with the help from regional coordinating offices Estero Bay AP and Cedar Point Environmental Park, hosted the biannual volunteer training. Known as the Quality Assurance (QA) training, it serves as a refresher for samplers as well as offers time to condition instruments, sample for accuracy from the same waterbody and give program updates.  

The Biscayne Bay Aquatic Preserve (BBAP) Sponge Restoration team was able to begin sponge outplanting. The team started with 10 outplanted vase sponges (Ircinia campana) in Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Park. Further outplanting will be occurring throughout next year and throughout the many basins that comprise BBAP. 

NWFLAP staff installed three new signs on the islands at Project GreenShores Site 2 (PGS2). These signs let visitors via boat or kayak know that it is a restoration project and to be mindful of the plants. A self-guided kayak tour of the site is in the works.

Northeast Regional Aquatic Preserve Manager Irene Arpayoglou attended the Central Indian River Lagoon Living Shorelines Training Workshop, hosted by Florida Sea Grant for contractors and members of the public. The workshop explored the benefits of living shorelines, presented a range of design options and components, and guided participants through the permitting processes that make these projects possible.

Since 1994, the Rainbow River Conservation, Inc. and Rainbow Springs Aquatic Preserve staff have been maintaining over 50 wood duck boxes on the Rainbow River. Old wood shavings, down feathers, unhatched eggs, insects and other squatters are removed each December. The boxes are refreshed with cedar wood shavings, and Irish Spring bar soap is applied to the inside of the lid and the bottom of the box to deter predators.

Several Aquatic Preserve staff from the Southeast Region presented slides or posters at the SEACAR Project of Special Merit’s (PSM) Science Stories in Your Community Public Seminar showcasing work done in the region alongside the PSM team’s larger science communications initiatives. 

ORCP staff worked together to capture drone images of the living shoreline along Cat Point. Living shorelines have been monitored along Cat Point since 2004, with breakwaters and marsh plantings added throughout the years. The team set out to deploy ground control points (GCPs) across the survey space. Flights were flown the next day at low tide.

Rookery Bay’s Coastal Training and Engagement Team recently hosted another well-received session in the Reserve’s new Wildlife Interaction Workshop Series. This time the focus was placed on the mammals that call Collier County home. Participants explored the lives and behaviors of local species, from panthers and bats to dolphins and manatees. They also learned practical ways to protect these animals and the habitats they depend on.