The RSF is happy to announce that it is moving it’s aquaculture research lab to the Indianapolis, IN area. Our current lab and 100+ gallon broodstock system will be shut down this month. The fish and invertebrate broodstock we have acquired over the last several years will be sent to the RSF breeder network participants and returned once the new aquaculture system is established and stable.

We are excited about the move as the new space will provide the necessary space for a research lab, a broodstock system, and several research and growout tanks. A thread on the discussion forums will be started once we begin construction of the new lab.

The Reef Stewardship Foundation is happy to announce the end of the Clear Lake HS fishing projects program. A total of 11 videos were created by the participating students and the top two videos were chosen for quality and scientific content.

The top video was created by Clear Lake HS students: Jordan, Tyler, Scott & Justin: Over Fishing: The problem at hand.

The second place video was created by Clear Lake HS students: Overfishing: A global action that is becoming a local issue.

http://www.reefstewardshipfoundation.org/video/studentvideos/Zienty%20Overfishing%20Final.wmv

Note: We are working on embedding this video, we hope to have it fixed shortly.

The students did an excellent job with these videos and the Reef Stewardship Foundation is proud to have worked with the students on this important marine issue that contributes to coral reef decline.

The Reef Stewardship Foundation is happy to announce that the Dallas Fort Worth Marine Aquarium Society (http://www.dfwmas.org/) is graciously hosting the RSF 2011 Annual Meeting. The meeting will be held on Tuesday night, May 24th, 2011.

The annual meeting will feature presentations from two members of the RSF’s Board of Directors. The first presentation will be from Dr. Brian Plankis and is tentatively titled “The RSF Past and Present: What We’ve Done and Where We are Going”. The second presentation will be from Dr. Ronald L. Shimek and is titled “Providing Adequate Nutrition For Animals In A Reef Aquarium: The Most Difficult Problem That Aquarists Face.”

The meeting will also feature a fund raising raffle of captive bred animals, RSF branded items and breeding equipment. Additional details will be provided as the meeting date approaches.

The RSF will also be holding small focus group meetings of aquaculturists, hobbyists, and hobby leaders for a project that will be announced at the annual meeting. If you currently breed species for the industry or are interested in sustainability of the hobby, please contact us regarding participating in these focus groups on either May 24th or May 25th.

We look forward to discussing the state of the RSF and the hobby at our annual meeting, we hope to see you there!

Sincerely,

Brian Plankis

KickOff2

The Reef Stewardship Foundation is happy to announce the start of a new partnership with Clear Lake High School in Houston, TX. Two weeks ago the classroom portion of our first project began with Aquatic Science teacher Ashley Poloha (pictured at left with RSF Executive Director Brian Plankis). Over 75 students are working together in small groups to investigate the environmental issues of overfishing and bycatch. The students will be working to survey members of their community on their knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors related to their issues. Students will be utilizing RSF supplied digital cameras and laptops to produce videos reporting on the results of their investigations and potential ways the residents of Clear Lake could help reduce the problem of overfishing and bycatch.

We will report back on the progress of the students and share their final videos with our membership on our website and at our annual meeting scheduled for May.

This project was made possible by a grant from the Columbus Zoo Foundation and donations from supporters of the Reef Stewardship Foundation. Your support is greatly appreciated.

 

 

Hello All,

The Hosting Service that supports the Reef Stewardship Foundation is updating their data center. Because the server that hosts the Reef Stewardship Foundation website will be physically moved tonight, the website will be unavailable from anywhere from 1-3 hours from March 25th, 9pm to March 26th, 5am. We hope the disruption will be minimal, but if you are unable to access the website, please attempt to do so again after march 26th, 5am.

Sincerely,

The RSF Team

The Reef Stewardship Foundation is continuing to develop its ocean literacy and climate literacy curriculum following the success of Project CORALS. The RSF is preparing a grant proposal to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and is in search of middle school and high school science teachers interested in an exciting educational research project that focuses on climate and ocean literacies and service learning projects to engage students in local environmental problems and solutions.

We are looking for teachers anywhere in the United States, so everyone is encouraged to prepare a letter of support or contact me directly if they are interested. We may not be able to accept all interested teachers, but will fund as many as grant funds allow.

Please see the attached recruitment letter for additional details. Due to a short deadline for submitting the grant, we must receive all letters of support by January 11th, 2011, so I encourage any interested teachers to contact me ASAP so we can work out any needed details.

Sincerely,

Brian Plankis

Hello everyone!

The Reef Stewardship Foundation would like to wish its members and their families a happy and safe holiday season.

WInter Landscape by Vollerdt

We hope everyone finds some place or someone to call home this holiday season.

Cheers,

The Reef Stewardship Foundation

The Reef Stewardship Foundation is announcing a new opportunity for taking a leadership role on our Board of Directors (BOD). Following a recent change to our bylaws (see details here) the RSF BOD has been reorganized and a new position, Research Director, is now open to interested applicants. The position announcement follows:

Title: Research Director

Voting status: BOD member with full BOD and membership voting rights

Minimum Requirements:

1. Terminal degree required (Ph.D) in marine biology, invertebrate biology, vertebrate biology (with marine ornamental focus), zoology, or a closely related field.

2. Minimum of 10 years experience in the marine ornamental industry, preferably in a research or leadership role.

3. Minimum of 3 years previous research grant experience, preferably with raising of marine animals, zooplankton, and/or live larval foods.

Preferred Qualifications:

1. Minimum of one year of continuous membership with the Reef Stewardship Foundation. Preferably with familiarity of our past research and grant efforts.

2. Knowledge of survey methodology, data analysis, statistical research methods, and/or preparing research grant reports.

3. Previous committee experience in either academia or the marine ornamental industry.

4. Previous PI or co-PI experience on research grants. Preferably with experience in writing and submitting grant proposals.

Position Duties:

This position is initially a volunteer BOD position with a one year term, renewable for a longer term upon mutual agreement of all BOD members. Salary may be available depending on grant funding and would be a negotiated contract on a grant by grant basis.

The research director will be a full BOD position with responsibilities including, but not limited to:

A. assist the Board of Directors in recruiting new members and in arranging public speaking engagements.

B. lead and/or assist the Board of Directors with program development and an ongoing research agenda.

C. assist the Board of Directors with writing and/or editing of grant proposals, grant progress reports, and finding new sources of funding.

D. assist the Board of Directors in determining the best approaches to increase credibility of the research efforts conducted by the Foundation with the intent to increase the chances of funding for future projects and the ability to publish peer reviewed research articles or books.

E. shall perform all duties incidental to the office of Research Director and such other duties as may be prescribed by the Board of Directors from time to time.

Note: Anyone interested in this position must be nominated for the position by a current RSF paid member and cannot nominate themselves.

Once a nomination is made and accepted by the nominee then 1) a cover letter explaining how the nominee meets the qualifications for the position and 2) a full CV, should be submitted to info (AT) reefstewardshipfoundation.org (replace the (AT) with a @ symbol, we are doing this to avoid spam).

This position will remain open until filled.

The Reef Stewardship Foundation an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer. Members of protected classes and individuals with the ability to contribute in meaningful ways to the RSF’s continuing commitment to cultural diversity, pluralism, and individual differences are encouraged to find an RSF member to nominate them and submit an application.

Please contact info (AT) reefstewardshipfoundation.org with any inquiries regarding the position.

The Reef Stewardship Foundation is happy to announce that the Columbus Zoo Foundation has awarded the RSF a $5,000 conservation technology grant. Our grant proposal titled “Conservation in the Classroom: A Technology and Inquiry-Based Approach to Ocean Literacy” was funded earlier this year.

The grant funds will be used to put computers and digital cameras into K-12 science classrooms that participate in in future RSF research studies. We have already identified one high school in Southeast Texas that will be pilot testing the equipment. We will be posting more details about the project in the near future.

Over the next few years, the RSF will focus on accomplishing the following goals utilizing the equipment purchased from these grant funds:

1. Train K-12 students (approximately 150-200 students per year) in ocean and watershed conservation efforts, knowledge of scientific methods, and understanding of the nature of science and its interaction with society and technology.

2. Implement professional development trainings for 5-10 K-12 teachers per year in order to increase their knowledge of environmental and conservation education and demonstrate appropriate teaching strategies for the classroom.

3. Equip three K-12 teachers’ classrooms with computer technology to support their participation in ocean literacy educational research programs for several years.

4. Utilize the research study findings focused on integration of technology into the K-12 classroom to improve the CORALS program and inform the larger conservation and environmental education communities on strategies that motivated and engaged the students and teachers.

Look for more details soon.

RSS Feed Button - royalty free image

The RSF is happy to announce that its new website is live. Bookmarks to www.reefstewardshipfoundation.org and www2.reefstewardshipfoundation.org should redirect to the new website (www.reefstewardshipfoundation.org/rsfhome/) automatically, but if you have bookmarked other portions of the website or your bookmark does not automatically forward, please update your bookmarks to the new website.

While the new website has some similarities in look and feel  to our old one, the software running it has been replaced. This will allow for many  features to be built into the website and we are in the process of developing them.

The first new feature, the RSF RSS (Real Simple Syndication) News feed, is now available. For those of you with RSS readers you can subscribe to the feed by using the URL:

http://www.reefstewardshipfoundation.org/rsfhome/feed/

By subscribing to our RSS feed you will be automatically sent new RSF News items. The news feed can also be used to supply content to website and discussion forums. If you would like more information on how RSF news can be incorporated into your website, please leave a comment or use our contact us page.

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