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Belize Coral Watch Program
Overview
The Belize Coral Reef Watch Program is part of the Meso-American Coral Reef Watch Program and is an “Early Warning Alert System” for coral bleaching. The goals of the Program are to:
establish an “Early Warning Alert System” for coral bleaching,
report other changes in the reef ecosystem that divers and snorkelers may notice, and
identify and protect "resilient reefs" or those areas of the reef that bleach but recover.
To achieve these goals the program relies on volunteers to monitor the reef and submit monthly reports, and more frequently during peak coral bleaching events.
Coral Watch Volunteers learn about coral reef ecology and how to identify coral bleaching and coral disease. Monitoring the reefs is easy once you know what to look for and only requires that you take a slate with you on your dive or snorkel trip and record the number of coral colonies you see bleaching. If no bleaching is observed we need to know this as well since this helps identify resilient reef sites.
The reports submitted by volunteers form the first step in the Belize National Coral Bleaching Response Plan and are monitored by members of the Belize National Coral Reef Monitoring Network. When these reports indicate that there are bleaching coral colonies, scientific monitoring is conducted by the Coral Network members at more than 50 sites throughout Belize.
Coral Bleaching