May 10, 2001 – When the Atlantis Submarine sets out on one of its regular runs to the Buck Island area outside the Charlotte Amalie harbor Monday afternoon, it won't be carrying the usual tourists as passengers.
Those aboard — as many as 45 — will be local marine scientists, students, government officials and representatives of other organizations interested in marine environmental health. They'll be there as participants in a workshop on Coral Identification, Disease and Ecology sponsored by the Conservation Data Center at the University of the Virgin Islands and co-sponsored by Island Resources Foundation and the national Center for Marine Conservation.
Nick Drayton, who manages the CMC's recently opened office on St. John, said the workshop participants will be looking at reefs in Virgin Islands waters in terms of coral identification, ecology and disease.
After Monday's underwater excursion, some of them will board the Willie Mae, a UVI marine science research vessel, on Wednesday for another tour of area coral outcroppings.
Monday's program will begin with morning presentations by Caroline Rogers of the U.S. Geological Survey and Sandra Romano of the University of the Virgin Islands. In the afternoon, with Rogers and Romano as guides, participants will take the Atlantis trip to view various species of coral in their native habitat.
For the Wednesday boat outing, Rogers and Romano will be joined by UVI marine science research faculty member Richard Nemeth. This trip, open to no more than 20 participants, was fully booked well in advance.
According to Christy Loomis at the Conservation Data Center, the workshop has two objectives: "to increase knowledge of our marine environment, and to develop strong working relationships between the different agencies."
It follows an earlier workshop held in March on marine habitat classification. That one involved a half day of formal presentations and a full day out on a boat "learning the different habitat classifications and how to understand and map them," according to a letter from the CDC promoting the second event.
Fifteen people took part in the first workshop; over 40 are signed up for thes one this coming week.
The first workshop made clear "the need for further marine workshops," the letter said, and CDC offered to act as coordinator for a series of such events. "Using our local experts as speakers, we will be able greatly to broaden the knowledge base of our mapping-assessment partners," it said.
CDC has just completed the mapping project known as Rapid Ecological Assessment, Loomis said. This involved "mapping and developing an atlas of the St. Thomas, St. Croix, St. John and Water Island marine and terrestrial habitats." The March workshop, she said, "was to train volunteers to help us to field verify and develop more detail in the current maps."
Plans are in place for two more workshops this year. One on marine algae and seagrass will be led by the CMC's Nick Drayton and Mayra Suarez of the Center for Marine and Environment Studies. Another on reef fish identification will be led by Ruth Gomez from the Planning and Natural Resources Department's Division of Fish and Wildlife and UVI's Nemeth.
In addition, Loomis said, the data center will be developing workshops on plant identification; classifying and mapping local vegetation; identifying plant and bird species, including those endangered and threatened; and terrestrial and marine system linkages.
