Adopt-a-Coral event attracts Youth Alliance volunteers

This past weekend a few intrepid souls woke up early Sunday morning to participate in a volunteer coral reef monitoring project at Obyan reef.

Seven volunteer SCUBA divers were split up into three buddy groups, and each group was assigned to a one-meter square patch of reef, or quadrat. Each group chose five corals within the quadrat, marking them with small plastic tags and fluorescent cable ties. After photographing the quadrat, the teams measured the length and width of each coral colony, taking careful notes on an underwater slate. The divers will return every month to photograph and measure the same patch of reef, in order to determine whether or not the corals are changing.

The event was organized by the Youth Alliance, in collaboration with the Coastal Resources Management Office, the Division of Environmental Quality, and the Division of Fish and Wildlife. The Youth Alliance is a nonprofit community organization dedicated to providing programs for young people. Their projects fall under four main categories: the Environment, Youth Development and Leadership, Community Involvement Service, and Arts, History & Culture.

One of the Youth Alliance’s environmental projects involves training local residents between the ages of 15 to 24 to scuba dive, at no financial cost to the participants. However, nothing in life is free, and once the students have been certified, they must volunteer their time assisting in environmental activities such as Adopt-a-Coral, beach cleanups, or other events.

Adopt-a-Coral is the first in a series of Youth Alliance projects collaborating with the CNMI’s natural resource agencies. Upcoming projects include fish and coral identification workshops, beach erosion profiling, and marine monitoring.

The goal of these projects is to expose students to some of the techniques used by the agencies, and hopefully inspire them to choose a career in marine resource management.

Five of the seven Adopt-a-Coral divers were recently certified by the Youth Alliance: Jennifer Jang, Candace Willis, Joey Tudela, and Paul and Rich Magcalas. Funding for the dive courses was provided by Light in the Eve, with proceeds from their 2003 Build a Sandcastle event.

If you are interested in finding out more about the Youth Alliance, contact Maisie B. Tenorio at 287-3563. If you would like to learn more about the scuba diving program, contact Joe B. Paran at 287-4196.

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Qamar Schuyler is the Coral Outreach Specialist for CRM, DEQ, and DFW. She can be reached for questions at Qamar.Schuyler@crm.gov.mp.