REEF ATLAS PROJECT

Project overview: The Marine Program of the South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI) is developing a new project to meet a priority conservation need in South Africa. The Reef Atlas Project (RAP) aims to create the first national map of our reef systems. Reefs are features on the seabed that are built by the interaction of marine life and their environment. In South Africa, reefs include tropical and cold water coral reefs, seaweed beds and diverse communities comprised of many species of sponges, anemones, worms and sea squirts. These habitats support many other species such as nudibranchs, starfish, urchins, reef fish and sharks. South Africa has many reef species found nowhere else in the world. A Reef Atlas including reefs of different types will be compiled based on underwater photographs and other information submitted by reef users. The end product will be a digital map that will show the distribution of different reef types at a national scale. This will be incorporated into the 2010 National Spatial Biodiversity Assessment and will allow better planning and management for one of South Africa’s most important marine habitats and biodiversity.


Information Format and Requirements: We require low resolution landscape photographs that depict the community structure of a reef system in the 10-150m depth range. We are also interested in photographs from sites that are infrequently visited by divers. Technical and trimix divers are particularly encouraged to share their valuable knowledge. All photographs must be accompanied by the relevant information, i.e. the date, location/site name, dive operator or charter, name of photographer, depth, GPS coordinates as well as a statement permitting or forbidding the use of the photograph on the website. Photographs should be in jpeg or jpg format and attached to an e-mail addressed to reef@sanbi.org, with the relevant data captured in the e-mail itself.

Below are examples of the required type of photographs along with the relevant data:

Date: 21/05/2008 Location: Nine-Mile Reef Nearest town: Sodwana Bay Dive operator: Triton Dive Charters Photographer: Peter Timm South: 27° 25´ 18 S East: 32° 43´ 32 E Depth: 10m Permission to use on website: Yes

Date: 26/4/1995 Location: Birkenhead Reef Nearest town: Gansbaai Dive operator: Private Photographer: Chris Wilke South: 34° 38´ 03 S East: 19° 07´ 18 E Depth: 40m Permission to use on website: Yes

Contact Prideel Majiedt (Marine Projects Officer, SANBI: Marine Programme) for further details on how to become a project partner and/or if you wish to participate.
E-mail: majiedt@sanbi.org
Telephone: 021 799 8855