Posts Tagged ‘Key Largo’
8.7.10 – Coral Restoration Foundation Video Documentary Shoot
Tuesday, August 10th, 2010
Hello everyone.
This time we are off to Key Largo, FL to shoot some documentary footage for the Coral Restoration Foundation and the Florida Marine Aquarium Society as we visit the CRF coral nursery and project reef. The CRF has been working hard the past few years growing and re-introducing corals back onto damaged reefs and other areas where the corals had previously vanished. They are currently working with Staghorn and Elkhorn corals and judging from the project reef that I saw, they are really making a difference!
Corals are grown from cuttings or “frags” from other corals and “planted” in the nursery until they are large enough to either provide frags for future corals, or are placed on the project reef where the corals had previously died off. Volunteers and CRF staff tend the nursery, monitoring growth, scrubbing off algae (which inhibits coral growth), or placing new cuttings in the nursery. Several growing methods are used, including a “line nursery” which resembles a clothes line with coral pieces hanging from it. This keeps the algae off the coral and allows the coral to grow in multiple directions, resulting in larger corals.
It’s nice to see a group making our reefs a better place for fish, animals and divers! For more information on the Coral Restoration Foundation, CLICK HERE. Be sure to make a donation or adopt some coral!
Always finding new subjects to video for everyone,
The Video Dude
Wanna have YOUR next project documented in video? EMAIL US HERE
or call us at 954.296.6449
Tags: Coral Restoration Foundation, Elkhorn, Florida Marine Aquarium Society, Key Largo, Staghorn
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6.21.10 Diveheart Chicago in Key Largo, FL
Monday, June 21st, 2010
Hello everyone.
Today I had the opportunity to travel to Key Largo, FL to shoot video of a group of disabled divers from Diveheart Chicago. This group makes the trip down here every year to give their recently-certified divers a chance to dive in tropical waters and experience what we get to see every day.
I arrived in Key Largo around 9:30am with Worth O’Brien of AQUANAUTS Scuba Academy, a local SCUBA Instructor who works with Diveheart South Florida and is a Disabled Diver Buddy Trainer for the Handicapped Scuba Association. We drive over to our dive charter operator for the day, Rainbow Reef Dive Charters to check in and make sure the logistics for the day’s dives are squared away.
After a brief time to relax and grab a bite to eat, we start to meet up with the members of the Chicago group and make preparations to get aboard our boat for the afternoon, the “Tropical Adventure”. Captain Zack and Divemaster Amber welcomed us aboard and disabled diver buddy volunteers from both Chicago and South Florida helped get all the divers and their gear aboard the boat. After a couple of briefings from both the captain and Diveheart leaders, we get underway and headed out to our dive site for the afternoon. After a brief ride, we arrive at a dive site called “Grecian Rocks” and we get ready to dive in an area protected from wave action by the reef itself. Depths range from 5-10fsw and visibility is a bit murky due to surge action stirring up the sand and seagrass.
The buddy volunteers bring the disabled divers one-by-one to the dive platform and assist them in getting into their gear and, ultimately, into the water where their dive buddies are waiting for them to take them on their big adventure. While shooting video of all the activity, I got to see
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first-hand
how disabled diver buddies are crucial to the success of these dives, and I got to put some of my buddy training to good use as well. While underwater with the various buddy teams, I also got to see the excitement in the eyes of the divers as they got their first glimpse of the underwater world in the Florida Keys. It definitely made the trip worthwhile!
Another great video project completed here in Paradise!
Doug, the “Video Dude”
Tags: AQUANAUTS Scuba Academy, Chicago, Diveheart, Grecian Rocks, Handicapped Scuba Association, Key Largo, Rainbow Reef Dive Charters, South Florida, Worth O'Brien
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