One of Aquatic Life Divers' missions is to monitor the health of reef systems along the Kona Coast. To do this, we teamed-up with Dr. John Burns at U Hawaii Hilo to visit approximately 20 reef structures both North and South of Honokohau Harbor. At each of these sites we swim a bearing away from the mooring line and take a collection of 200-400 photos in a very programed manner. These then are sent to UHH where they are stitched-together into a 3D visualization of the reef (much like dentists now do when they prepare a crown). By repeating this same effort on each reef over time, we are able to determine whether reefs are gaining in mass or losing in mass via computational reconstruction of the reefs and comparing our reconstructions over time. This was particularly important when we captured reef structure prior to the last warming event of 2019. This effort can even reach a fairly heroic level of effort- however, we are not really at that point yet. Dr. Burns can collect samples of corals along these transects and examine the genetic expression of stress genes (e.g., genes encoding heat shock proteins). In doing so, he can construct 3D images of reef health showing areas of the reef that are experiencing "stress". And, that cane be monitors over time to determine whether reefs are gaining in stress or becaoming less stressed. At this time, our efforts concern only gain and/or loss of reef mass. We conduct these survey throughout the year on our "Conservation Dives". These typically occur on Tuesdays and Saturdays and involve, for the most part, our dive club members. Pictured below is Mason Myrmo, a diver who has been with us for several years, conducting a photogrammetry survey. It's fun to do, but also important.