At the Water’s Edge Team Hosts Reef Week

In March 2017, The At the Water’s Edge Project hosted Reef Week, a week of awareness activities to educate the communities within the project site about coastal resilience. Reef Week activities included beach clean-ups, a movie night, fish fest and environmental fair as well as school visits by over 800 students from 19 schools across the country.  During the visit, students learned about the implementation of ecosystem-based adaptation strategies within the bay. The students also participated in hands-on activities, such as beach profiling to measure erosion, water quality testing and planting mangroves. In the video, students work with The Nature Conservancy’s Steve Schill to fly a drone from Telescope Beach to view hybrid reef structures that were installed in 2015 as part of a pilot to reduce wave energy.  The structures are being monitored by Conservancy staff Kemit-Amon Lewis, Boze Hancock and local fisherman Tony Charles.  The monitors check the reef structures for durability and record the number and variety of fish species seen on the structures, such as lobster, urchins, squirrel fish, and blue striped grunts.