Beyond The Reef is a British Virgin Islands based Non-Profit Organization formed in 2018 as a response to hurricanes Irma and Maria. Beyond The Reef’s main mission is to protect the abundant and diverse marine ecosystem of the BVI that simultaneously encourages local community education and pride in the surrounding underwater habitat.
As part of this mission, Beyond The Reef has created 3 large-scale artificial reef systems out of hurricane damaged vessels that have gone on to become vibrant coral reef sites and popular scuba diving destinations.
We have also taken on the responsibility of monitoring and treating Stony Coral Tissue Loss Disease within the territory which has been prevalent in this part of the Caribbean for the past several years.
We have initiated a shark research program studying juvenile lemon sharks pupping grounds, nurse shark aggregations and a recently discovered tiger shark bank. The BVI is a shark sanctuary, however until recently there was no baseline data on their populations’ health and the importance of certain habitats within the BVI to the various species.
More recently, we have begun our second season of cetacean field research, discovering the importance of the BVI waters to the annual humpback migration route through utilizing hydroacoustics, visual fluke identifications, and boat transects to systematically study several aspects of their behaviors and presence within the waters.
Lastly, we have dedicated much of the past several years to identifying and clearing “ghost fishing” gear out of the waters and coastline. Ghost fishing gear refers to derelict, abandoned or lost fishing gear in the marine environment that continues to trap fish and animals for years and years after they were originally set for use. This abandoned gear such as nets, traps and pots not only attract, trap, entangle and potentially kill marine life, but they also often smother fragile marine environments such as coral reef. Beyond The Reef has been hard at work cleaning miles of coastline from these deadly nets as well as any other hurricane debris or plastics that we encounter along the way that pose a threat to the marine environment.
