Research & decisions
The public evidence behind the campaign and selected strategic choices, including what that evidence does not establish.
Research and decision index documented • Open assumptions retainedPublished sources informing the project
Official program information
Florida DEP SEAFAN BleachWatch explains observer training, reporting roles, and program participation. The program page does not prove why individual divers do or do not participate.
Historical participation context
SEAFAN December 2025 Current Conditions Report provides training and report totals. Those are program statistics, not campaign results or unique-participant conversion rates.
Community and intermediary examples
Friends of Our Florida Reefs and public dive-operator materials provide context for observer outreach and possible channels; they do not establish new 2027 partnership commitments.
Related science and audience research
NOAA science guidance and published marine citizen-science studies can inform careful explanations and hypotheses. Findings from other regions or populations cannot be assumed to apply to Southeast Florida divers.
Selected decisions and their status
- Approved · Audience. Eligible active recreational reef divers are the primary recruitment audience; dive-community businesses are potential intermediaries.
- Approved · Goal alignment. Historical objective 2.3 citizen science is the campaign’s primary organizational alignment; 2.1 and 2.2 may support education and appropriate partnerships.
- Provisional · Numeric objective. 15–20 campaign-referred completed observers in the proposed May–July 2027 recruitment period; feasibility and attribution still need real-world verification.
- Approved conditional aim. Already-trained observers are a separate activation audience when thermal stress warrants; no reporting-increase target is invented.
- Approved scientific caution. Bleaching is not mortality, disease risks must not imply an actual outbreak, and research findings need correct attribution and scope.
- Open · Operational dependencies. Training availability, partners, press access, scientific approvals, observer route and authorized registration/completion data remain unknown.
Editorial decisions worth showing
Reassessing the press-release news angle
An early hypothetical release proposed a newly announced operator partnership. Further review found that BleachWatch already has dive-community participation and media examples. The existing angle should therefore be revisited rather than presenting routine or previously established collaboration as new.
The campaign has an indexed decision register, but it includes approved decisions, provisional ideas, parked concepts, and earlier technical-system proposals. This page curates substantive campaign reasoning, not every historical entry.
Working sources and review status
Traceable working material
BleachWatch workbook: 1 Situation Audit, 6 Sources Assumptions, 7 Portfolio Package, and 8 Campaign Decision Index. Sources were reviewed in the working research mainly in October 2026; links and current details require rechecking before final use. These are independent practice decisions and research notes, not DEP-approved arrangements or actual 2027 program results. The campaign strategy is substantively complete for this portfolio exercise; the remaining work is final presentation polish and production of selected communications assets.
Selected research and decision notes
Selected original workbook wording, not edited for portfolio publication. The full evidence log, source details, qualifications and decision history remain in the planning workbook.
Selected evidence
- E01
Florida DEP’s Coral Reef Conservation Program coordinates research, monitoring, management strategies and partnerships along Miami-Dade, Broward, Palm Beach and Martin counties.
- E04
The completed 2025 season recorded 106 BleachWatch reports, including 99 from the Coral AP, while 127 new observers were trained through 17 classes and 9 new instructors joined the network.
- E05
Friends of Our Florida Reefs describes an existing network of 900+ BleachWatch observers.
- E12
The current DEP BleachWatch page offers a self-paced online eLearning route to become an observer, plus sign-up for in-person and optional in-water training.
- E14
Friends of Our Florida Reefs promotes BleachWatch as a community-science opportunity and also works with local dive shops across Southeast Florida counties on reef activities.
- E16
A peer-reviewed survey of scuba-diver marine citizen-science participants found leading reported motivations included interest in the subject (82%), making a contribution (80%) and science (77%). Potential participants cited time/distance, limited knowledge of citizen science and lack of promotion; they specifically wanted better direct engagement, access through dive centres and training opportunities.
- E18
DEP’s BleachWatch Instructor Guide directs instructors arranging in-water training to identify a dive charter company to host the training and includes an advertising step once date/location are confirmed.
- E22
Southeast Florida long-term monitoring shows SCTLD caused major stony-coral losses earlier in the outbreak, but regional disease prevalence remained below 1% from 2018-2024 and reached 0.2% in 2024; SCTLD was still present but at low prevalence.
- E23
During the 2026 thermal-stress season, Southeast Florida experienced Bleaching Watch conditions and reports ranging from light paling to significant bleaching; some tissue-loss disease was also observed at individual sites.
- E24
In the completed 2025 Southeast Florida BleachWatch season, 99 reports came from the Kristin Jacobs Coral Aquatic Preserve and 87 documented bleaching. At affected sites, thermal stress ranged from 1% to 100% of live coral, although most reports were in the 1%–10% range. DEP states that BleachWatch reports aid resource management by helping assess reef status, identify affected areas and provide insight into recovery.
- E25
NOAA states that climate-driven bleaching can increase corals’ susceptibility to disease; bleached corals are stressed and more vulnerable to additional stressors. This supports describing disease as a potential compounding pressure after thermal stress, not as evidence of a current Southeast Florida outbreak.
Questions to verify
- Number of currently active trained Southeast Florida BleachWatch observers is unknown.
- Number of unique observers who generated the 106 reports in 2025 is unknown.
- Training-to-first-report and repeat-report rates are unknown.
- Whether trained divers understand why ‘no bleaching/no disease’ reports matter is unknown.
- Whether DEP Southeast Florida uses non-bleaching observations to identify candidate heat-tolerant colonies for follow-up is not confirmed.
- Program capacity to process substantially more reports is unknown.
- A completed 2026 BleachWatch reporting/training baseline is not yet available.
Primary references
- S01 · Florida DEP Coral Reef Conservation Program
- S03 · Florida DEP — SEAFAN BleachWatch
- S04 · SEAFAN BleachWatch Current Conditions Report — December 2025
- S08 · NOAA Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary — Marine Heatwave and Coral Bleaching Response FAQs
- S13 · Cerrano et al. / PLOS ONE — scuba diving marine citizen science participant survey
- S15 · Florida DEP — BleachWatch Instructor Guide
- S17 · Florida DEP Press Office / News & Press Releases
- S21 · NOAA National Ocean Service — Can a coral reef recover from bleaching and other stressful events?
Core campaign decisions
- C03 · Target audience
Recruit eligible, active Southeast Florida recreational reef divers in Martin, Palm Beach, Broward and Miami-Dade counties.
- C04 · Primary result
15–20 campaign-referred eligible divers completing BleachWatch observer training between May 1 and July 15, 2027.
- C05 · Conditional activation
When elevated thermal stress warrants, encourage already-trained observers to submit relevant condition reports after dives, including reports with no bleaching/disease.
- C06 · Partner communications
Potential dive shops, instructors, guides, divemasters and charter operators act as intermediaries/access points and possible partner/enablers.
- C07 · Scientific framing
Use bounded coral heat-stress, bleaching, disease, reef vulnerability and resilience science to explain why observer training/reporting can be valuable.
- C08 · Measurement caution
Campaign referrals can contribute to an observed training completion without proving exclusive causal influence.