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| Santa Monica Pier Aquarium educator Nick Fash after another successful dive. Photo: Heal the Bay |
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Educator Nick Fash will participate in the Earthwatch Institute's coral reef research expedition in Belize for two weeks in August.
Nick Fash, educator at Heal the Bay’s Santa Monica Pier Aquarium, will join a team of researchers in Belize from August 6-19 to study environmental and anthropogenic impacts on coral growth along the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef.
Through a scholarship provided by the Helen and Peter Bing Foundation and the Earthwatch Institute, Nick will be working with Dr. James Crabbe from the University of Luton, England. The expedition will be with the Belize Conservation Research Initiative, and the team will be documenting how the effects of hurricanes, pollution and global warming are changing one of Earth’s most precious resources, the coral reefs. This information will be used to help managers better combat these adverse forces and plan ahead to keep reefs in a healthy state.
Fash will present his findings from the Belize expedition in public forums in the fall, relating the environmental impacts faced by coral reefs to environmental challenges found in the waters of Southern California.
As an educator at the Santa Monica Pier Aquarium, a community program of Heal the Bay, Nick spends his days teaching students about the amazing ocean habitat off the Southern California coast and what we can do to protect it.
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