The Early Years
Reef Relief was founded in 1986 by Craig and Deevon Quirolo, originally an effort to safeguard the Florida Keys Barrier Reef Tract. Early initiatives include the Mooring Buoy Program and the Clean Water Campaign. The Mooring Buoy Program consisted of the creation and installation of 116 mooring buoys at seven reef sites for boats to tie on to as an alternative to anchoring to prevent damage to corals. The Clean Water Campaign is an effort to guide reef-friendly policies at the local, state, and federal levels to protect the Florida Barrier Reef from various forms of pollution including wastewater from outfall pipes, boater sewage discharge, shallow injection wells, agricultural runoff, and phosphate detergents.
These preservation initiatives expanded to later projects including the initiation of the Coral Reef Conservation Program, a grassroots effort to spread coral reef education to boaters, divers, fishermen, policymakers, residents, visitors, educators, and students through the opening of education centers, conducting school visits, hosting workshops, and producing educational materials. In tandem, these efforts also led to the creation of coral nurseries, photo monitoring surveys, and coral reef protection efforts and education initiatives in Jamaica, Honduras, Bahamas, Cuba, Puerto Rico, Mexico, and St. Kitts.