A unique five-day field-based training workshop designed for coral reef and MPA resource managers, environmental assessment specialists, marine field investigators, students and litigators on conducting coral reef enforcement and natural resource investigations on a wide variety of anthropogenic events. It will run from Tuesday, May 26, 2009 through Saturday, May 30, 2009 - all participants must be on-site by late morning May 26th 2009. Flights will be arranged from Papaeete (International Airport) to Moorea (workshop location) for all accepted participants for either early morning on May 26th or the previous late afternoon. Return flights or ferry to Papaeete after the workshop will also be arranged.

Taught in, around, and adjacent to, the nearshore coral reef waters of Moorea, Tahiti, French Polynesia. The workshop will be held out of the Centre de Recherches et Observatoire de l'Environnement (CRIOBE), and involve lectures and demonstrations related to the relatively new field of coral reef forensic investigations, along with hands-on field injury and crime scene investigations guided by international professionals in wildlife enforcement, coral reef ecology, and marine natural resource investigation.

Regardless of region, most coral reef ecosystems around the world are under various levels of impact from illegal fishing, vessel groundings, destructive fishing, physical damage, coastal pollution and runoff, overfishing, illegal international trade, over-lapping (and often conflicting) use by various user groups, bleaching, chemical effects and endocrine disruption, alien species-associated phase shifts, and nutrient-associated phase shifts. Few areas have trained field investigators and well-developed natural resource programs to properly assess and handle the wide variety of anthropogenic events occurring; in most cases, such short-term human impact events often overwhelm the capabilities of resource managers to maximize prosecution, mitigation, negotiation, mediation, or litigation success. This takes on even greater significance relative to multi-country joint-investigations relative to shared coral reef impacts and illegal trafficking in coral reef products.

The five day training workshop will be organized as outlined below:

1. Background talks on investigative strategies, field risk management, ecological risk assessment, coral reef forensic techniques, treating data as evidence, incorporating local reef ecological issues and impacts into an investigation.
2. Practice in-water field investigation sessions with staff evaluation.
3. Instruction on using various components of a coral reef investigative toolkit.

A key feature of the Training Workshop will be a number of marine-based "crime/injury scenes" that the participants will investigate using the equipment and techniques learned during the workshop. The scenarios will be as realistic as possible and will involve actual field investigations and analysis by teams of workshop participants.

Instructional materials, reference materials and use of underwater investigative equipment will be provided, along with SCUBA tanks, dive gear, and boat transportation, meals, lodging and limited assistance towards airfare. Participants are responsible for having an open and curious attitude regarding conducting field investigations of coral reef injury events to support risk assessments, mitigation, litigation, mediation, or prosecution. Participants will be trained to work as investigative teams, using standardized marine CSI protocols and equipment to investigate a number of field coral reef event (i.e. crime or injury scene) scenarios.

Coral Reef CSI Workshop Details

The five-day workshop will be field-intensive involving afternoons spent in the water solving a variety of coral reef impact scene scenarios. Participants should be able to SCUBA dive comfortably in the ocean and conduct investigative activities under various environmental conditions.

Cost per person: $0 for the 5 day workshop (Accepted participants will be provided airfare costs (for South Pacific Island Participants; if necessary, up to $1000 USD), meals, lodging, all workshop costs and materials, and diving costs. Participants are responsible for any additional travel costs & incidentals on-site.)

Some of the Major Topics to Be Covered:

• Introduction to Crime Scene Investigations (CSI) on Coral Reefs
• Setting an Event Perimeter and Securing the Scene
• Coral Reef Investigation Field Kits
• Conducting Rapid Ecological Assessments (REAs) to Support Investigations
• Sampling for Coral Reef Laboratory Forensics
• Collecting Physical Evidence Underwater & Documenting Damage
• Chain-of-Custody Issues

All participants will be provided a copy of the 278-page toolkit for the workshop, along with an in-water flipbook aid, and underwater evidence collection supplies.

For more information please email Terri Young (tyoung@icran.org), Serge Planes (planes@univ-perp.fr), and Dave Gulko (gulkod001@hawaii.rr.com)

This workshop is possible through generous funding support from the United States Department of State through the International Coral Reef Action Network (ICRAN) along with additional participant travel funds from the Coral Reef Initiatives for the South Pacific (CRISP) and the Institut des Recifs Coralliens du Pacifique (IRCP).

If you would like to participate, please email the application form by April 14, 2009.
Note: Workshop is limited in the number of participants and application does not automatically qualify as acceptance into the workshop. We will notify applicants by April 25, 2009 as to whether they have been accepted as a participant for the workshop.

• Application form (Word File)
• Flyer (PDF File)