Alizée Zimmermann photographing treated coral.

Dear Friends and Supporters,

We know it’s been a little while since our last newsletter—thank you for your patience! The truth is, we’ve simply been busy. The good kind of busy, the reef-saving, coral-loving, community-building kind of busy.

This Summer Edition is packed with updates we’re excited to share with you: from the long-awaited renovation of the Coral Gardens snorkel circle to teaching coral and benthic survey methodologies in Jamaica, learning and networking in Puerto Rico, and even showcasing the plight of Caribbean coral reefs at a film festival in Martha’s Vineyard.

We’ll also bring you behind the scenes of our growing efforts to expand, talk candidly about the current challenges including grant funding in today’s shifting political climate, and share a preliminary report on our recent citizen science research trip! (Don’t worry—our Rumpowered® Research to East Caicos Expedition is getting its own dedicated newsletter very soon!)

Thanks for sticking with us. Dive in and enjoy!

With Hope,

Alizée Zimmermann
Executive Director
Turks and Caicos Reef Fund

Positives to keep our hearts inspired…

coral gardens glow up

Thanks to the support of Andaz Turks & Caicos, we were able to fully remove and replace the snorkel circle at the Bight Reef! It was a massive effort, involving a couple dozen people and it was 100% worth it!

Check out the article we wrote on the endeavour on page 68 of Where When How: Summer 2025.

Volunteers replacing Bight Reef Swim Circle

Photo Credit: Nu Image Photography

Stacey bringing new buoy line to the water

Photo Credit: Nu Image Photography

JAMAICA AGRRA TRAINING

TCRF also travelled to Jamaica earlier in the summer where Alizee led an AGRRA Training of the Trainers workshop alongside Ruleo Camacho of Antigua and Barbuda National Parks. This week-long course was facilitated by NEPA and the University of the West Indies Discovery Bay Marine Lab.

In this immersive week, 6 persons were trained as Benthic surveyors with 4 becoming qualified benthic trainers and a further 6 persons were certified as fish trainers. Amongst the trainees were representatives from various local NGO’s, environmental consultants, University professors and government agents. Seeing and surveying other reefs around the Caribbean is instrumental to better understanding the interconnectivity of us all and the various relationships and their roles in coral reef ecosystems.

Seeing the clear differences in macroalgal abundance and heights present on reefs where parrotfish are commercially caught vs places like TCI where there is a ban on the consumption of Parrot fish was eye opening for example.

MV FILM FESTIVAL: DOCUMENTARY SCREENING

Showcasing the plight of coral reefs at the Martha’s Vineyard Film Festival - The documentary With and Without: A Coral Story (now available on Youtube!) was shown at the MV Film Festival . Alizee joined Leneita Fix, executive director of The Reef Institute and Derick Lonzano-Walker of Walker Wildlife Films for the showing and an engaging Q&A session afterwards.

This film follows the first few years of the advancement of stony coral tissue loss disease (SCTLD) in the Caribbean. The documentary travels to various Caribbean islands, including the TCI and speaks to people on the front lines of intervention and management.

Naguabo Conch Center

Dr. Kristal Ambrose

Presenting on SpaceX debris at AMLC

Dr. Stacey Williams

Inspecting her systems at ISER in La Perguera, Puerto Rico

Executive Director Alizée Zimmermann

Presenting at AMLC

NETWORKING IN PUERTO RICO

Directly after the film festival, Alizée travelled to Puerto Rico and spent a couple of days learning from the incredible team at ISERCaribe, led by Dr. Stacey Williams.

We then spent a week learning and networking at the Association of Marine Labs of the Caribbean (ALMC) Conference. There, she presented on our work in biobanking stony corals for genetic preservation, as well as presenting on behalf of Dr. Patricia Kramer of AGRRA on the Caribbean Restoration Roadmaps project funded by CorDap.

TCRF also participates in the Be a Mentor, Meet a Mentor Program, benefitting from training and capacity building in numerous areas—from large-scale imagery to assisted sexual reproduction of corals and post-larval settlement care.

It was an honour to represent such a large and diverse group of cutting-edge scientists at this year’s conference.

coral biobank continued funding

Our application to the Ellerman Foundation for continued funding to expand our coral biobank was successful! We have secured 100,000 GBP over 2 years to help fund our expansion. TC Reef is making big moves and we are grateful for the support we’ve received from our community. The best is yet to come!

Rumpowered® Research 2025
was A huge success

This year, we had 6 visitors join our trip as citizen scientists and it was a hit! Guests spent time with volunteers and visiting researchers, learned about the work we’re doing, got training on coral and fish identification and ecology and got hands-on with coral disease treatment and nursery maintenance work.

The work that happened that week was inspiring yet sobering and we will be writing a special newsletter with more about our findings in the coming weeks.

Check out the blog by Explorer Ventures, the liveaboard company that has partnered with us to make this trip possible.

Challenges we’re facing…

reaching capacity limits

As we continue to grow our impact, our small team needs to grow alongside.

Donating towards core and operational costs might not hit the dopamine button the same way donating to specific projects with a tangible outcome, but it’s just as important, perhaps even more. When the work never ends, growing a team is necessary and in a world seeking instant gratification, core funding becomes a limiting factor.

Our next hires will include an Aquaculture & Facility Director as well as an Education, Outreach & Communications Officer. Interested candidates are invited to reach out to info@tcreef.org for more information.

DECREASE in GRANT funding

Although we were fortunate to be awarded the Ellerman Foundation Grant, access to grant funding has significantly decreased in the past year and in light of the political climate globally, there are some grants whose future is uncertain.

Now, more than ever before, philanthropy is the backbone of conservation work and needs us all to do what we can.

come visit the facility

**We’re open all summer long!**
Come by, bring the family and get hands on learning about coral reefs, their importance and what each of us can do to protect them.

Education initiatives continue

Up until the last week of school we continued to provide free educational field trips for up to 40 students per week.

During the summer holidays we’ve conducted field trips for multiple camps including the Junior Park Warden program, the Department of Youth’s summer camp and the Edward Gartland Youth Center.

Providing engaging and educational opportunities for students to get inspired by and involved in marine sciences continues to be a pillar of our work here at TC Reef.