In March this year, the Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre (CCCCC) began installation of five new data buoys to expand the Caribbean Coral Reef Early Warning System (CREWS) Network to enhance the regions ability to monitor and study the effects of warming seas.

The installation is being carried out in collaboration with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and with the assistance of the governments of
the recipient countries of Antigua and Barbuda, Grenada, Saint Lucia, St. Kitts and St. Vincent and the Grenadines.

The purchase and installation of the buoys were funded under the United States Agency for International Development’s (USAID) Climate Change Adaptation Program (CCAP) which is being implemented by the Center. The expansion of the CREWS Network is aimed at enhancing the collection and availability of critical data from across the Eastern Caribbean by increasing the data points, and improving the region’s ability to track changes in a range of environmental variables including sea temperature and water quality.

The Center’s partnership with NOAA is part of a global coral reef monitoring network. The new CREWS stations have already begun to provide additional information to Caribbean scientists and researchers to monitor reef health, sea temperature changes, winds (speed and gusts), barometric pressure, precipitation, photo-synthetically active/available radiation (PAR, light), air temperature, and salinity. Other instruments may be added through arrangement with the host countries.

Under a previous sponsorship arrangement, CREWS stations were installed in Belize, Trinidad & Tobago, the Dominican Republic, and Barbados.

Credit: Environmental Monitor; Summer 2018
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