Twenty-five years after founding the Reef Environmental Education Foundation, Ned and Anna DeLoach spearheaded the creation of the largest marine-sighting database in the world. Through their research and work with REEF, the underwater photographers and avid conservationists have co-authored 10 fish-identification guides, and made giant strides in protection of coral reef and fish species around the globe. For their insurmountable contributions to the ocean planet, Ned and Anna DeLoach are our June 2015 Sea Heroes.

WHAT’S THE STORY BEHIND REEF?

Along with our business partner Paul Humann, and dear friend Jim Dalle Pazze, we founded REEF in the early 1990s. We realized the need for such an organization based on the lack of information we were able to find on the distribution and abundance of marine species during research for our first of 10 marine life identification guides.

A small volunteer staff we assembled began devising a surveying protocol and creating teaching materials. The first official survey took place in 1993 in Key Largo, Florida, where the organization’s headquarters is located today. A quarter century and thousands of volunteer divers later, REEF has compiled the largest visual sighting database of fish in the world — a unique resource used by government agencies, researchers, conservation organizations and fisheries managers to help establish and evaluate management practices.

To date, our volunteer divers have conducted more than 190,000 underwater surveys throughout the tropical and temperate waters of the Western Hemisphere, including Bermuda, Baja California, the Galapagos Islands and Hawaii. Two years ago we expanded to the Azores, and have just begun to create survey materials for the western Pacific.

WHY IS FISH IDENTIFICATION IMPORTANT FOR DIVERS?

Scuba certification is a ticket to the greatest wildlife show on Earth, yet for some reason divers often seem oblivious to the dazzling life forms surrounding them. It’s such a shame. You don’t have to learn it all — in fact, that would be impossible. Even with more than 70 years of diving between Anna and I, we still encounter unfamiliar animals on virtually every dive.

It is an unending treasure hunt: from sighting a fish for the first time, to finding a dream animal on your wish list, to spotting a fish you can’t get enough of, to repeatedly happening onto things you never imagined existed, and even to discovering species new to science.

HOW CAN DIVERS GET INVOLVED?

Join REEF, the Reef Environment Education Foundation. Membership is free, and you can sign up at REEF.org. Its staff and volunteers have been teaching fish ID to all levels of divers and snorkelers for a quarter century now.

WHAT'S NEXT FOR NED AND ANNA?

We have just started work on a revision of Reef Fish Behavior, which first appeared in 2000. The project is very close to our hearts, and will keep us happily underwater watching fish for the immediate future.

If you know someone who's a Sea Hero click to nominate them!