Reefs Unknown

14/08/2026

Buoyancy is the foundation of research diving. To be able to take photos and record data, you first need to be in control of your body positioning. Here Viktor is practicing on his rebreather with RV Makaira in the background.
Photo by of Viktor Brandtneris

07/08/2026

We hosted a successful dive mission in St Thomas back in April with the amazing Nevin SCUBA and Jen Mayfield Jennings who helped us shake down some tech diving on RV Makaira. We got a ton of great underwater content we'll be sharing soon!

08/06/2026

Happy World Oceans Day!

We are grateful for the ocean and everything it does for us. It keeps our planet cool, makes oxygen we need to breathe, provides food to millions of people, supports tourism, and so much more.

Today, we remember everything it does for us, and our shared responsibility to take care of the sea and the creatures in it. 🐟🐠🦈🦐🐙🪸

If you live near the ocean, we encourage you to go visit it today. Give it a wave, and maybe it will wave back. 🌊

📸: Sarah Heidmann. The beautiful blue at the Flower Garden Banks off the coast of Texas.

22/04/2026

Happy Earth Day 🌊
The ocean covers 71% of our planet — and protecting it is a shared responsibility. That’s what anchors our work: to better understand these ecosystems so we can make informed decisions about their future.
We’ve been quiet lately, but that’s about to change. Tomorrow, we head out on our first multi-day field mission aboard our new vessel — and we’re excited about what’s on the horizon.

24/04/2025

Read more about the coral reef photogrammetry workshop we supported in the British Virgin Islands in January 👀

The H. Lavity Stoutt Community College’s (HLSCC) Centre for Applied Marine Studies (CAMS) recently completed an exciting new project aimed at bolstering the Territory’s capacity to monitor and research coral reefs using advanced imaging technology. Funded by the UK Darwin Plus Initiative, the pr...

22/04/2025

Happy Earth Day!
We're remembering when we had the privilege to support this workshop with our partners in the British Virgin Islands earlier this year. It was fun and educational, and we hope to partner again someday soon!

27/11/2024

This Thanksgiving, we are grateful for you, our followers. Thanks for all of your interest and support of our work to put mesophotic reefs on the map.
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Pictured: Sarah and Viktor on a boat while on expedition in Panama.

22/11/2024

Happy National Science Diving Day!! 🥳🤿
At Reefs Unknown, we love diving for science, and are proud to be an organizational member of the American Academy of Underwater Sciences (AAUS). They make it super easy to collaborate with other organizations to get dive fieldwork done. Thanks .scientific.diving !
.megccr

07/11/2024

Coming soon… 👀

25/10/2024

What do you see in this photo?
There's a lot going on here. Coral reefs are full of life in every square inch.

Maybe you first saw the crown-of-thorns starfish (COTS) in the left half of the frame. They are beautiful, but their spines are poisonous, causing a painful sting when touched. They are also voracious coral predators. In some areas they can have outbreaks where tons of them appear, seemingly out of nowhere. These large groups eat so much coral that it threatens reef health and they must be euthanized to control their effects.

This brings us to another part of the photo you may have noticed: the large greenish-white patch in the middle. This is dead coral, presumably eaten by this COTS. It's green because algae has started growing, making it difficult for the coral to grow back. You can see the live part of the coral that was spared, the brown patch in the middle-right part of the photo.

There's also sponges (the orange patches), encrusting algae (the purple patches), and more!

Did you learn something about coral reef ecology? Comment below!

Uva Reef, Pacific Panama. Photo by Viktor Brandtneris