Rim Run™ Citizen Science Network • Western Caribbean • Launching October 2026
Red de Ciencia Ciudadana Rim Run™ • Caribe Occidental • Lanzamiento Octubre 2026

Citizen Science Network
Red de Ciencia Ciudadana

Trained local observers. Standardized field protocols. A living reef record built one country at a time — by the people who live closest to the water, for as many years as it takes.

Observadores locales capacitados. Protocolos de campo estandarizados. Un registro vivo del arrecife construido un país a la vez — por las personas que viven más cerca del agua, durante todos los años que sean necesarios.

Mexico • Belize • Guatemala • Honduras • Nicaragua • Costa Rica • Panama • Colombia • Aruba • Bonaire • Curaçao

The Mission

One Standard. Every Country.

The Rim Run™ Citizen Science Network connects trained local observers with a standardized field system to monitor reef conditions across eleven countries. The goal is not a snapshot — it is a longitudinal record, built year after year by the people who live on these coastlines, that grows more scientifically valuable and more politically powerful with every passing season.

This is not extraction. The data belongs first to the communities who generate it. The training, the tools, and the international visibility that comes with participation are given back to every country the expedition enters — because the health of these reefs ultimately depends on the people who live beside them understanding their value and having the means to protect it.

The Rim Run™ expedition serves as the coordinating field platform — establishing standards, conducting primary observations, and developing trained observers within each country it enters. Then it comes back next year and does it again.

No outside organization has committed to this coastline, these communities, and this methodology with the consistency this work demands. The Rim Run™ does. Every year. The same loop. The same protocols. The same respect.

Español

La Misión

Un Estándar. Cada País.

La Red de Ciencia Ciudadana Rim Run™ conecta a observadores locales capacitados con un sistema de campo estandarizado para monitorear las condiciones de los arrecifes en once países.

La expedición Rim Run™ sirve como plataforma de campo coordinadora — estableciendo estándares, realizando observaciones primarias y formando observadores capacitados en cada país que visita. Luego regresa el año siguiente y lo hace de nuevo.

How the Network Works

Built From the Water Up.

This network is built to establish trained, locally anchored observers in every participating country — people who know their reef, know their community, and carry the data forward long after the expedition has moved on.

Español

Cómo Funciona la Red

Construida Desde el Agua Hacia Arriba.

Esta red está diseñada para establecer observadores capacitados y anclados localmente en cada país participante.

Government Support

Coordination with national marine authorities, fisheries departments, and protected area managers in each country ensures access, permitting, and institutional legitimacy.

Apoyo Gubernamental

La coordinación con las autoridades marinas nacionales garantiza el acceso, los permisos y la legitimidad institucional.

Scientific Alignment

Protocols align with Reef Check, AGRRA, and Healthy Reefs Initiative standards — ensuring data integrates with the wider western hemisphere monitoring record.

Alineación Científica

Los protocolos se alinean con los estándares de Reef Check, AGRRA e Healthy Reefs Initiative.

Citizen Observers

Locally recruited and trained divers, fishers, and coastal community members who maintain site-level monitoring. Their ecological knowledge — often generations deep — is treated as the scientific asset it is.

Observadores Ciudadanos

Buceadores, pescadores y miembros de comunidades costeras reclutados y capacitados localmente.

Training System

Standardized field training delivered in-country during each circuit — hands-on, protocol-driven, and designed for retention by people who work the water for a living.

Sistema de Capacitación

Capacitación de campo estandarizada impartida en cada país durante cada circuito.

Data Collection

Belt transects, point-intercept surveys, fish counts, water conditions, and photographic documentation — consistent methodology across all eleven countries.

Recopilación de Datos

Transectos de banda, censos de intercepto de puntos, conteos de peces, condiciones del agua y documentación fotográfica.

Storm Response

Trained observers conduct rapid post-storm assessments at their home sites — building the first systematic storm-impact record for this coastline.

Respuesta a Tormentas

Los observadores capacitados realizan evaluaciones rápidas posteriores a tormentas en sus sitios de origen.

Annual Calibration

Each annual circuit includes observer calibration sessions — ensuring data quality, methodological consistency, and the personal reconnection that keeps a long-term network alive.

Calibración Anual

Cada circuito anual incluye sesiones de calibración de observadores.

Long-Term Vision

Twenty years of standardized observations along this arc would constitute one of the most significant community-based reef records ever assembled — powerful enough to change policy.

Visión a Largo Plazo

Veinte años de observaciones estandarizadas constituirían uno de los registros de arrecifes basados en la comunidad más significativos jamás reunidos.

Observer Registry

Four Levels. One Standard.

The network is built on a four-level certification progression. Level 1 is the entry point — where every observer begins. Level 4 is the top of the ladder. Each level represents earned competency: specific skills, specific survey authority, and specific responsibilities within the network.

Level 1

Observer Candidate

The starting point. Level 1 observers have completed basic reef literacy training and can conduct surface and snorkel-depth visual assessments. They identify major ecosystem zones, document obvious stressors, estimate broad coral cover categories, and submit standardized condition reports with photo documentation.

Surface & snorkel surveys • Standardized condition reporting • Photo documentation • Entry level

Level 2

Certified Reef Observer

Level 2 certification requires demonstrated competency in structured underwater reef survey methodology. Observers conduct belt transect surveys, point-intercept coral assessments, and fish abundance counts at depth. They operate independently at assigned home sites and submit records that meet CCRA scientific standards.

Belt transect & point-intercept surveys • Fish counts at depth • Independent site monitoring • CCRA certified

Level 3

Senior Field Observer

Level 3 observers add multi-parameter environmental data collection — water quality instrumentation, dissolved oxygen, salinity, pH, and thermocline profiling. They lead post-storm rapid assessments, conduct cross-site comparative analysis, and serve as site coordinators. They can train and evaluate Level 1 candidates.

Environmental instrumentation • Rapid post-event assessment • Level 1 training authority • Site coordinator

Level 4

Master Observer

The top of the certification ladder. Level 4 observers hold full survey authority across all methodologies and environments. They design survey protocols for new sites, validate data quality across the network, and hold certification authority for Levels 1 and 2. They serve as the scientific backbone of the CCRA.

Full survey authority • Protocol design • Certifies Levels 1 & 2 • Network data validation

Certification Principle / Principio de Certificación

Every observer in this network starts at Level 1. Advancement is earned through demonstrated field competency, not time served or credentials held elsewhere. A commercial fisherman who has worked the same reef for twenty years starts at Level 1 — and may reach Level 4 faster than anyone. The standard is what you can do in the water, not what is written on a certificate from somewhere else.

Todo observador en esta red comienza en el Nivel 1. El avance se gana a través de competencia demostrada en campo, no por tiempo acumulado ni por credenciales obtenidas en otro lugar.

Caribbean Coastal Reef Alliance

One Alliance. Seven Nations.

The Caribbean Coastal Reef Alliance — CCRA — is a seven-country cross-border consortium born from the Rim Run™ expedition and designed to outlast it. Its purpose is coordinated reef monitoring across the full Western Caribbean coastal arc, executed by locally trained observers operating under shared standards, sharing data across borders, and speaking with a unified scientific voice.

The CCRA operates on the principle of equal national partnership. No country leads permanently. Leadership rotates among member nations on a structured cycle. The data belongs to all. The mission belongs to all.

Seven Equal Partners

Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Panama — each a full member with equal standing, equal voice, and equal claim to the data the alliance produces.

Siete Socios Iguales

Cada uno como miembro pleno con igual representación, igual voz e igual derecho sobre los datos.

Rotating Leadership

The alliance presidency rotates among member nations on a structured cycle. No country leads permanently. Every government has ownership. Every community has standing.

Liderazgo Rotativo

La presidencia de la alianza rota entre los países miembros en un ciclo estructurado.

Shared Data

All reef monitoring data across the seven-country CCRA arc is shared in a structured, controlled-access format — building a regional record no single country could produce alone.

Datos Compartidos

Todos los datos de monitoreo se comparten en un formato de acceso controlado.

Unified Standards

Shared protocols, shared training, shared methodology — ensuring data from Panama can be directly compared with data from Mexico.

Estándares Unificados

Protocolos compartidos, capacitación compartida, metodología compartida.

Policy Voice

A seven-nation alliance speaking from a shared scientific record carries weight that no single organization can match. The CCRA is the reef's advocate at the regional and international level.

Voz Política

Una alianza de siete naciones tiene un peso que ninguna organización individual puede igualar.

Built to Last

The Rim Run™ expedition founded the CCRA and coordinates its early years. The alliance is structured to operate independently — growing stronger as member nations take increasing ownership.

Construida para Durar

La expedición Rim Run™ fundó la CCRA y coordina sus primeros años.

Extended Network Partners / Socios de Red Extendida

Colombia, Aruba, Bonaire, and Curaçao participate as Extended Network Partners — operating under the same field protocols and data standards as CCRA members, contributing to the broader eleven-country Rim Run Caribe™ monitoring record.

🇨🇴 Colombia 🇦🇼 Aruba 🇧🇶 Bonaire 🇨🇼 Curaçao

The Reef Keepers

The Scientists of Tomorrow.

The Reef Keepers is the youth education program of the Rim Run™ Citizen Science Network — designed to introduce children and young people of all school ages to oceanography, reef ecology, and the science of the coastlines they live beside. A child who learns to read a reef at ten years old may spend the next sixty years protecting it.

The program operates in two environments: the classroom and the field. The Reef Keepers program is coordinated through the CCRA in each member country — giving it government backing, school system access, and the institutional legitimacy to operate at scale.

A ten-year-old who learns to read a reef today may spend the next sixty years protecting it. The Reef Keepers program makes that investment — one child, one coastline, one country at a time.

Citizen Science Network
Red de Ciencia Ciudadana

One Standard. Every Country.

Un Estándar. Cada País.

Built From the Water Up.