Hey, there, California divers. I'm writing with a bit of a request for y'all to take a look at http://www.rockethub.com/projects/3745-hey-did-you-miss-that-fish. I'm a scientist working with a huge 30 year data set looking at what lives in the kelp forests around the Channel Islands. It's an awesome data set that has a huge amount of information about how those kelp forests have changed (or not) over the years. Over 30 years, there have been a ton of great divers who have helped with these kelp, urchin, and fish counts. Because every diver counts a little differently, and because surveys are conducted in heavy surge, bad viz, and other conditions, one piece of information we need to make this data really useful is the amount of error due just to difficulties of SCUBA research.

This isn't part of the normal research program of the Channel Islands National Park, so, I'm trying to help them out by raising some extra funds through crowdfunding. I've got a site up over at http://www.rockethub.com/projects/3745-hey-did-you-miss-that-fish to try and really would love any support you can give - from $1 to anything else. I've even got rewards for funding that I'll send your way.

If you know anyone who this might be interesting to, please, send it their way! Every bit helps out for California Kelp Forest Research!

• Funding Channel Islands Kelp Forest Research