Eight SOF Veterans Join FORCE BLUE’S Ranks
Last week, FORCE BLUE had the privilege of welcoming eight new Special Operations Forces (SOF) veterans to its ranks during a week-long training and onboarding mission in the Florida Keys.
With assistance from our partners at I.CARE, Key Dives, the Guy Harvey Foundation, and Keys Marine Laboratory, and funding provided by the Seedlings Foundation, the eight new recruits were trained in coral outplanting and maintenance, sponge outplanting and collection, coral fragmentation, invasive species removal, and fish and invertebrate surveys.
Over four dive days, the team outplanted 376 corals and 60 sponges; collected 30 sponges and 23 corals of opportunity for future outplanting; prepared 147 coral fragments; and removed 36 invasive lionfish.
