Photographer Profiles

Craig Quirolo, Reef Relief (NGO)

Craig Quirolo Reef Relief (NGO)

Craig Quirolo founded Reef Relief , a non-profit conservation organization dedicated to protecting coral reefs, in 1987. He is the Director of Marine Projects and International Programs for the organization and directs the Bahamas Coral Survey, Reef Mooring Buoy and Coral Nursery Projects, the Coral Photo Monitoring Survey for Reef Relief and the Key West Marine Park Project. Craig was educated at Chico State University and the San Francisco Art Institute and apprenticed with the Greek artist Jean Varda and philosopher Alan Watts of Sausalito.

He is an experienced blue water sailor who has sailed over 100,000 miles, much of it in the Caribbean. Craig is an experienced diver and photographer and a well-respected coral reef naturalist. He led the effort to create Reef Relief’s Reef Mooring Buoy Program patterned after the design by Harold Hudson and John Halas. It eventually totaled 116 buoys at 7 Key West-area coral reefs, becoming the largest private mooring field in the world. Reef Relief maintained the system for ten years; it is now part of the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary.

Craig has been surveying coral reefs in the Key West area and other parts of the Caribbean and Bahamas for the past 15 years, beginning with the funds awarded with the first Robert Rodale Environmental Achievement Award. He returns to the same coralheads and documents change over time on a digital still and video format. Then he studies the images and video transects and identifies any anomolies,

Craig assimilated the data and images of his multi-year Coral Photo Monitoring Survey into a series of educational videos entitled Coral 2000: Volume 1: Coral Stress and Disease and Volume 2: Photomonitoring and the Coral Nursery.

Craig was honored with personal presentation of a Point of Light Award from President George Bush at Cheeca Lodge in Islamorada on Earth Day, 1990. He received the first Robert Rodale Environmental Achievement Award along with a cash prize of $10,000 from Rodale’s Scuba Diving Magazine in 1993, a Certificate of Appreciation from President Clinton’s Council on Sustainable Development in 1997, a commendation for the efforts of Craig and DeeVon Quirolo by Congressman Dante Fascell published in the Congressional Record, 1991, Rodale’s Scuba Diving Magazine Diver of the Month for Exceptional Contributions to the Conservation of our Waters in October 1992, the Negril Resort Board/Negril Coral Reef Preservation Society/Negril Area Environmental Protection Trust Award in 1995.