Reefs that are especially patchy, with high relief areas dispersed over sparsely covered areas, will present challenges, as will sites which are exceptionally diverse. It is not possible to use trained reef scientists in every location where data are needed, and volunteers have made and will continue to make significant contributions to a number of monitoring programs. However, not all volunteers are created equal. It is my opinion that many people continue to underestimate the difficulty of getting high quality data on reef conditions. Effective use of volunteers requires very careful design of the monitoring program by experienced reef scientists and hands-on training in the field and in the laboratory.
Photographic methods are particularly effective if volunteers are doing the monitoring.
Only then can we decide whether low tech methods can be sufficient for our purposes. We will probably need a variety of methods and long-term monitoring at randomly selected permanent sites to document changes in structure or function of the reef and trends over time. Clearly, however, we have made progress since the early days of top-heavy diving equipment and the dynamiting of reefs. It is, like many other manuals immensely helpful, but manuals must be backed up with technical assistance and explanation. Volunteers may be used for communications programs as well as for diving.