Reef Smart Guides
{{short description|Canadian mapping company}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=May 2025}}
{{Infobox company
| name = Reef Smart Inc.
| logo = Logo_Reef_Smart_Guides.png
| type = marine mapping
| genre =
| foundation = 2016
| founder =
| location_city = Montreal, Quebec
| location_country = Canada
| locations =
| area_served =
| industry = tourism
| products = physical and digital maps
| services =
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| website = www.reefsmartguides.com
| footnotes =
}}
Reef Smart Guides, sometimes referred to as Reef Smart, is a Canadian corporation established in 2016 and based in Montreal, Quebec. The company creates digital 3D models of dive and snorkel sites using photogrammetry, which are used primarily by recreational scuba divers and snorkelers to explore underwater ecosystems and by tourism industry businesses to promote the dive and snorkel sites they visit.{{Cite news|last=Landeau|first=Candice| url=https://digitalmagazine.scubadiving.com/issues/april-2024/a-new-frontier?utm_source=sfmc&utm_medium=email&global_uid=cc7c0361-995b-4c48-8507-a69aed8faa51&sfmc_activityid=1786490&sfmc_id=112834256&utm_campaign=pam-en-pmg-b2b-email-scuba_diving_magazine_digital_delivery&utm_content=april_2023scubadivingmagazine_im_1310021800&utm_term=https%3A%2F%2Fdigitalmagazine.scubadiving.com%2Fissues%2Fapril-2024%2Fa-new-frontier&fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTAAAR1K2nFvyYZPUaexAJS_Gp1edQKkimZPuPYDeWwaD7J57Rc_clOu8aAHO94_aem_AaxGAT5WYjlUre2iAfhAPbPYdruldQUUwBGGqcfPoIEG3jTpvQY3VDNx_XVxmd07pPwJP9A_Be7BV6qMLMHhTw-u|title=A new frontier|date=1 April 2024|work=Scuba Diving Magazine|access-date=2025-04-19}}
Reef Smart Guides produces 3D models of natural coral reefs, historical shipwrecks and artificial reefs, including the internal structures of some shipwreck sites.{{Cite news|last=Morton|first=Brooke| url=https://www.scubadiving.com/4-dives-that-will-get-you-hooked-on-wreck-diving|title=4 Dives That Will Get You Hooked on Wreck Diving|date=1 February 2019|access-date=2025-04-19 |work= Scuba Diving Magazine}}
The company publishes a travel guide series, focused on diving, snorkeling and surfing for eight destinations, including Barbados, Bonaire, Curaçao, Grand Cayman and various regions within the state of Florida, including Palm Beach, the Florida Panhandle, the Florida Keys and Fort Lauderdale. The series was distributed by Mango Publishing from 2018 to 2025, and was transferred to Turner Publishing in 2025.
Reef Smart Guides' maps also appear in physical formats, including handheld waterproof cards and large format prints, often installed in public locations along the shorelines access points of dive and snorkel sites with the aim of raising awareness and improving safety.{{Cite news|last=Gillespie|first=Alexandra|url=https://www.sportdiver.com/can-beachside-dive-site-signs-grow-reef-awareness|title=Can Beachside Dive Site Signs Improve Reef Awareness?|date=17 April 2020|access-date=2025-05-17|work=Scuba Diving Magazine}} Shoreline signage has been installed in locations in Broward County, Okaloosa County, and Palm Beach County, Florida. In 2022, the Palm Beach County Department of Environmental Resources Management installed a map of the Phil Foster Park dive and snorkel trail at Blue Heron Bridge{{Cite news|last= Dorsainvil|first=Aja|url=https://www.wflx.com/2022/04/14/reef-smart-snorkel-trail-map-installed-blue-heron-bridge/?fbclid=IwAR3DY1foJJe3sHE8d-zYsNgZZh1DucdbJ_8oO6OF7OjW8vP_CMIlZmFzcDM|title= Reef Smart snorkel trail map installed at Blue Heron Bridge|date=14 April 2022|access-date=2025-05-17|work= Fox29WFLX.com}} described by the Professional Association of Diving Instructors (PADI) as the number one shore dive in the United States.{{cite web|title=Blue Heron Bridge|url=https://www.padi.com/dive-site/united-states-of-america-usa/blue-heron-bridge-2/|website=PADI}}
Other activities
=Insight into hurricane forces=
While 3D modeling artificial reefs in the Fort Lauderdale area of Florida in 2017, a dive team from Reef Smart Guides was inadvertently involved in a natural experiment that provided insight into the stability of artificial reefs underwater during passage of a hurricane.{{Cite news|last=Emmons|first=Mary France|url=https://www.scubadiving.com/how-hurricane-irma-radically-shifted-south-florida-wrecks|title=How Hurricane Irma Radically Shifted South Florida Wrecks|date=11 March 2018|work=Scuba Diving Magazine|access-date=2025-04-29}} 3D modeling data was collected on several of shipwrecks in the weeks leading up to the passage of Hurricane Irma, which was the most intense storm to hit the continental United States in over a decade when it passed through the area on September 10, 2017.{{Cite news|url=https://www.nhc.noaa.gov/data/tcr/AL112017_Irma.pdf|title=National Hurricane Center Tropical Cyclone Report Hurricane Irma|date=2021-09-24|work=NOAA and National Weather Service|access-date=2025-05-17}}
The waves and currents generated by Hurricane Irma caused changes in the physical structure of several wrecks in the Fort Lauderdale area, and even physically moved the former United States Army tugboat Okinawa over {{convert|200|ft}} across the seabed. Okinawa had been sunk as an artificial reef on August 19, 2017, less than one month before the storm’s passage through Florida.{{Cite news|last= Roberts|first=Elizabeth|url=https://www.sun-sentinel.com/2017/08/29/new-pompano-reef-doesnt-disappoint-divers-say/|title=New Pompano Reef Doesnt Disappoint Divers Say |date=2 June 2018|work=Sun Sentinel|access-date=2025-04-29}} This event was documented in season two of The Weather Files, in an episode titled "Total Impact", which aired on the Canadian Network Cottage Life on January 25, 2021.
= Shipwreck corrosion=
Reef Smart Guides' 3D models have been used to illustrate how shipwrecks corrode in the ocean and to highlight the measures being used to protect them.{{Cite news|last=Selman|first=Allison and Chris|url= https://www.scubadiving.com/how-shipwrecks-corrode|title=How shipwrecks corrode|date=15 July 2017|work=Scuba Diving Magazine|access-date=2017-07-15}}
=Munitions testing vessel=
In April 2022, the United States' Air Force Research Laboratory and Eglin's Integrated Test Team, demonstrated a modified GBU-31 joint direct attack munition in the Gulf of Mexico by targeting, and successfully destroying the old cargo ship Courageous. The wreck, which was split in half by the munition, settled on the seabed at a depth of {{convert|130|ft}}. The site was then 3D modelled jointly by Reef Smart Guides and the Okaloosa County Artificial Reef program, providing insight into the effects of the munition.{{Cite news|last=Williams|first=Jared|url=https://www.getthecoast.com/okaloosa-collaborates-with-reef-smart-guides-on-3d-model-of-sunken-military-target/|title= Okaloosa collaborates with Reef Smart Guides on 3D model of sunken military target|date=1 June 2022|work=Get The Coast|access-date=2017-07-17}}