The protocol M onitoring of 'E nvironment C ostiero (MAC), the association Reef Chek Italian non-profit organization, born from the desire of many divers to contribute to the protection of the seabed and through the work of spreading and raising awareness both in collaboration with coastal researchers and managers. The purpose of the protocol is to carry out underwater observations useful to broaden the knowledge on the distribution of some species of particular ecological interest and to follow their changes over time. The protocol is based on the visual census conducted along random paths, at variable depths and for a known time. It is a method derived from the so-called " timed swims " already applied to monitor benthic populations, macro-invertebrates and fish in tropical reefs.

The work network, followed by researchers from different Universities , provides for the active participation of volunteers, adequately trained ( EcoDiver MAC ), and local coordinators ( EcoDiver MAC Trainer ) who have the task of promoting the protocol and coordinating the activity to local level, involving as many volunteers as possible.

The MAC protocol requires EcoDivers to be able to locate and describe the most important characteristics of their dives, to note the presence / absence and abundance of the chosen organisms, also with the help of underwater cards , and to enter all this information in the database by filling in the tab on the website or using the smartphone application ( Reef Check Med ).

The Centro Sub Corato APS ETS actively collaborates in the MAC Project of Reef Chek Italia onlus with a MAC Nucleus that guarantees constant underwater monitoring and, thanks to the two EcoDiver MAC Trainer instructors, trains new EcoDiver divers .

The EcoDiver courses of the Centro Sub Corato APS ETS are divided into a theory and a practical part. They are open to divers and non-divers (as auditors for the theoretical part only, following which they will receive a certificate of participation).

At the end of the theoretical part, the students undergo a final dive, in which they will put into practice the MAC monitoring methodology, and will receive the Ecodiver patent with a personal code to access the Reef Check Italia platform for entering the data collected during their MAC monitoring dives.