Reef Smart Guides

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.^[1]

Reef Smart Inc.

Company type	marine mapping
Industry	tourism
Founded	2016
Headquarters	Montreal, Quebec , Canada
Products	physical and digital maps
Website	www.reefsmartguides.com

Reef Smart Guides produces 3D models of natural coral reefs, historical shipwrecks and artificial reefs, including the internal structures of some shipwreck sites.^[2]

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.^[3] 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^[4] described by the Professional Association of Diving Instructors (PADI) as the number one shore dive in the United States.^[5]

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.^[6] 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.^[7]

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 200 feet (61 m) 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.^[8] 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.^[9]

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 130 feet (40 m). 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.^[10]