Abstract Summary
Documenting the history of reef restoration is important because it allows us to understand our past and be more informed to take action in the future. The great men and women in our history were innovators who responded to crisis and went against convention. In the early 1900’s there was pioneering research on oyster transplantation in America. The earliest published research on coral transplantation methods we found was from the 1928-29 Great Barrier Reef Expedition. Research on coral farming methods started again in 1974 and became global by 2000. One of the early pioneers of transplanting corals in the 1980s and most prolific scientists in the academic literature was Dr Austin Bowden-Kerby. In the early 2000’s Tom Moore, NOAA, Ken Nedimyer CRF and Caitlin Lustic, were the prime movers developing Acropora nursery techniques. The Mote Marine Laboratory pioneered new methods including micro fragmentation with claims coral growth up to 50 times natural rates. The early leader in management of reef restoration was NOAA who developed legislation in 1973 to protect and restore habitats. This led to small and large-scale repair of coral reefs damaged by ship accidents. Reef restoration communicators are authors of books, manuals, scientific papers as well as photographs, films, TED talks and underwater art. The notable people in this field include Margos (1974), Jaap (2000), Precht (2006) and Edwards (2010) who wrote manuals for practictioners and scientists. There are several popular (over 1 million views) TED talks by scientists such as Kristen Marhaven and artist Jason deCaires Taylor. The business of reef restoration originated in aquaculture and has also covers insurance, conservation and tourism. The Nature Conservancy, Coral Restoration Foundation and Mars Foundation are international leaders in coral restoration. In 2017 the Reef Restoration Foundation deployed Australia’s first coral nursery at Fitzroy Island. The cumulative global area of reef restoration is unknown and difficult to measure. The costs of reef restoration are estimated at $1.6-6.4M per hectare. The participation, number, area, scale and diversity of reef restoration projects appear to be increasing rapidly.
