Abstract Summary
Across the greater Caribbean and Florida there are a growing number of programs aiding in the enhancement of coral reefs through coral propagation. As new programs begin or established programs scale-up their efforts there is a need to provide guidance through best management practices and lessons learned to increase or accelerate a program’s success. A priority for the field-based propagation and monitoring working groups of the Coral Restoration Consortium was to synthesize, update, and develop best management practices for a broad field of restoration practitioners. As this field continues to scale-up through an increase in number of colonies, species or locations it is important to tailor these guides to all levels of a program; from start-up to scale-up. Current guides and practices, published materials, and knowledge from practitioners were gathered to assimilate the most up-to-date best management practices ranging from how to start a nursery program to how to monitor a large-scale restoration effort. Our goal is to provide practitioners with a platform from which they can learn from the successes and failures of others so we can collaboratively work towards restoring our reefs. The best management practices developed herein will be hosted online providing easy access and the ability to update quickly and frequently as the field continues to grow and change. We will present our progress to date including an unveiling of the online platform.
