Scaling up Coral Propagation Efforts in Puerto Rico, considerations and lessons learned for increasing project scope

Coral propagation efforts for restoration and species recovery in Puerto Rico have increased over the last few decades from a few scattered pilot projects to sustained nursery operations producing thousands of corals annually for outplanting. We report on an effort to scale-up propagation using in-situ nursery corals and increase the restoration footprint through outplanting; funded in part by compensatory restoration from large ship groundings. This effort will utilize proven nursery systems having high efficiency and robustness focused on the species Acropora palmata, A. cervicornis and Dendrogyra cylindrus. Obtaining coral genetic data will be used to help determine factors that drive success and insure high diversity. The methods have been selected by learning through communication with other nursery operators and setting up test nurseries and outplant locations to evaluate effectiveness before investing resources in scaling-up operations. This presentation will describe the planning process and selection of best practices/methods for scaling-up propagation in PR.