Abstract Summary
In 2017, two devastating hurricanes, Irma and Maria, impacted St. Thomas island, part of the U.S. Virgin Islands in the northeastern Caribbean. These hurricanes had enormous impacts on the two coral nurseries operating on the island as well as on outplanted coral communities. Overseen by UVI faculty, graduate students in the University of the Virgin Islands Master of Marine and Environmental Science (MMES) program had become the primary caretakers of the nurseries and had performed a scientific evaluation of outplanted coral communities nine months prior to the hurricane landings. Following the storms, graduate students also became the primary re-builders of the nursery and conducted a follow-up evaluation of the same outplanted coral communities. A summary of the impacts of the hurricane on the nurseries and outplant communities is presented, along with lessons-learned about small-island coral restoration operations in the face of changing reef environments and increasing storm frequency.
