Abstract Summary
An important objective of any reef restoration program that involves replanting corals onto degraded reefs is developing the ability to not just produce reef competent corals in sufficient quantities to effect change, but to produce enough species diversity and genetic diversity to try to duplicate the diversity found on comparable healthy reefs. To meet this objective, effective techniques need to be developed to collect, propagate, grow, harvest, and outplant a variety of target coral species in close proximity to the restoration reefs. Until recently, most restoration work has focused on growing and replanting various species of branching corals, so the production and outplanting techniques that have been developed tend to be mostly applicable to branching corals. Borrowing from the techniques and lessons learned in the marine aquarium trade, scientists working at land based nurseries such as Mote Marine Lab in Summerland Key Florida have developed effective land based techniques for propagating and growing large numbers of several different species of massive corals, and have subsequently pioneered an outplant strategy that makes it possible to consider restoring these species on a large scale. This presentation will focus on techniques developed by a team at the Coral Restoration Foundation to collect, propagate and grow two species of massive corals (Orbicella annularis and Orbicella faveolata) in open ocean nurseries. The techniques and materials are similar to those developed for land based nurseries, but they have been modified so that after the initial collections are processed, all the subsequent propagation and grow-out processes are done in the field using low cost, low tech methods. The presentation will include a summary history on how the techniques were developed, along with a start to finish look at how these two species are being propagated, grown, and harvested in offshore nurseries. The techniques developed are applicable to any coral species, but are especially relevant to the non-branching coral species.
