The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park has for decades been the pinnacle of marine park management. With global climate change putting great pressure on the Great Barrier Reef particularly through two consecutive mass bleaching events (2016-2017), which impacted reefs globally. There have also been ten ...

It is widely recognized that active coral restoration is a necessary component of coral reef habitat management in the U.S. and broader Caribbean. Inevitably, permit(s) of some kind are required to undertake coral restoration, notably when those activities occur within marine protected areas, which ...

There is increasing interest in developing interventions that enhance thermotolerance of restored corals in anticipation of continued climate change. One such method involves controlled bleaching and recovery to manipulate corals algal symbionts in favor of more thermotolerant types. Data from natur...

NOAA’s Coral Reef Conservation Program (CRCP) rolled out its new Strategic Plan this fall. This plan incorporates lessons learned from programmatic evaluations and assessments, and its implementation is predicated on employing a resilience based management strategy. The plan takes a multi-pronged ...

The Florida Aquarium has consistently increased success in larval propagation in several species of Western Atlantic stony corals with approximately 50% survival after one year in the most recent years. Culture conditions were optimized through construction of aquarium systems specifically for this ...

Panel discussion.

Coral reefs worldwide are threatened due to ocean warming and acidification, and their persistence hinges on corals capacity for adaptation. To maximize adaptive potential, coral genotypes with increased phenotypic resilience to climate change conditions should be selected for restoration. Corals fr...

The widespread bleaching event in 1998 caused significant disturbance to coral reefs within the Western Indian Ocean, resulting in up to 95% coral mortality within the Seychelles. In 2011, a large-scale coral reef restoration project was implemented to facilitate reef recovery and enhance ecosystem ...

Primary and secondary restoration actions applied on a damage coral reef by ship grounding at Tanchacte Reef in Quintana Roo, Mexico. Coral reefs damaged by ship grounding reduces the resilience of these ecosystems and their natural recovery can take several decades if direct, active and immediate r...

Degradation of coral reefs around the world has increased in recent years; causing its loss of structure and functionality. Therefore, ecological restoration actions have begun to be implemented to recover these characteristics, as well as the environmental services that they provide. However, there...

Marine cloud brightening is an intervention which could potentially mitigate bleaching of heat stressed coral reefs. The proposal is that providing additional cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) in the form of nano sized salt crystals derived from evaporated sea water droplets to the marine boundary lay...

As coral reefs continue to decline due to climate change and other stressors, scientists have proposed adopting genomic tools, such as biomarkers, to aid in conservation and restoration of these threatened ecosystems. Biomarkers are easily measured indicators of higher-order biological processes tha...

Reef restoration efforts show successful results in many parts of the ocean. Scale, however, has been very limited. Unfortunately reef degradation and destruction rates are going faster than expected. Scaling up restoration projects are needed to contravene the destruction tendency. The National Ins...

The challenges we face are evident. What’s happening to our planet is real. There are facts to convince, figures to corroborate and stories to compel. Yet the message is still getting lost. Why? The easy answer is “People don’t want to hear it.” Which begs the follow-up question, are we doin...

To increase genetic diversity, coral restoration needs to use sexual reproduction. However, post-settlement mortality of sexually-produced corals in nature and ex situ nurseries is typically high due to macroalgal overgrowth and sensitivity to physical parameters that are optimal for adults, such as...

Panel discussion.

Mass coral bleaching is increasing in frequency and severity, leading to the loss of coral abundance and diversity. However, some corals are less susceptible to bleaching than others and can provide a model for identifying the physiological and biogeochemical traits that underlie coral resilience to...

Near shore coral reef ecosystems provide coastal protection from storm surge and flooding, and in a changing climate with predicted increases in storm frequency and intensity, as well as rising sea levels, this protection of coastal infrastructure becomes more critical. Increased storm frequency and...

Coral restoration is gaining momentum globally in response to stressors such as bleaching and disease. Along with restoring threatened species and ecological condition of reefs, there is growing interest from a variety of sectors for restoration that supports specific social benefits (e.g., tourism)...

On or around January 12-14, 2016 the M/V Tatoosh, a Cayman Island Flagged 303 ft. pleasure craft, caused extensive injury to coral reef habitat in shallow water 13-17 m depth in the West Bay Coral Reef Replenishment Zone off Seven-Mile Beach, Grand Cayman. The injury was caused by the deployed ancho...

Coral reefs are being severely damaged worldwide. Coral restoration has been implemented to ameliorate such degradation and increase coral cover. In the last decade restoration of branching corals have been widely implemented and popularized that even non-expert citizens do it globally. Yet there ar...

Since 2014, the Florida Reef Tract has been experiencing a major disease event affecting over 20 species, with up to 80% mortality, that spans from Martin County to the northern extent of the Lower Keys. A multi-agency collaboration is responding to the event. One intervention is to "rescue" fragmen...

The risk of flooding is increasing for coastal cities around the world and there is great interest in identifying effective solutions that reduce it. It is increasingly clear that natural defenses such as mangroves and reefs can play significant roles in coastal protection and these are particularly...

Over thousands of years, corals build complex geological structures that serve as the foundations for a myriad of critical ecosystem services. Ensuring that both ecological and geological reef functions are maintained is, therefore, critical to designing effective coral-reef management and restorati...

The endangered species listing of Acropora cervicornis has prompted the need for restoration. Since resources are limited, sites selected for restoration should not only be suitable for outplant survival, but also contribute larvae to replenish surrounding reefs. However, coral larval dispersal patt...

Colombia’s largest coral rehabilitation project is currently taking place in the Archipelago of San Andres, Providencia and Santa Catalina, Colombia. This Archipelago, a pluri-ethnic territory, is part of the Seaflower Biosphere Reserve and comprises an MPA with the same name. The Archipelago’s ...

Nurseries are limited in the numbers of coral genets (fragments originating from the same colony) they can propagate, raising questions as to whether the genetic diversity of natural populations is adequately represented, and whether sexual propagation of these limited individuals will result in exc...

Guam’s coral reefs were impacted by widespread bleaching during four of the last five years, an extreme frequency that may become ubiquitous due to continued ocean warming. About half of the island’s staghorn Acropora spp. died between 2013 and 2015 as a result of bleaching and extreme low tides...

Crown-of-thorns starfish (CoTS) cause widespread loss of hard coral cover on reefs across the Indo-Pacific. CoTS outbreaks are considered to be one of the major threats facing the Great Barrier Reef (GBR) and might be expected to have a significant influence on the success of coral restoration progr...

Coral reefs play an important role in coastal protection and reduction of risks derived from climate events. Reefs dissipate wave energy, reduce storm surge and maintain shoreline elevation, protecting coasts from erosion and flooding. Several ecological, geological, and oceanographic factors contri...