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		Nature Conservancy Magazine: Winter 2006 Nature Conservancy Magazine Restoration Takes Flight Up Close Minding the Gap Potomac BioBlitz Nature Stories Podcast Nature Landmarks Nature Books Nature Travel Nature Preserves Subscribe Previous Issues

Building a Better Coral

Staghorn coral nursery © Ken Nedimyer   Cultivating staghorn coral © Ken Nedimyer     View a slideshow of the staghorn coral restoration work in Florida. Learn more Coral Reefs of the Tropics Florida's Reef Resilience Program NOAA Coral Reef Conservation Program The Nature Conservancy's Global Climate Change Initiative  Help Protect the World's Oceans and Coasts Help The Nature Conservancy ensure that the world's oceans and coasts—and all of our precious natural resources—are protected for generations to come.

Conservancy Scientists Work to Reverse the Decline of Endangered Staghorn

by Tristram Korten

Three miles off Florida’s Plantation Key, Chris Bergh hoists himself onto the deck of a boat after snorkeling along a boneyard of dead coral. Bergh, who directs The Nature Conservancy’s Florida Keys program, grew up snorkeling here: “I remember thickets of staghorn out there. Now they’re simply gone.”

Bergh is leading Conservancy efforts to reverse the decline of coral in the Keys through the Florida Reef Resilience Program, which is supported by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

A breakthrough came in 2005 when the Conservancy began working with Ken Nedimyer, a local aquarium supplier, to cultivate coral in his underwater nursery, and propagate those corals most resilient to heat and disease.

The long, antlerlike branches of staghorn and related elkhorn corals, which once flourished in the Keys and throughout the Caribbean, provide crucial labyrinthlike homes for fish and other sea life. But in the past 30 years, coral has died off at an alarming rate, leading NOAA in May to add staghorn and elkhorn to the endangered species list—a first for any species of coral. According to NOAA, up to 98 percent of the staghorn population in U.S. waters has withered since the 1970s.

The causes are many, including repeated hurricane damage and pollution. But the most significant threat is rising temperatures of the ocean’s surface caused by global climate change. The rising temperatures stress the coral, increasing vulnerability to disease.

Nedimyer, who spends half the workweek submerged, carries a special permit to maintain a “live rock” farm (rocks and any type of sea organism growing on them) in federal waters. Several years ago, to his surprise, he noticed small colonies of staghorn developing naturally on his limestone rocks. “This stuff is dying everywhere,” Nedimyer says. “So I knew that we could grow it, put it somewhere and make a difference.”

The first stage of the restoration effort has been to grow the coral from cuttings attached to submerged concrete blocks. Scientists have examined the colonies to gauge their health and record genetic information. The coral is now being transplanted onto special frames and placed at a variety of depths. Scientists hope to identify which colonies thrive in harsher conditions, then reproduce them.

“At a minimum, we’re going to simply repopulate some staghorn,” says Bergh. But the breeding project stands a good chance of speeding up the return of the coral to its former range. Staghorn’s delicate branches have made it vulnerable to heat and disease, but it compensates by growing fast. Because of that, Bergh says, this species has a “real chance to bounce back.”