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The hypothesis went like this: Staghorn coral, once an abundant and productive reef builder in Florida and the Caribbean, could be propagated in underwater nurseries and used to restore reefs damaged by bleaching, hurricanes and disease.
The results proved the hypothesis correct – staghorn (as well as elkhorn) corals would grow in nurseries and an experiment that began as one curious schoolgirl’s 4H project ultimately launched a whole new chapter in coral reef conservation and restoration.
Excited by the possibilities for coral restoration, the Conservancy joined the project in 2004 and helped establish four new underwater nurseries between the Dry Tortugas and Fort Lauderdale.
The five-year effort to restore the corals has been so successful that in 2009, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration awarded the Conservancy and its partners a grant of American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds.
Over the next three years, the grant will:
- fund all or part of 57 partner positions needed to develop large-scale, in-water coral nurseries,
- expand four existing in-water nurseries and establish two new ones off the coast of Florida,
- grow roughly 12,000 corals in Florida to enhance coral populations at 34 degraded reefs from the Dry Tortugas through Broward County, and
- help export coral restoration to the Caribbean by establishing two additional nurseries in the U.S. Virgin Islands.
In addition to this coral reef effort in Florida and the U.S. Caribbean, the Conservancy’s domestic marine work received stimulus funding for seven other coastal restoration projects across the United States, to restore and protect oyster reefs, seagrass beds, salt marshes, salmon streams and floodplains.
Learn more about the Florida Reef Resilience Program.
Nature picture credits (top to bottom, left to right): Photo © Ken Nedimyer (diver mounting staghorn coral); Photo © TNC (staghorn coral/divers) Photo © Ken Nedimyer (Staghorn coral nursery).
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