Restoring Coral Reefs in the Florida Keys and US Virgin Islands

In this video, scientists and volunteer divers cultivate threatened staghorn coral at nurseries offshore as part of a Nature Conservancy project to increase the population of healthy, resilient corals throughout the Caribbean. The Nature Conservancy, Nova Southeastern University, University of Miami, Coral Restoration Foundation, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission and Mote Marine Lab relocate coral fragments to established nurseries throughout coastal waters in Florida and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Each fragment is cemented to a small cement cast (or puck) with a unique nursery identification code. The nurseries work much like a plant nurseries regular care and maintenance are necessities to ensure survival of the corals. Research divers clean the corals of worms and snails. Because of a decline in fish populations, divers must scrub algae off the coral with a brush. Once they have grown to sufficient size, they are replanted back onto reefs. NOAA announced in June 2009 that it will provide economic stimulus funds to support 57 jobs for the expansion of the coral restoration efforts in the Keys and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Category:

Nonprofits & Activism

Tags:

• The Nature Conservancy
• nature conservancy
• coral
• divers
• Caribbean
• Virgin Islands

[BBhunter58]

Sounds like fun and a good project to restore a reef.

[ajmworldevents]

GREAT!!!!!

[TheEcoArtist]

Fabulous eco project! Thanks for helping the coral reefs.

[ghtyredfyoj]

it's turely amazing to see how small steps can make such a dramatic change in saving our coral reefs