Restoration Highlight:
Conservation Diver & Drowning Sculpture

The Colony

• The artificial reef sculpture was designed and created by Spencer Arnold, founder of Drowning Sculpture, to resemble a coral colony with human faces instead of polyps. The faces are of Conservation Divers and are intended to bring their often unseen efforts into the light, and to encourage others to follow suit.

• The sculpture, standing 6 feet tall, was placed down in an area where a large vessel sunk down onto the reef and destroyed a large area of once healthy coral.

• The artificial reef has restored the area with a wide diversity of genera and genetic material using corals of opportunity- coral fragments that were fragmented by natural forces, lying broken in dynamic sediments subject to smothering. The crowning jewel of the sculpture includes the first coral larvae (Goniastrea edwardsii) that were ever cultured by Conservation Diver through the Larval Culturing program.

CRC ANNOUNCEMENTS

• Dr. Valerie Chamberland and Dr. Ania Banaszak, Chairs of the Larval Propagation Working Group, hosted an information session on the Reproductive biology of the common Caribbean brain coral Diploria labyrinthiformis. Find the webinar recording HERE. When completed, a questions and answers document compiled from audience comments will also be posted with the webinar recording. 

• Several CRC Leadership Team member organizations have recent publications- check out the Research section of the newsletter below!

ANNOUNCEMENTS

• A new ocean philanthropy organization, Aqualink, is giving away smart buoys with temperature sensors. The sensors can be used to monitor reef temperature in real-time as well as connect into a global monitoring network. Applications from both reef managers and citizen scientists are encouraged. Details on the technology HERE.

• Register for CoralpaloozaTM Digital 2020- The world's first online celebration of Coral Reefs airs June 6th in honor of World Oceans Day. Coralpalooza Digital will be an immersive experience where participants can explore restoration efforts around the world and learn more about the CRC. Featured presenters and organizations include members from the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary (FKNMS), PADI Project Aware, and Philippe Cousteau! Click HERE to register!

POSITION ANNOUNCEMENTS

• Biological Science Technician (Coral Response) with the National Park Service based out of Key West, FL. Two positions are available. Applications close when 100 applications have been received or by May 22, whichever comes first.

• Biological Science Technician (Coral Restoration) with the National Park Service based out of Key West, FL. Three positions are available. Applications close when 100 applications have been received or by May 22, whichever comes first.

UPCOMING MEETINGS: 

2020

• April 14-17 (Manado,Indonesia): 6th International Tropical Marine Ecosystems Management Symposium (ITMEMS)- POSTPONED DUE TO COVID-19

• July 21-25 (Santa Marta, Colombia): V Colombian Congress and VI Iberoamerican and Caribbean Congress of Ecological Restoration, - POSTPONED DUE TO COVID-19

• August 21-25  (Koh Tao, Thailand) Reef Restoration Course POSTPONED DUE TO COVID-19

• Aug 24-27 (Kiel, Germany): 6th International Marine Conservation Congress. 

2021

• January 7-15 (Marseille, France) : IUCN World Conservation Congress

• May 17-21 (Key Largo, FL): Reef Futures Conference 2021.

• Jul 18-23 (Bremen, Germany): 14th International Coral Reef Symposium. 

• July 18-23 (Bremen, Germany) Youth Leaders Workshop

MEDIA ROUNDUP 

Research:

• Calle-Triviño, J., Rivera-Madrid, R., León-Pech, M. G., Cortés-Useche, C., Sellares-Blasco, R. I., Aguilar-Espinosa, M., & Arias-González, J. E. (2020). Assessing and genotyping threatened staghorn coral Acropora cervicornis nurseries during restoration in southeast Dominican Republic. PeerJ, 8, e8863.

• Cramer, K. L., Jackson, J. B., Donovan, M. K., Greenstein, B. J., Korpanty, C. A., Cook, G. M., & Pandolfi, J. M. (2020). Widespread loss of Caribbean acroporid corals was underway before coral bleaching and disease outbreaks. Science Advances, 6(17), eaax9395.

• Hein, M. Y., Beeden, R., Birtles, R. A., Chase, T. J., Couture, F., Haskin, E., ... & Willis, R. Effects of coral restoration on fish communities: snapshots of long‐term, multi‐regional responses and implications for practice. Restoration Ecology.

• Hein, M. Y., Beeden, R., Birtles, A., Gardiner, N. M., Le Berre, T., Levy, J., ... & Willis, B. L. (2020). Coral Restoration Effectiveness: Multiregional Snapshots of the Long-Term Responses of Coral Assemblages to Restoration. Diversity, 12(4), 153.

• McLeod, I. M., Newlands, M., Hein, M., Bostrom Einarsson, L., Banaszak, A., Grimsditch, G., ... & Shaver, E. (2019). Mapping Current and Future Priorities for Coral Restoration and Adaptation Programs: International Coral Reef Initiative (ICRI) Ad Hoc Committee on Reef Restoration 2019 Interim Report.

• Suzuki, G., Okada, W., Yasutake, Y., Yamamoto, H., Tanita, I., Yamashita, H., ... & Yamazaki, M. Enhancing coral larval supply and seedling production using a special bundle collection system “coral larval cradle” for large‐scale coral restoration. Restoration Ecology.

• Ware, M., Garfield, E. N., Nedimyer, K., Levy, J., Kaufman, L., Precht, W., ... & Miller, S. L. (2020). Survivorship and growth in staghorn coral (Acropora cervicornis) outplanting projects in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary. PloS one, 15(5), e0231817.

• ZHENG, X., LI, Y., LIANG, J., LIN, R., & WANG, D. Performance of ecological restoration in an impaired coral reef in the Wuzhizhou Island, Sanya, China.
   

News:

• Doodnath, Alina (May 13). Women in science: Under the sea with marine scientist, Anjani Ganase. 

• Environment-analyst (May 12). Pioneering AI system to help coral conservation. 

• CP Staff (May 8). Accenture, Intel measure precast artificial reef element performance

• Staletovich, Jenny (May 8).  Lab-Bred Coral Show Promise — But We Need A Whole Lot More, Study Finds.

• Concrete News (May 8). Accenture, Intel measure precast artificial reef element performance. 

• Parton, Jon (May 6). Coral-Restoration Project Shows Promise in Florida Keys.

• Mumby, Peter J (April 26). Study finds 160 ways to protect the Great Barrier Reef. 

• Elassar, Alaa (April 23). The Florida Aquarium just made a breakthrough that will help save the third largest coral reef in the world. 

• Berwald, Judy. (April 21). The Great Barrier Reef’s Great Big Complicated Story. 

• Valerie Kipnis and Agnes Walton (April 20). Meet the Bahama Coral Farmers Regrowing the Ocean’s Reefs.

• Longboat Key News (April 19). Mote launches elkhorn coral spawning nursery to aid threatened species.