With the increased incidence of damage to coral reefs and the continuing lack of recovery from damage in the Caribbean region, interest in reef restoration has heightened. Transplanting corals to damaged sites may initiate or speed up recovery, but the source of colonies is problematic. The results from this project will provide vital information on the natural processes which affect survival of young coral colonies and fragments. The findings will also allow us to determine whether the survival rates of transplanted colonies warrant the costs and time required to transplant at-risk, naturally occurring fragments of fast growing coral species to damaged reefs. If corals have a low likelihood of survival in an specific environment, can be easily transplanted to a more stable reef site, have a high probability of surviving the transplantation process, and then grow, they may be good candidates for transplanting to damaged reefs.
Volunteers play a key role in the project.
The local non-governmental organization, Friends of Virgin Islands National Park, which administers the grant, coordinates volunteer involvement. Each colony was measured, tagged and photographed. Teams of volunteers are photographing and monitoring the condition of each of the 135 colonies monthly. After 18 months, preliminary results show a highly dynamic shallow reef system, with similar survival rates for transplanted and natural community corals.