02/05/2021
This spring, the FWC will coordinate a coral transplantation research project with partners: Mote Marine Laboratory & Aquarium, Reef Renewal USA, Inc., Florida Atlantic University, Nova Southeastern University, University of Miami's Rosenstiel School Dept. of Marine Biology & Ecology and Coral Restoration Foundation, to transplant thousands of coral colonies on south Florida’s coral reef.
Since 2014, Florida’s coral reef lost a substantial amount of reef-building coral colonies due to stony coral tissue loss disease (SCTLD) -- causing reef restoration efforts to slow or cease, until scientists had a better understanding of the disease.
The coral transplantation project will assess when and where restoration efforts along south Florida’s coral reef can resume without subjecting the transplanted coral colonies to SCTLD and/or spreading it to the surrounding natural coral colonies.
In preparation, FWC researchers are propagating new coral colonies from species being maintained in our in-water nursery. The coral colonies will be transplanted on reefs from Martin county to the lower Florida Keys. Once transplanted, they will be monitored for evidence of SCTLD for two years.
A) “Donor” coral colonies grown in FWC’s in-water nursery that will be used to create new colonies for the project; B) FWC staff biologist carefully cuts a donor coral colony into small fragments, creating new colonies; C) Each new coral fragment, which is approximately the size of a quarter, is glued to a cement disk with glue; D) The new coral fragments are placed in the in-water nursery to heal and will be transplanted onto reefs this spring.
