The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) and the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration are guiding reef coral return efforts after this summer’s heatwave.
The work is part of the Mission: Iconic Reefs, which outplanted thousands of corals from shallow in-water nurseries to land-based facilities to protect them from the scorching marine heat this last summer.
The program is aimed not only at maintaining the health of reefs in the waters of Florida but also at maintaining the genetic diversity of the coral populations in the area. This should help ensure the long-term survival of the corals.
The FWC and NOAA have created a set of protocols intended to ensure the successful replanting of the corals in the nurseries. These include, amongst others, health check procedures, monitoring requirements and water temperature markers.
