Severe coral reef degradation throughout Florida’s Coral Reef has resulted in >75% coral cover loss since the 1980s and actively threatens the identit y, culture, and economy of this region. This reality has spurred the development and rapid expansion of in-water coral propagation and outplanting activities intended to restore live coral cover; unfortunately, restoration has been unable to keep up with the rate of ecosystem decline as evidenced by widespread coral bleaching and mortality earlier this year. Overcoming this immense problem requires an adaptive approach involving novel ecological intervention strategies.
Mission: Iconic Reefs is a bold collaborative endeavor initiated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration attempting scalable restoration of seven iconic coral reef sites in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary through use of the best available science. A critical aspect of this effort involves re-establishing missing functional herbivory to prevent competitive overgrowth of corals by fast growing benthic algae. This presentation will provide updates regarding development of intensive aquaculture methods for the Caribbean long-spined sea urchin Diadema antillarum, a formerly abundant keystone reef herbivore. Notably, improved capacity to aquaculture this species has enabled experimental population enhancement to degraded reefs a nd prompted the need for a scalable hatchery-to-reef pipeline. Ne ar-future juvenile grow-out investigations to occur in both in-water and land-based enclosures will also be discussed.