Persistent Digital Identifiers (UIDs)
ORCID :
0000-0003-0068-1953
Job Type
Research
Natural Resource Management
Other
Subject Area
Biological Oceanography, Marine Ecology
Activities
For the last 30 years
I have focused my efforts on conserving coral reefs around the
world. I spent many years watching the
changes to Caribbean reefs, conducting research to answer pertinent questions
on why the corals were dying, studying the impacts of hurricane damage, coral
diseases, bleaching and coral predators, and looking for signs of recovery. At NOAA, on the Coral Reef Conservation
Program, and was responsible for a number of key policy and legislative
changes, and also worked to raise awareness about important reef issues. As the
Chief Scientists for Living Oceans Foundation, I developed and implemented a
Global Reef Expedition. For six years, I
dove on reefs around the world, surveying more than 1500 coral reefs in 26
countries. Our goal was to identify some
of the gems worth protecting, identify the threats affecting reefs and tangible
actions to combat these threats, learn what makes a reef resilient to climate
change, and improve capacity for management responses. I started my own NGO, Coral Reef CPR, to work
more closely with communities, governments, non-government organizations,
students, tourists and businesses in putting the lessons we learned to
work. Through Coral Reef CPR, we have
developed a Rescue a Reef Program, where recreational divers help us with our
research and work to combat biological stressors such as crown of thorns
starfish. We educate and train students,
visitors and communities about reefs, the threats and what they can do to
address these threats. Our goal is to
produce the next generation of Reef Guardians, turning them into citizen
scientists that work to conserve the world’s reefs. Our main emphasis is to come up with a low
tech solution to restore reefs that can be implemented around the world for a
low cost, targeting developing island nations that don’t have the resources or
capacity to undertake the high tech solutions being proposed to save
reefs. I developed simple, highly
efficient and highly effective techniques to grow corals, using corals that are
rescued from locations where they would otherwise die, and create large coral
nurseries that are turned over to the communities and resorts that manage the
local reefs. I am now outplanting the
corals on damaged reefs and also restoring reef habitats that were devastated
by the recent coral bleaching events.
Sea regions of study
Caribbean Sea
Indian Ocean
South Pacific Ocean
Skills
Coral restoration specialist
Dive Master
Small boat operator
Coral reef research and monitoring