Coral Protection and Restoration Recognized

NOAA Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary office received the 2007 Coastal American Partnership Award in February for its Coral Protection and Restoration Program at a ceremony held at the Florida Keys Eco-Discovery Center in Key West, Fla. The Coral Protection and Restoration Program formed after recognizing potential threats to corals from seawall construction and repairs sites, marinas and dock development, and shoreline stabilization projects. The Florida Aquarium is a key partner in the restoration of corals in the Sanctuary. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Timothy R. E. Keeney, NOAA’s deputy assistant secretary for oceans and atmosphere and Virginia K. Tippie, director of Coastal America, were among the dignitaries who participated in the presentation.

Formally established in 1992, Coastal America is a 12-member federal partnership dedicated to sustainable development and coastal ecosystem protection and restoration. Partners at every level government and nongovernment – commit to shared ideas, expertise, technology, funding and natural laboratories in which resourceful solutions to coastal concerns are inspired, tested and expedited. In 1997, Coastal America established an awards program to recognize outstanding team efforts to restore and protect the coastal environment. Since then, the Coastal America Partners have presented Partnership, Spirit and Special Recognition Awards on an annual basis.

Florida Keys’ National Marine Sanctuary protects 2,896 square nautical miles of important marine habitat, including maritime heritage resources, as well as coral reef, hard bottom, sea grass meadows, mangrove communities and sand fiats.

Since its inception in 2003, the Coral Protection and Rescue Program (CPRP) has rescued more than 7,000 coral colonies, which are relocated to restore depleted areas, used to educate the public or used for research to protect coral reefs for the future. Some of these specimens have been moved to coral nurseries that will eventually be used to replenish other sites. In other cases, corals are used in the development of baseline genetic banks for use in experiments and comparisons of corals from different geographic regions.

The Florida Aquarium and its Global Coral Reef Institute are partners in the CPRP and developed the first health certificate, a procedure necessary to ensuring healthy corals are placed in the wild to promote new growth.

Some of these rescued corals have been propagated and returned to Western Sambo Reef in the Sanctuary. Seven species of coral making up 158 fragments received a federal certificate of health and are regularly monitored by The Florida Aquarium’s Global Coral Reef Institute.

Major partners of the Institute include the University of Florida, the University of South Florida, Florida Atlantic University, the Association of Zoos and Aquariums, NOAA and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.