Seacology’s role in this ongoing five-year reef restoration project is now complete. Since 2016, our partner, the Ocean Reef Conservation Foundation, has grown and outplanted more than 3,100 staghorn and elkhorn corals at Carysfort Reef.

As Hurricane Irma slammed Florida in September, we wondered how it would affect not only the people there, but also the natural environment, including the Carysfort reef and coral nursery. The good news is that the nursery came through very well, and the corals already planted at Carysfort Reef did reasonably well. Here’s the report from our project partners: “On the fore reef, the elkhorn corals are mostly still there and will recover. We haven’t planted too many elkhorn inside the reef yet. The staghorn coral on the fore reef got a haircut, but many of the corals are still there, most of the bases are still there, and we expect most of the survivors to recover. The staghorn corals planted inside the reef did fine, with minimal losses.”

So far in 2017, 211 staghorn and 20 elkhorn corals have been planted on the reef. As corals grow, predation, disease, bleaching, and competition from algae and other organisms take a toll. Minimal amounts of predation, disease, and competition have been observed on Carysfort Reef, and at the one-year mark, survivorship was still high at 86.1%.