Mainland Jamaica is the Caribbean's third largest isolated land mass. Sourcing these corals over such a vast sampling range stands to scale locally managed genetic diversity beyond most recorded genotype numbers within Caribbean restoration programs.

Global sea surface temperature data has suggested Jamaica to be 1-2 degrees hotter than much of the Caribbean. Corals to have persisted under such challenging thermal regimes may possess some of the most favourable traits for climate adaptation, making our efforts of regional relevance for reef resilience in Jamaica and beyond.

Our survivors constitute the base broodstock from which to most meaningfully and most effectively render assisted fertilization, symbiont assimilation for thermal tolerance, assisted gene flow and assisted migration in the long term, among other interventions listed as key to ensuring species level survival.

With the effectiveness of ecosystem-level restoration being questioned against the backdrop of accelerating coral reef decline, selective measures to curb the imminent collapse of keystone taxa, the creation and safeguarding of new breeding populations, and maximizing genetic diversity in nurseries on far greater scales than before, become arguably more relevant than net coral production and out-planting acreage.