RESILIENT REEFS OF JAMAICA
The 2023 bleaching event eradicated >98% of Jamaica's remaining Staghorn and Elkhorn corals, the Caribbean's formerly dominant, reef-building species. We have since continued to identify, rescue and grow surviving, climate tolerant colonies across Jamaica. Our response has been to meticulously scan over ninety miles of fringing reef (over one quarter of Jamaica's coastline) in search of every last remaining survivor. This has led to the inventorying of 300 surviving wild stands, of which 222 have been rescued, banked and undergone asexual propagation in a series of coral nurseries our team has established along the coast through a triad of contracts, engaging and financially incentivising local fisherfolk to care for them on a regular basis.
JAMAICA PROFILE
LARGEST ISLAND IN THE CARIBBEAN🇯🇲3rd
HOTTER THAN
NEIGHBOURING ISLANDS1-2°C
100
MILES SURVEYED>98%
MORTALITY IN 2023375
SURVIVORS FOUND SINCEPROJECT PRESS
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THE SCIENCE
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 relevant 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 coral gardening being questioned against the backdrop of accelerating 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, have become crucial for future restoration.
CALL TO ACTION
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In light of compounding threats to these already at-risk species and habitats such as prospective offshore oil drilling within the Walton-Morant block, we aim to expand on our database and extend this system of underwater coral safehavens to the south coast, including Jamaica's outer banks and priority areas still unsurveyed since Hurricane Melissa, to combat the impending extinction of these species.
01 Evidence based premium safeguarding of corals against extinction-level threats
02 48-hour turnaround response to survey circa 30 km of hurricane impacted habitat and stabilise wild corals
03 A resource to unlock inter-island collaboration to cross-spawn and breed thermally tolerant corals
04 Livelihood generation among primary resource users and national early career conservationists
FOOTAGE FROM THE FIELD
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