Coral Reef Restoration

Coral reefs are the skeletons of marine invertebrates called coral, which form large underwater structures comprised of colonies. Coral reefs are built by hard corals that extract calcium carbonate from the ocean to create an exoskeleton (Ross 2018). Coral polyps, which are individual corals, begin building reefs by attaching themselves to submerged rocks or hard surfaces near the ocean floor (CRA 2018). In most cases, coral reefs are constrained to shallow waters and latitudes between 30° north and south of the equator (NOS n.d.). In the United States, corals are concentrated in the Pacific Islands, the Caribbean, and the Gulf Coast, with a few isolated deep-sea corals off the Pacific and Carolina coasts (Necaise et al. 2022; Oceana n.d.). Coral reefs are sensitive ecosystems facing many threats, including ocean acidification, increases in water temperatures, pollution, and physical damage (EPA 2023). Coral reef restoration strategies include direct transplantation, coral gardening, invasive species removal, micro-fragmentation and building artificial reefs (Boström-Einarsson et al. 2020).