$2M in coral restoration grants awarded to US Pacific Islands

The National Marine Sanctuary Foundation awarded seven grants totaling more than $2 million to support coral restoration in the four U.S. Pacific Island jurisdictions of American Samoa, Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, Guam, and Hawai’i. The grants are funded by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

The grants will support projects that directly contribute to coral restoration progression in the U.S. Pacific Islands by providing the means for capacity building and/or restoration implementation. The four U.S. Pacific Island jurisdictions started a coral restoration planning process in 2020 that led to the development of a draft action plan for each jurisdiction for one priority restoration goal. Now, additional investment and capacity is needed to meet the U.S. Pacific Islands coral restoration goals and implement the draft restoration action plans.

The projects will take place through the summer of 2025.

In the CNMI, the Johnston Applied Marine Science was awarded a grant for a project that, through thermal stress testing and the development of novel coral settlement substrates, will provide scientific support to improve the climate resilience and scale of restored coral populations in the CNMI. It also directly supports restoration implementation in the CNMI through the expansion and stocking of existing ocean and land-based coral nurseries, allowing restoration efforts to be scaled-up.

The CNMI Bureau of Environmental and Coastal Quality’s Division of Coastal Resources Management is also awarded a grant to address threats to the CNMI’s coral reefs and ensure survival of critical reef habitats in the face of climate change and varying ocean conditions. This project aims to increase coastal and coral reef resilience and restore critical coral reef habitat. Activities will include monitoring and updating the CNMI Coral Restoration Draft Action Plan, securing permits, in-situ coral gardening, and monitoring post outplant reef metrics.

All jurisdictions—the CNMI, Guam, Hawai’i, American Samoa—will also be awarded grants to initiate the early steps toward an implementation network in the U.S. Pacific for coral reproduction and seeding, based on SECORE’s successful model for capacity-building in the Caribbean. In collaboration with the University of Guam, SECORE will provide both virtual and hands-on training workshops and site-specific scoping plans for implementation of larval restoration in each jurisdiction.

In Guam, the University of Guam Marine Laboratory is awarded a grant to work on a project to extend ongoing coral restoration initiated in Guam in 2017. Work has focused on conservation of eight species of staghorn (Acropora) coral, via ocean nursery rearing and re-introduction to healthy habitats.

The Guam Coral Reef Initiative will implement the Guam Coral Reef Restoration Action Plan through the construction of a new pilot coral nursery and the expansion of an existing nursery in collaboration with the Raymundo Coral Lab. The nurseries will propagate outplanting material for high-priority restoration sites identified in the draft coral restoration action plan. The nurseries will be populated with fast-growing species known to exist currently or historically at the identified sites. (PR)