Coral Propagation: Land-based and Offshore Nursery Phase VII

Nova Southeastern University’s (NSU) ex situ and in situ coral nurseries, which maintain colonies of priority species, focused on scaling up capacity and long-term survival. The ex situ nursery cultured 132 broodstock colonies which safeguarded genotypes that originated from the Kristen Jacobs Coral Aquatic Preserve (KJCAP). The broodstock successfully underwent annual spawning in captivity. Tending to the adult colonies before and after spawning required heavy feeding and good water quality pre-spawning and the enactment of treatments for recovery post-spawning to ensure high reproductive output and long-term survival of captive corals. In total, 562 recruits from 2024 produced from six priority species (Colpophyllia natans, Diploria labyrinthiformis, Orbicella faveolata, Montastraea cavernosa, Pseudodiploria clivosa, and Pseudodiploria strigosa) were moved to NSU’s offshore coral nursery for later grow-out. For coral recruits transferred to the offshore nursery, survival was generally high (100%) for four of the six species, with the others likely being limited by size and algal overgrowth. The use of large mesh predator exclusion devices (PED) was effective at eliminating the majority of predation. Direct outplant survival after three months was high (≥ 95%) for all species, likely due to the application of predator exclusion cages.