giving coral reefs a future

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What is your impression of this year’s workshop?

Dirk: It has been again a successful workshop with a great group of people. Participants more and more became a team, because they were joining every night for work and did shifts together. The coral spawning was different compared to other years. We saw again that these events are becoming less predictable. It was less spawning than in previous years, but we still managed to collect some gametes. Our latest technical improvements and optimizations resulted in very successful in-vitro fertilization and almost 100 % survival of embryos in kreisel systems so that we now have more than enough coral larvae for subsequent research and restoration.

Mike: Nature is unpredictable, and because of this it can be difficult to follow along in the program schedule that we developed four weeks ago. However, it has been great to see how flexible we are now with the experience of several successful workshops conducted in the past, so we can account for this variability in our workshop schedule.  

Which are the milestones SECORE reached in the last years?

Mike: I would like to highlight that we now have established networks with many partners that trust us. They trust us, because we are reliable. Trust is the basis for good partnership and collaboration, and these networks are critical to get done what needs to get done. We have not only developed our long-term partnerships with CARMABI, the Sea Aquarium, Diveversity Piscadera Bay, curious2dive at Curacao, but also established new networks in Guam and Mexico. This expands SECORE efforts on a more global scale.
Since the foundation of SECORE, we also have developed relationships with important patrons such as the Clyde and Connie Woodburn Foundation, the Green Foundation, the Walton Family Foundation, the Montei Foundation, TUI Cruises. We are also happy about the ongoing  involvement of Columbus Zoo and Aquarium, Shedd Aquarium, Pittsburgh Zoo and PPG Aquarium, Omaha Henry Doorly Zoo, and NOAA.
In terms of outreach activities, we are proud that Jack Hanna and Jeff Corwin became interested in our work and highlighted it in their shows.

Dirk: We have now established the basic techniques to collect, rear, and raise juvenile corals. A milestone was to show that it is possible to successfully establish sexual recruits in the reef. These juvenile corals have now even the size of a football. The use of sexual coral reproduction can thus play a key role in reef restoration.
We also conducted a series of successful workshops at different locations that not only taught our techniques, but also showed the participants the natural wonder of coral spawning. With these workshops and the associated media activities we were able to reach a lot of people and to raise awareness thereby. 

Where do you see SECORE in 5 years from now?

Dirk: First of all, we plan to establish techniques to achieve large-scale reef restoration using sexual coral reproduction. Our results so far are very promising, so that I am positive that we  implement this at our current project locations in the near future.
At our new location in Mexico, we aim to contribute to the establishment of a National Coral Reef Restoration Program. And in Guam we envision trans-regional reef restoration throughout Micronesia in collaboration with local stakeholders.   
Generally, we will expand our activities to more locations in order to increase SECORE's impact. Thereby, we provide advice and technology to local stakeholders in order to build capacity. The ultimate goal is to integrate SECORE tools in reef management and national conservation efforts.

Mike: We aim to get more colleagues from science involved in order to intensify scientific evaluation of SECORE tools and subsequent reef restoration efforts. Sound science that is published in good international journals is the basis to establish scientific standards, to provide validity to reef restoration. This will certainly help a lot to get more support from existing and prospective funders.
I also envision outreach that translates our sound science and activities to patrons and public and in a clear and appealing way.

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