UVI’s Reef Response Team Seeks Ways to Save Corals

Regular beachgoers in the Virgin Islands have noticed that the water temperatures are unusually high for early July, and although this might be pleasing to swimmers and water sports enthusiasts, it’s bad news for corals.

In fact, temperatures in many places in the Virgin Islands have been averaging around 86 to 87 degrees Fahrenheit, according to Nicholas C. Durgadeen, a coral restoration specialist at the University of the Virgin Islands.

When water temperatures exceed 84 degrees, corals become stressed and expel the symbiotic algae, which provide the corals with nutrients — and ultimately the energy they need to survive. When this happens, corals first become pale and then turn white as their skeletons become more visible in a process known as coral bleaching.

In the face of rising sea temperatures, lethal coral diseases, destructive storms and pollution from multiple sources, UVI students, faculty and staff are united in their efforts to preserve corals and find new ways to make them grow.

At the end of a major bleaching event from 2014 to 2017, graduate students at UVI founded Reef Response, a collaboration to address the loss of coral diversity and establish coral restoration programs. They are now primarily funded by the National Park Service.