America has few reefs to work with, but those it has control of are getting some help. Off southern Oahu, researchers have placed various reef building structures and seeded them with coral "frags" that will grow into larger colonies. The very idea of fragging coral was made popular by the Waikiki Aquarium. A few years ago, 70% of all coral bought in the U.S. had originally come from the Wakiki Aquarium's collection. The Aquarium also features a coral ark in back that houses parent representatives of the major reef building species in Hawaii should something catastrophic happen. Some minor bleaching events have occurred in Hawaii, but these have mostly recovered or been grown over by other coral. The key to re-seeding an area with coral is you have to make sure the environment is suitable for coral growth. With damage caused by global warming and acidification of the oceans, this is probably not possible in many cases. Areas that have bleached before will bleach again. These are just a few of the many projects we have going here in Hawaii and I imagine the Florida Keys have similar projects. There are projects here you can work with. For starters check out Reef Check, a reef monitoring organization that works all over the world.
