The Coral Reef Conservation Program (CRCP) is a partnership between National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) agencies, created in 2000. The program uses different areas of study to help manage and learn about coral reef ecosystems by doing research and sharing data. This supports other groups that work to restore coral reefs.

Background

The CRCP was created by the Coral Reef Conservation Act of 2000 and Presidential Executive Order 13089 to meet NOAA's responsibilities under these laws.

The main job of the CRCP is to collect and share scientific information that coastal and marine resource managers and other decision-makers need to address the main threats to coral reef ecosystems in U.S. and nearby waters. These threats include climate change, overfishing, and pollution. The CRCP's primary task is to check how these threats affect the health of U.S. coral reef ecosystems. Every year, NOAA divers survey coral reefs at about 1,600 sites to monitor these effects. All research and data collected by the CRCP are available for everyone to see on the Coral Reef Information System. In addition to monitoring ecosystems, the CRCP performs tasks such as mapping coral reef habitats, predicting ocean conditions, and managing communications and data.

Besides conducting research, the CRCP also helps fund partners, such as colleges, universities, and nonprofit organizations, by giving grants to projects focused on coral reef ecosystem management and restoration. The program tries to give at least $8 million in grants each year to partners working on coral reef conservation. In 2018, the program gave more than $26 million in funding for coral reef projects across the U.S. through grants and agreements. The CRCP receives money from NOAA and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Agencies Involved

The CRCP includes several NOAA Line Offices, such as the National Ocean Service, the National Marine Fisheries Service, the Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research, and the National Environmental Satellite, Data and Information Service.

• The National Ocean Service is the NOAA partner responsible for managing budgets for the CRCP and other NOAA agencies. It also works with the CRCP on tasks like mapping and monitoring coral reef ecosystems.
• The National Marine Fisheries Service is an agency that focuses on reducing the impact of overfishing. It collaborates with the CRCP to manage how overfishing affects coral reef ecosystems.
• The National Environmental Satellite, Data and Information Service is a NOAA agency that uses sensors to monitor coral reef conditions. This data is shared with NOAA groups, including the CRCP, to help make management decisions.
• NOAA's Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research collects data about atmospheric and oceanic factors, such as changes in climate and wave movement. This office is a partner of the CRCP and provides the organization with data.

The CRCP also works with external partners, including state and territorial governments, schools and universities, and non-government and international organizations.

Objectives

The Coral Reef Conservation Program (CRCP) works to protect, conserve, and restore coral reef resources by ensuring healthy ecosystems. Its goals are grouped into four main areas, as described on the NOAA website.

The CRCP uses a resilience-based approach to address climate change, which harms coral reefs through events like coral bleaching. Resilience-based management helps ecosystems recover from changes and continue functioning normally. This method focuses on taking action before problems occur, rather than waiting for issues to develop. A key role of the CRCP is to provide partners with information and data to support resilience-based practices. In 2014, CRCP scientists created tools to predict climate and bleaching events. These tools help managers prepare for stress events, such as global bleaching, and reduce their impact. By 2025, the CRCP aims to have at least seven partners use this data for climate-related projects. The CRCP also communicates regularly with government agencies and federal partners about the importance of resilience-based management. Communication plans and crisis response plans are developed to share information clearly with decision-makers. These plans include early warning systems to protect ecosystems from threats like coral bleaching, disease, invasive species, and natural disasters such as tropical storms.

Land-based pollution harms coral reefs by disrupting natural processes. Reducing this threat is another key goal of the CRCP. The program supports efforts to manage watersheds, including research to identify pollution sources, studies on how pollution affects reefs, and financial and technical help for partners. A major partnership is the "Watershed Partnership Initiative" with the U.S. Coral Reef Task Force, which works to reduce land-based pollution through coordinated actions. Watershed management includes protecting coastal vegetation, conserving land, and managing wastewater responsibly.

The CRCP’s success in improving the sustainability of U.S. fisheries depends on partnerships with fishery management groups. Two strategies focus on working with external partners. First, the CRCP provides data to fisheries managers under the Magnuson-Stevens Act to ensure marine species continue to play their ecological roles in coral reef ecosystems. Second, the CRCP helps partners use effective management tools developed together. The program aims for 50% of relevant partners to adopt these tools. One way the CRCP supports sustainable fisheries is by helping manage marine protected areas, which are important for restoring overused ecosystems and protecting fish populations.

The final goal of the CRCP is to restore coral reef ecosystems. This includes researching how herbivores (animals that eat plants) help maintain reef health and collecting data to prevent unnecessary coral loss. To improve long-term coral health, the CRCP works internationally by building partnerships abroad. Restoration efforts include methods like helping corals adapt genetically, managing relationships between corals and their symbiotic partners, and growing coral larvae for reef restoration.

Projects and Initiatives

The CRCP has made an important contribution to managing U.S. coral reef ecosystems by creating regular check-ups on the health of coral reefs across the country. The CRCP worked with the Integration and Application Network (IAN) at the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science (UMES) to produce "status reports" that share data from these check-ups. These reports help meet one of the CRCP's duties, as required by the Coral Reef Conservation Act of 2000, to create a system for monitoring coral reef health over time.

Scientists from UMES-IAN and NOAA collect both biological and physical data in coral reef areas such as American Samoa, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, Guam, the Hawaiian Archipelago, and the Pacific Remote Islands. The status reports include evaluations of several indicators, which are combined into overall health scores. These indicators are grouped into four categories: coral and algae, fish, climate, and human activities.

The purpose of these reports is to create a starting point and a record to track changes and evaluate the overall health of U.S. coral reef ecosystems. The reports are also part of the CRCP's effort to explain complex information clearly so that communities and decision-makers can understand it.

The CRCP manages a public database called "CoRIS," which provides access to all coral reef data and information collected by NOAA. This database is an important tool for the CRCP, allowing decision-makers to access coral reef data. CoRIS includes several databases, such as the "NOAA Deep Sea Coral Data Portal," which offers information about deep sea corals and sponges.

One of the CRCP's responsibilities, as outlined in the Coral Reef Conservation Act, is to increase public understanding of the importance of managing coral reefs sustainably. The CRCP has held educational and training workshops and shared materials about coral reef management with the public. In 2017, the CRCP created an educational video titled "A Guide to Assessing Coral Reef Resilience for Decision Support." The video won first place at the 2018 CINEFISH film festival in Mexico.

The CRCP supports many projects related to coral reef management, such as school science trips, mapping coral ecosystems, publishing educational materials, and restoration efforts.

In 2017, Hurricanes Irma and Maria caused serious damage to coral reefs in Florida and Puerto Rico, affecting the reefs' ability to recover. The NOAA CRCP and partners, including the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation and National Marine Fisheries Service, provided funding to help restore the reefs. This program assessed the impact of the hurricanes and collected data to guide decisions. Scientists found that overturned coral reefs in Puerto Rico had overgrowth of seaweed, likely caused by stress from the 2017 hurricanes. This finding is important for managing coral reef ecosystems.

The CRCP supports projects focused on managing U.S. coral reef ecosystems, such as the Hawaii Coastal Uses Mapping Project. This project gathered data on how human activities near Hawaii’s coasts affect nearby coral reefs using a method called participatory geographic information systems (PGIS). PGIS helps collect important information about resources and ecosystem concerns, which is useful for state and federal managers. Before this project, there was little information about these issues along Hawaii’s coasts.

The CRCP provides financial support to organizations that study coral reef restoration and protection. In 2015, the NOAA CRCP funded a study by Florida International University that found "grazing fish can help save imperilled coral reefs." The CRCP has also supported research on the effects of climate change on coral reefs and new management strategies. An article titled "Climate-smart Design for Ecosystem Management" from the Environmental Management Journal was partly funded by the CRCP and discusses strategies to help coral reefs adapt to climate change.