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RESEARCH
Coral Reef Restoration
RESEARCH MENU
ongoing research
HIstory
resembid project
key milestones
sponsors
ongoing research
2020 to present day
CCMI’s coral restoration project’s overarching long-term goal is to improve biological diversity by developing a model for sustaining wild populations of restored corals over the next five years.
The objectives of this project are to:
expand our understanding of resilience
further improve the outplanting success
support local education
CCMI’s research-focused restoration project not only bridges a gap in the coral restoration process but helps
deliver a more aggressive, solutions-based research project by enabling us to scale up the work
provide opportunities in the future via a project team with greater skills and professional leverage
support students as a part of the project team
Project results support capacity building within the region and improved coral reef management methods, as we identify genetic resistance and resilience of corals to thermotolerance, storm impacts, and improved out planting technologies, boosting the wild population of corals.
Expanding the ICON Nursery (2025-26)
In March 2026, CCMI’s coral restoration team carried out a major fragmentation effort, adding 191 new fragments to the nursery. This increased our nursery stock from 117 to 293 fragments across three different coral genotypes, helping to strengthen both the size and genetic diversity of our restoration population.
Alongside these efforts, monthly maintenance dives continue to play a vital role in the success of the nursery. These visits include health assessments, growth measurements, and routine cleaning and maintenance of nursery frames to ensure corals remain in the best possible condition.
Exploring Deep Reef Refuges (2026)
Due to increasing ocean temperatures, especially during the summer months, CCMI’s researchers are investigating whether deeper reef habitats could provide a refuge for nursery corals. To support this work, we are fragmenting additional corals from the nursery and establish eight experimental “mini frames”. These frames will begin at 18 metres before gradually increasing in depth. The project will assess how each of the three coral genotypes currently held in the nursery responds to deeper reef conditions. Findings from this study will help us evaluate whether deeper nursery sites could improve coral survival and inform future management of our restoration programme.
Outplanting Success
Increasing Coral Cover of Endangered Species – funded by the AALL Foundation
Over a period of five years, we saw significant success for the restoration project. In particular, altering our outplanting methods to place corals on top of a dome shaped structure greatly improved survival rate (80%+) in comparison to traditional outplanting methods directly to the reef substrate (less than 9%). It is thought that by elevating coral outplants from the substrate we are reducing the impact of competition and predators, creating a more successful outcome for growth and survival.
Complex Ecosystem Services
Positive Impacts on Fish Populations – funded by the Alexandria Foundation
Corals provide shelter and refuge areas for diverse fish assemblages by virtue of their 3-dimensional relief. Corals facilitate both processes of recruitment and biomass production by providing space for settlement, growth and reproduction. While providing shelter, corals also set the stage for biological interactions such as competition and predation. This project sought to understand if creating enhanced complexity reef (ECR) habitats through transplantation of adult coral colonies to 3-dimensional structures (our restoration sites) would not only impact fish population diversity and abundance on the ECR itself but also on adjacent degraded reef sites. Suggesting that restoration efforts may offer a scalable mitigation strategy to restore fish populations, for both herbivorous and commercially important species from our coral restoration efforts.
Results from 18+months of surveys indicate a significant increase in both the density of fish at outplanted sites as well as the number of species present. These data suggest that ouplanting corals onto our dome structures does in fact have a positive impact on the local reef fish population, and thus as our outplanting efforts increase, so will the health of fish populations.
history
CCMI Coral Nursery and Restoration Work
CCMI is a pioneer in the Cayman Islands in coral restoration. In 2012, a pilot study was established to explore the potential for coral nurseries. With results from this work, the Cayman Islands Department of Environment passed new policy and coral nurseries have spread across the islands, with five private entities launching coral nursery efforts as a result of CCMI’s work in this area.
This project aimed to have a long-term positive impact on the preservation of corals which provide the framework for all coral reefs. As with many coral restoration programmes, the staghorn coral ( Acropora cervicornis ) is ideal to use, due to its ease of fragmentation and growth, and it’s endangered status. The ultimate goal of coral regeneration is to help nature nurture itself. To do this, outplanted corals need to establish a viable, locally connected, sexually reproductive population. The more genetically diverse the nursery-reared outplants, the better. When fragments were collected from five parent colonies in 2012, it was unknown if these came from genetically distinct parents or from genetic clones.