Coral Reef Medic

Coral reefs provide underwater “cities” for an amazing diversity of fish, marine plants, and other animals by offering food, shelter and breeding grounds. They also provide natural storm protection and help from the sandy beaches along our Florida's coast.

Florida's coral reefs can be extensively damaged by natural phenomena and anthropogenic (man-induced) changes such as boat groundings. Unfortunately, there are over 600 vessel groundings each year in the Florida Keys that cause considerable damage to this natural coral habitat. The estimated time required for the natural recovery of severely damaged coral reef systems varies from five to greater than 20 years. Management of damaged reef systems requires the re-establishment of hard corals using transplantation regeneration methods.

In conjunction with NOAA, SNI works to rebuild the reef and natural habitat by transplanting nursery corals to damaged areas. SCUBAnauts typically arrive via charter vessel and marry-up with the NOAA research vessel at the pre-determined locations. NOAA marine corals specialists, such as Laurie MacLaughlin and Bill Goodwin, board the SCUBAnaut vessel and teach the SCUBAnauts the techniques of mixing the special quick-setting underwater cement and describe how to use the appropriate tools to clean and prepare the limestone substrate for the corals transplant.

SCUBAnaut dive teams each team up with a scientist and descend onto the orphan site where they will work with a basket of rehabilitated nursery corals to be transplanted. Each of the young divers dons rubber gloves, takes a wire brush and chisel in hand to prepare the substrate for cementing. This procedure is labor intensive but necessary to ensure a long-lasting attachment with the cement.

While 3-4 teams of SCUBAnauts are underwater preparing the substrate for transplants, another team of youngsters are on the vessel mixing the quick-setting cement. When completed, they will form the cement into a “cannonball” approximately the size of a softball. The cannonball is handed from the vessel to a SCUBAnaut on the surface who then descends to the prepared location and affixes the cement on the substrate. The pre-selected coral is then carefully affixed to the cement. A trowel is used to remove the excess cement and smooth any outcroppings.