The Nature Conservancy is in the process of developing a Caribbean Coral Restoration Webinar Series (including Florida) to help foster long-term coordination and knowledge-sharing among the coral restoration and research community. Preliminary details were announced during NOAA’s Caribbean Coral Restoration Workshop in November. The following provides more information.
What: Quarterly webinars featuring topics that are timely and relevant to the Caribbean coral restoration and research communities; communication after the webinar can continue on the forum at www.reefresilience.org.
Why: To foster more frequent and comprehensive communication among the community and to highlight important research findings and lessons learned in a timely fashion.
When: The second Wednesday of every third month (February 8th, May 10th, August 9th, and November 8th in 2017); exact times TBD (please take the survey linked below).
Who: Restoration practitioners, coral scientists, resource managers, students, everyone is welcome to join in! Participation from Pacific partners is welcome but the information will be tailored to the Caribbean simply to keep the scope manageable. An agenda will be posted to the Reef Resilience forum prior to each webinar so you can decide whether the topic is relevant to your work.
The first two webinars are scheduled and the topics selected: [whitebox]
February 8th: Coral Spawning Research and/or Larval Propagation – Kristen Marhaver, Valerie Chamberland and Nikki Fogarty want to hear from you about what information would be most relevant. In order to help them tailor their talk to your needs, please fill out this google form/survey: FILL OUT FORM.
May 10th: Introduction to Genetics – Iliana Baums will discuss the various genetic techniques including what each technique tells you; the pros, cons and costs of each; and how they can inform restoration and management. [/whitebox]
If you have ideas for future sessions, or want to present, please contact Caitlin Lustic, The Nature Conservancy, Coral Restoration Manager, clustic@tnc.org, phone 305-872-7071.