Bart Shepherd will discuss the California Academy of Sciences’ coral reef restoration efforts.
In partnership with colleagues from SECORE International and the zoo and aquarium community, the organization is developing techniques for large-scale restoration by seeding damaged reefs with sexually reproduced corals grown on self-attaching substrates. This approach helps maintain genetic diversity and significantly reduces the labor and time required for restoration. This work, along with research in their on-site aquarium laboratories, will accelerate the development of the scientific and practical cultivation techniques needed to give coral reefs a hopeful future.
Shepherd is the senior director of Steinhart Aquarium at the California Academy of Sciences and co-director of the Academy’s Hope for Reefs initiative.
