20240705_PEV-Coral_Industry_Day_SAJ_Qs.docx

PORT EVERGLADES ENVIRONMENTAL UPDATES AND CORAL NURSERY NEEDS

INDUSTRY DAY QUESTIONS

Coral Relocation, Nurseries and Outplanting July 23 and 24, 2024 Ft. Lauderdale, FL

Coral species of interest for nurseries include: Acropora cervicornis, Agaricia agaricites, Agaricia fragilis, Agaricia lamarcki, Colphophyllia natans, Dichocoenia stokesii, Diploria labyrinthiformis, Eusmilia fastigiata, Madracis decactis, Meandrina meandrites Montastraea cavernosa, Mycetophylia lamarckiana, Oculina diffusa, Orbicella annularis, Orbicella faveolata, Orbicella franksi, Phyllangia americana, Porites astreoides, Porites porites, Pseudodiploria clivosa, Pseudodiploria spp., Pseudodiploria strigose, Scolymia sp., Siderastrea sidereal, Solenastrea bournoni, and Stephanocoenia intersepta.

Coral Nurseries and Outplanting (In-Situ or Land-Based):

1. Please describe your current operations and how many corals, species, and genotypes are present in your facility? Do you work with all coral species of interest indicated above? If not, why not? i.e., is that coral difficult to rear, is it not easily obtainable, etc…

2. What species have you conducted asexual propagation? What species have you conducted sexual propagation?

a. How many corals have you produced annually for each species and propagation strategy?

b. How many of these corals have been outplanted as part of a restoration strategy? How long does it take for these recruits to be suitable for outplanting?

3. For each coral species you work with or plan to work with, what size or age should outplants be to maximize long-term outplant survival?

a. Are 10 cm outplants an appropriate baseline size, or have you had equal or similar success with corals smaller than 10 cm?

4. How long (or at what size) should corals remain in a land-based facility prior to being outplanted to minimize the effects of predation, tissue loss, and/or mortality?

a. What are the most common factors for coral mortality when in the in-water nurseries? After being outplanted onto the reef?

5. How many corals of each of the corals of interest can you produce at a size big enough to expect outplanting success? Is there a time of year when corals typically reach the size/age targets?

6. Please describe your annual outplanting targets and outplanting operations, in terms of labor, vessels, and time (e.g., How many people/boats does that take? How long would it take?)

7. We would like to use corals from the PEV project impact areas as broodstock recognizing they have survived a myriad of stress events. How many corals would you need per species and at what size to produce corals in a manner that maximizes genetic diversity?

a. What other factors should we consider for corals intended to be used as broodstock to verify kinship is low?

8. What factors currently limit your capacity?

a. Do you have the ability to expand operations and how much would coral production change if you expanded your operations?

9. Would you be able to produce several hundred thousand corals of the desired species listed above at a size large enough to ensure successful outplanting in a 4–7-year timeframe?

a. What is the number of corals (stock) you would need for this effort?

b. What amount of labor would be required and what are the challenges of scaling up this skilled labor pool?

10. What is the main method you use to expand your coral stock and what genetic management plan do you use? Please describe experience developing and implementing a genetic management plan for any coral species you produce and outplant.

11. What are your efforts, if any, to increase coral resilience to disease, high temperature, poor water quality, and other stressors?

12. What work is your facility doing now or planning to do soon to produce stress hardened corals?

a. Please describe your experience working with coral restoration practitioners to outplant corals to natural reefs.

13. What are the greatest bottlenecks, risks and challenges you face? What are the main interventions you employ to maintain health of corals in your care?

14. Describe your facility's veterinary care or oversight? What is the level of veterinary support for corals in your care? Consideration is only going to those with an established veterinarian patient client relationship (VCPR).

15. Are there any other questions we haven’t asked that we should be asking?

16. Tell us about strategies to reduce tissue loss, including predation, on outplants.

a. Once tissue loss begins to occur, have you seen corals recover?

b. Which stressors have you seen outplants best recover from?

17. How many in-water nurseries are required for this level of effort?

a. Describe any in-water nurseries you have that can be used for in-water acclimation prior to outplanting on the reef.

b. Describe the full list of benefits of in-water acclimation? What timeframe do you recommend for in-water acclimation?

18. Describe outplant strategies you have employed or recommend to promote assisted reproduction in restoration activities.

a. Specifically, we are looking for input on spawning hubs, genetic management, microfragmentation, and micro-colony fusion, in addition to any other outplant strategies aimed at promoting assisted reproduction.

19. Describe the best practices used for choosing and preparing recipient sites for coral outplants in terms of species (morphologies), methods (including artificial structures to avoid sand), time, cost, and labor.

20. Describe best practices for maintaining recipient sites after outplanting in terms of methods, time, cost and labor. How long should maintenance occur at recipient sites?

21. What do you consider irrecoverable for a coral in terms of tissue loss and partial mortality? How long do you monitor a coral before deeming a coral a successful outplant?

a. What survival or mortality rates do you factor into reaching your outplant targets?

b. Is the mortality rate different for different species?

c. How does site maintenance affect mortality rates?

d. What is the longest monitoring effort you are currently tracking with your broodstock?

22. How long should corals be outplanted prior to determining outplant success (i.e., when outplanted corals are at no greater risk of mortality or sub-lethal effects compared to nearby natural corals)? What factors should be considered? E.g., size at the time of outplanting?

23. How many corals could a field team working off one boat outplant in a day? How does this vary by species or morphology (massive vs. branching species)? On average, how many field days are you able to outplant per year? What are your costs per coral outplanted? Are projected costs per coral outplanted expected to increase or decrease in the near future, and why?

24. Please describe your experience with restrictions for outplanting due to elevated temperatures. How many days were outplanting efforts suspended in 2023 due to water temperature ≥30.5˚C? How would you recommend we incorporate temperature restrictions into the project schedule? E.g., plan for XX weeks of no outplanting or coral relocation?

a. What about weather restrictions and weather delays? How many corals could you expect to relocate in a year given weather and other issues such as working in close proximity to commercial shipping traffic?

b. How many people/boats does that take? Same question for sponges, octocorals, and herbivores (urchins and king crabs).

25. Coral species susceptible to Stony Coral Tissue Loss Disease (SCTLD), including corals listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act, are high priority species for relocation outside of impact areas and for outplanting as part of the mitigation.

a. What measures could be implemented to minimize disease in a nursery or outplanting setting?

b. How would you recommend we incorporate disease-related outplanting restrictions into the project schedule?

c. What are your recommendations for working with disease-susceptible species in your facilities?

d. How will the disease-susceptible broodstock impact the natural reef enhancement sites they will be outplanted to if an outbreak occurred?

26. Please describe the best practices for genetic management of outplants (of each species) that would be needed to execute the Port Everglades mitigation, in your opinion.

a. What is your experience with developing a genetic management plan for a captive breeding population?

b. What are the genetic management considerations the Port Everglades team needs to consider?

27. Port Everglades is planning the largest authorized coral outplant effort in U.S. waters.

a. What special considerations should be evaluated when scaling up this activity? Describe what scaling up operations (propagation and outplanting) require in terms of time, labor, and infrastructure upgrades. What economies of scale can be expected?

b. What additional information would you need from CESAJ to develop this information, for example, when considering >10,000 vs. >100,000 outplanted corals?

28. Are there any other questions we haven’t asked that we should be asking?

Coral Relocation:

29. Is the relocation of several hundred thousand individual corals, at unknown locations, at different depths, over 122.06 acres, achievable in a 3–4-year window?

a. Is there enough capacity in the industry to achieve this vast scale of relocation? Are there enough divers and contractors to relocate this number of organisms in 3-4 years?

b. If your organization were to take this task on, describe the level of effort in terms of labor, vessels, and time commitments.

30. How many corals can you relocate in a day/month/year?

a. How many corals could you expect to relocate in a year given weather and other issues such as working in close proximity to commercial shipping traffic?

b. How many people/boats does that take? Same question for sponges, octocorals, and herbivores (urchins and king crabs).

31. How would you propose relocating these organisms of various sizes (on the boat) and do you have the capacity for this?

32. Port Everglades is planning the largest authorized coral relocation in U.S. waters. What special considerations should be evaluated when scaling up this activity?

33. The relocation recipient sites are expected to be > 2 km from the federal entrance channel. “Cache” is a temporary holding location to facilitate coral and octocoral relocation and transfer activities. What are the advantages and disadvantages of caching corals as an alternative to directly moving them to the recipient sites?

34. What is your recommended technique for attaching relocated corals in terms of coral health, cost and time savings, and long-term success rates? Cement, cable ties, etc…

a. Does the sequestration technique vary based on coral type? Branching versus massive corals.

b. How would you recommend distributing coral in terms of generating spawning hubs, maximizing diversity, and minimizing competition for space on the reef?

35. Do you currently or have you in the past conducted surveys for specific coral species that are rare or uncommon on reefs in Broward County (e.g. ESA-listed and other high priority species)?

a. Do you have recommended methods for searching for and documenting locations of these high priority corals?

36. Do you have estimates of mortality rates for relocated corals? How do you measure success of outplanting operations (what are your success criteria)? How would you recommend success for mitigation be defined? Please describe any experience monitoring coral relocation projects and any suggestions to improve chances of meeting success criteria.

37. Are there any other questions we haven’t asked that we should be asking?

Other Natural Reef Enhancement Questions:

38. Please describe your experience conducting reef enhancement activities described in the Port Everglades Mitigation Implementation Plan.

39. Please also describe experience monitoring coral restoration activities.

40. Please describe best practices to avoid a flare up of SCTLD and managing an outbreak at a restoration site or in a nursery setting.

a. Are you currently working with any medications that have been used to heal/mitigate SCTLD outbreaks?

b. What is the latest science and preventative measures available for disease outbreak?

41. Please describe best practices to ensure appropriate QA/QC and management of large datasets?

42. What is the current feasibility for scaling up ex-situ rearing (commercial mariculture) of Diadema sea urchins and Caribbean herbivorous crabs?

a. Do you have any advice regarding success of herbivore enhancement endeavors or how to monitor success?

Tire Removal Site (Relocating Corals From the Tires)

43. Please describe best practices for relocating coral colonies attached to the tires onto nearby natural reefs.

a. How should these candidates for relocation be identified?

44. A portion of the reef cleared of tires may be considered for natural reef enhancement activities (e.g., outplanting of nursery reared corals or corals, octocorals, and sponges relocated as a minimization measure).

a. Please describe site preparation best practices that should be considered in these areas. What characteristics would make these sites good or poor candidates for coral relocation?

b. What is the potential for the hardbottom areas to be contaminated with hydrocarbon residue/leachates?

c. Would this contamination impact restoration success? What other factors could impact restoration success (e.g., tire movement)?

45. Are there any other questions we haven’t asked that we should be asking?

Artificial Reefs (Relocating, Outplanting, and Monitoring)

46. How do you ensure your strategies and materials promote coral recruitment and limit harmful materials?

47. What are key components for artificial reefs to promote coral recruitment?

48. Why are your materials and process for artificial reefs the best for the environment and are they the most cost effective? Why or why not?

49. Please describe where you have placed artificial reefs in the past, how you have monitored them (method and duration), and the success of these projects for providing compensatory mitigation? Are reports of these efforts available?

50. What placement design have you experienced (linear, stacked, other methods) that appears to maximize coral recruitment?

51. Please describe your experience or capabilities conducting monitoring, relocation or outplanting activities on artificial reefs made with boulders sourced from land.

52. What is the best array of biological enhancement (e.g. relocation of corals, octocorals, and sponges) that would encourage the best recruitment outcome for ecological function and restoration success?

53. Are there particular artificial reef designs or construction considerations that will enhance outplanted coral and benthic organism colonization and survival?

Implementation Approach to Nursery Needs:

54. Given the number of corals needed and the need for multiple nurseries what would you recommend is the best approach to meet the mitigation needs for outplanting?

55. What framework would you recommend for oversight of all coral nurseries?

56. What would be your ideal way to work / communicate effectively with multiple nurseries?

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6/12/20246/12/2024version: 6/12/2024