Recommendations

Examples show that, more often than not, scientists don't have enough information or don't obtain the right information they wish due to sampling error or bias (Fisher 2011). The only way to correctly associate potential plans with success is to know the most about the system we are trying to influence. We can't look at one species and predict the whole habitat range and how they affect it and the others that inhabit it as well. Each species affects the ecosystem in ways we cant imagine, along with other species. Those species that rely on the ones lower in the food chain who rely on other species that form the habitat they hide or spawn in. These beautiful benthic communities ultimately support an unrivaled food web along with unimaginable symbiotic, mutralistic and parasitic interactions that reach all the way up the food chain to humans. This diversity in the ocean must be conserved for generations to enjoy, harvest, and learn all the amazing contributions they have to the ocean we know so little about. If we are going to get this right, we must form a stable scientific/policy community. We can't focus on scientific matters if we can't get the decision makers to use the knowledge correctly. However, we can't halt science while we try to figure out the policy to use it. We must do everything we can to learn all we can while trying to ensure that it is interpreted correctly.


Current Coral Restoration in Fiji and the Florida Keys

Coral Reef Restoration in Bali

Adopt a Coral Reef

Coral Restoration Foundation

25 things you can do to save coral reefs

The relevantly recent approach of systemic conservation seems to be our best bet for conservation and management. As Napsted et al stated in 2011, we must minimize damage to natural systems done by production and delivery of goods and services. Governance must be improved to strengthen governments and their institutions and through building civil society organizations to force the government to do what is right for the public good. Any plan that cuts out the communities, organizations, companies or subsistence living people the reefs provide for most wont work. We must work together to find a way to make the conservation and management of coral reef ecosystems beneficial for those who interact with it most.