KarunaNews Story

Fundación Dominicana de Estudios Marinos (FUNDEMAR), a coral reef restoration organization based in the Dominican Republic, is the first of its kind to officially complete training with SECORE (SExual COral REproduction). “Since 2019, we have been able to outplant over 40,000 coral substrates in total, each with several tiny corals growing on them, to degraded reef areas,” said executive director Rita Sellares. Stony coral tissue loss disease is affecting 20 known coral species in at least 20 countries. Valerie Paul, head scientist at the Smithsonian Marine Station in Florida, and Blake Ushijimaan, assistant professor at the University of North Carolina Wilmington, have found that a bacterial probiotic could slow and even stop its progression in great star coral.