The purpose of this project is to support territorial and Federal partners by developing an integrated system for monitoring coral reef ecosystem health in the U.S. Caribbean. C-CCREMP is funded by the Coral Reef Conservation Program and is focused on evaluating and integrating current and future coral reef ecosystem monitoring activities into a comprehensive long-term assessment and monitoring program. C-CCREMP is a partnership project between territorial and Federal resource managers and scientists led by three NOAA programs - the NOS Coral Reef Conservation Program (CRCP), the NOS Center for Coastal Monitoring and Assessment (CCMA) and the NMFS Southeast Fisheries Science Center. Partners include: National Park Service; Dept. Planning and Natural Resources of the Virgin Islands Government; University of the Virgin Islands; University of Puerto Rico; Puerto Rico Department of Natural Environment and Resources; U.S. Geological Survey; Environmental Protection Agency and others.
Monitoring activities in the U.S. Caribbean are carried out by multiple agencies to meet different management objectives, using highly variable and sometimes limited resources and often applying a wide range of sampling strategies and data collection techniques. In addition, there is relatively little flow of information between agencies. An evaluation of the status of monitoring activities is now required in order to move forward with the development of a strategy that builds on existing strengths and addresses critical limitations as recommended by the last C-CCREMP workshop in 2006 and the Coral Reef Monitoring Assessment Workshop hosted by DPNR in 2007.
Working collaboratively with local resource agencies, academic research institutions, Federal offices, and others, the project seeks to establish monitoring goals and targets, evaluate existing programs and data, identify gaps and shortcomings, modify existing programs through a consensus-based approach, integrate existing projects where practicable, and expand long-term monitoring efforts. Such a capability would benefit the jurisdictions by providing consistent and reliable information to local management agencies while generating a comprehensive data set that allows for cross-jurisdictional comparisons of reef condition, a key input necessary to periodic reporting efforts.
Expected Outcomes. The workshop in 2006 was an initial component of the project intended to introduce the project to partners and solicit input from the scientific and management community. In addition, the workshops were designed to obtain feedback on the need and feasibility of developing the C-CCREMP concept in order to provide NOAA and its partners with a comparative assessment and comprehensive coral ecosystem monitoring capability across the U.S. Caribbean.Project outcomes will include:
Completed
Future/Planned
2006 - 2013
Principal Investigators
| Dr. Ron Hill | NOAA/NMFS, Galveston, Texas | Phone: 409-766-3519 |
| Dr. Mark Monaco | NOAA/NOS, Silver Spring, MD | Phone : 301-713-3028x160 |
| Mr. Chris Caldow | NOAA/NOS, Silver Spring, MD | Phone : 301-713-3028x164 |
| Dr. Simon Pittman | NOAA/NOS, St. Thomas, USVI | Phone: 240-693-1179 |
