NEW SCIENCE DIRECTOR AT CCMI SIGNALS SHIFT IN COMMITMENT TO PAIRING SCIENCE WITH CONSERVATION IMPACTS ACROSS THE REGION

PRESS RELEASE

Little Cayman, Cayman Islands; 21st September 2026 – The Central Caribbean Marine Institute (CCMI) is pleased to announce the appointment of Dr George Roff as Director of Science, marking a new chapter in the organisation’s research programme and its ambition to drive greater scientific and conservation-impact across the Caribbean.

Dr Roff brings more than 20 years of experience in marine ecology and coral reef research, with a career focused on understanding how coral reefs respond to environmental change and how scientific evidence can support effective conservation and management.

Before joining CCMI, Dr Roff held senior research positions at the University of Queensland and CSIRO in Australia, where he led large-scale coral reef surveys and restoration research programmes across the Great Barrier Reef and wider Indo-Pacific. As a field ecologist, he has undertaken more than 75 research expeditions across the Caribbean, Pacific, and Indian Oceans and has extensive experience combining field ecology with advanced monitoring technologies, spatial analysis, and ecological modelling.

His academic work includes more than 80 scientific papers, alongside major collaborative research programmes involving universities, government agencies, conservation organisations and local stakeholders.

At CCMI, Dr Roff will lead the development of a new science and research direction designed to build on the Institute’s strong foundation of long-term reef research while creating greater impact locally, regionally, and internationally.

“CCMI has an extraordinary scientific foundation, particularly its 28-year record of monitoring Caribbean reefs from Little Cayman,” said Dr Roff. “Our opportunity now is to build on that foundation – to move beyond documenting what is happening to Caribbean reef and to use that knowledge to better understand, predict, and shape what happens next.

“We want CCMI’s science to help answer the questions that matter most for the future of Caribbean reefs and the communities that depend on them while creating new opportunities for discovery, collaboration, and innovation across the region.”

From understanding ecosystem change to delivering regional impact

The new research direction is centred on a simple ambition: to move from understanding ecosystem change to delivering regional conservation impact.

CCMI’s research will be brought together through three complementary areas of focus: Future Caribbean Reefs, Ecosystem Regeneration, and Biodiversity & Discovery.

Together, these programmes will explore how Caribbean reefs are changing and why some reefs and corals are more resilient than others; investigate how degraded reef ecosystems can be rebuilt and their ecological functions restored; and expand understanding of the biodiversity and ecological complexity of Caribbean marine ecosystems, including species and habitats that remain poorly understood.

The approach is designed to ensure that research does more than generate scientific publications. CCMI will increasingly focus on translating evidence into practical tools, management approaches, training and decision-making, while creating opportunities for successful approaches to be shared and replicated across the Caribbean.

“CCMI has always believed that research and education must ultimately serve conservation of the natural world,” said Kate Holden, CEO. “George’s leadership gives us an opportunity to expand our capacity to empower local communities, to build resilient reefs for the future by shifting our focus to regional impact, in addition to delivering ground-breaking science and education locally.”

Little Cayman as a living laboratory for applied Caribbean reef science

At the heart of this strategy is CCMI’s field station on Little Cayman and its unique scientific setting. With more than 28 years of continuous reef monitoring, relatively low local human pressures and access to a range of shallow and deeper reef environments, Little Cayman provides an exceptional platform for understanding how Caribbean reefs respond to a rapidly changing climate.

CCMI’s ambition is to use this long-term foundation to develop research that is relevant first to Little Cayman and the Cayman Islands, then to the wider Caribbean, and ultimately to global understanding of coral reef futures.

A key priority will be strengthening partnerships with environmental managers, conservation organisations and research institutions, while creating new opportunities for Caribbean scientists, students and practitioners to participate in and benefit from CCMI’s research.

“Little Cayman gives us something incredibly valuable: the opportunity to study reef change against a long-term scientific record, in a setting where many local pressures remain relatively limited,” said Dr Roff. “That makes the island more than just a place where research happens; it makes a platform for asking questions that have relevance across the Caribbean.”

Science that supports the future of coral reefs

The new direction will build upon CCMI’s existing strengths, including its 28-year Healthy Reefs monitoring programme, coral restoration research, blue carbon research and studies of reef ecology and biodiversity, while creating stronger connections between these areas.

The aim is to understand the processes that shape the persistence and recovery of Caribbean coral reefs, uncover the biodiversity and ecological complexity that underpin healthy ecosystems, and develop practical pathways for rebuilding reef function in a rapidly changing climate.

An important part of this work will be strengthening the connection between scientific evidence and conservation action in the Cayman Islands and further afield, while developing research and training partnerships that can extend CCMI’s impact across the wider Caribbean.

Impact beyond Cayman’s shores

Over time, CCMI aims to become a central hub for Caribbean reef research, a place where comparative reef science is coordinated, regional practitioners are trained, innovative methods are developed and tested, and scientific evidence is translated into action.

Dr Roff added: “The Caribbean is facing an enormous challenge, but there is also an enormous opportunity: to understand what enables reefs to persist, how they respond to environmental change, and what determines where they go next.

“Our goal is for CCMI to be a place where excellent science is generated, but also where that science is applied has impact – makes a difference, informing decisions, building capacity and empowering communities across the region to protect and rebuild the ecosystems on which they depend.”

The need for this next step in CCMI’s science has never been more urgent. Caribbean island nations are at the forefront of climate change impacts and Caribbean reefs are facing unprecedented pressure from rising ocean temperatures, repeated mass bleaching events, disease and other climate-driven changes, while the strengthening El Niño event of 2026–27 is adding further heat stress to an already vulnerable ocean. The National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)’s latest outlook gives a greater than 90% chance of a very strong El Niño, with the potential to be the strongest since 1950. As such, bleaching alerts are already elevated across parts of the Caribbean, including the Cayman Islands. In this rapidly changing environment, understanding what is happening to reefs is no longer enough.

We need to understand why some reefs and corals persist, identify where recovery is possible, test what interventions genuinely work, and translate that knowledge into decisions that can make a difference across the region. This is the moment for CCMI to build on its long-term scientific record and take its research to the next level, combining discovery, innovation and collaboration to help shape a more resilient future for Caribbean reefs and the communities that depend on them.

CCMI is thankful to the John Ellerman Foundation for their support of this initiative.

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