Healthy Reefs

Long Term Records to Strengthen Our Understanding of Coral Resilience

Coral reefs are the largest mass of construction workers on the face of the earth. They are natural architects in the shallow sea but only remain productive when juvenile corals are able to survive after recruitment onto the reef. At every dive location on the reef around Little Cayman, we see evidence of recruitment. This is a good sign for the future.

Using the AGRRA, Atlantic Gulf Rapid Reef Assessment protocol and collecting additional recruitment data, this project investigates the potential for juvenile corals to survive and replenish the local reefs. Results from this work will help generate an understanding of the mechanisms that are driving reef resilience.

AGRRA data on the benthic habitat and fish populations surrounding Little Cayman has been collected regularly since 1999. As CCMI researchers continue to collect this data annually, notes, reports, and peer reviewed journal articles are available online to scientists, policy-makers, and the general public. These surveys document patterns of local change over the last two decades and enable regional comparisons through the Healthy Reef Framework developed for evaluating the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef.

Key Results from the latest Little Cayman Reef Report Card (released 2022):

• Of the reefs surveyed, 10% were in “very good” health in 2020, 40% were “good +”, and 40% were “good”.
• At the bottom end of the health spectrum, we had no surveyed reefs listed as in “poor” health and only 10% classed as “fair”.
• Composition of the coral community on the reef has shifted over time, from reefs dominated by massive boulder corals, such as Orbicella spp., to smaller corals such as Agaricia spp. and Porites spp.
• The size of corals surveyed has decreased by 60% overall, which may indicate that the reefs are less structurally robust and capable of providing some of the important services we depend upon them for, such as storm protection and complex habitats for a variety of marine life.
• There was a decline of 13% in the cover of algae on the reefs in Little Cayman from 1999 to 2021.
• New coral recruits, or baby corals, have declined by 83% from 2006 to 2021. Within that, researchers also see that of the species of recruits recorded, there are almost no Orbicella spp recruits and no Montastrea spp recruits after 2017, both of which are important boulder corals.
• Fish abundance (density), biomass and species richness have all increased overall since 1999, indicating a rebounding fish population.
• Fish biomass has been higher inside of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) compared to outside throughout the 23 years of surveys; in 2021, this was 40% higher inside MPAs than outside.
• Parrotfish density has increased by 47% since 1999.
• Grouper density has rebounded following protections enacted in 2016.
• Shifts in species contributions, colony size and recruitment indicate that while coral cover remains high, coral populations are vulnerable.
• Local protections and low human impact have undoubtedly shielded Little Cayman from the extremity of global pressures that are heavily impacting reefs around the globe; however, changes are still occurring that put the reefs increasingly at risk.

View the reports by release year below.

2022- Little Cayman Reef Report Card

2021- Little Cayman Reef Report Card

2020- Coral Reef Resilience Over Two Decades at Little Cayman Island | Reef Report Card

2019- 20 Year Report on the Status and Trends of the Coral Reefs in the Cayman Islands 1999 – 2018

2015 – Project Overview

2013 – A Positive Trajectory for Corals at Little Cayman Island

2007 – Coral community decline at a remote Caribbean island: Marine no-take reserves are not enough

2003 – Status of coral reefs of Little Cayman, Grand Cayman and Cayman Brac

The CREWS provides CCMI with the opportunity to be at the forefront of coral reef science because it offers near real time information on the ocean environment around the robust reefs of Little Cayman. The project is led by the United States National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). CREWS gets its name from its success in modelling and alerting impacts on coral reefs from climate-related events such as, coral bleaching, seasonal upwelling, or approaching storms. This system is considered part of a NOAA Integrated Coral Observing Network (ICON) and is thus named ICON/CREWS.

The CREWS buoy system uses local information about weather and marine conditions that is continually gathered by a series of monitoring stations and buoys located across the Caribbean Sea as well as worldwide. The data is transmitted in real-time to NOAA for integration and analysis, while also being made available online to researchers, policy-makers, and to the public. ICON uses the data collected by CREWS in conjunction with satellite data and radar technologies to analyse and forecast regional oceanographic and atmospheric trends. The CREWS system has been successfully used in modeling and alerts of coral bleaching conditions both locally in the Cayman Islands and the Caribbean Sea. Over time, it is NOAA’s intent to expand the CREWS system by installing stations in more geographic regions and to further refine the systems capability to better predict the impact of climate patterns on coral reefs.

Originally installed in 2009, this monitoring location gave CCMI, the Cayman Islands, and the general public access to real-time weather information and records of local climate patterns over time. In October 2012, Hurricane Sandy unfortunately damaged CCMI’s monitoring system beyond repair. Almost one year later, a more rugged and robust monitoring buoy was installed in its place and remained in place until 2017, when recurring communications issues required it to be replaced.