AIC Chair’s Report: Priorities, updates, challenges, & accomplishments

by Carey Morishige Martinez, Executive director, AIC Secretariat

In the three months since the U.S. Coral Reef Task Force last met, efforts to conserve and manage our coral reefs have continued. Thankfully, the winter season brought cooler waters and a much needed reprieve for our coral reefs, many of which have suffered back-to-back years of bleaching. However, in areas like southeast Florida, the number of corals impacted by an unprecedented disease event continues to grow and the cause(s) of the disease has yet to be identified.

Coral bleaching from warming oceans, ocean acidification, Crown of Thorns Starfish outbreaks, ship groundings, coral disease outbreaks, invasive algae, land-based sources of pollution, and so many other things impact our coral reefs each day.

We must stretch beyond the ‘status quo’ and work together, as federal agencies and jurisdictions, to make a difference NOW.

At each biannual U.S. Coral Reef Task Force (USCRTF) meeting, the AIC Chair presents a report of AIC priorities, challenges, and accomplishments in every AIC jurisdiction and the Freely Associated States since the previous Task Force meeting. Check out the newest AIC Chair’s Report presented at the 35th USCRTF meeting in Washington D.C.  

Read through it here or download it here.

 

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