Abstract

NOAA’s Coral Reef Conservation Program has developed a national coral reef fish and coral monitoring program (National Coral Reef Monitoring Program, NCRMP) throughout the US Pacific, Atlantic, and Caribbean. The goal of the program is to use standardized approaches to collect a suite of biological, oceanographic, and socioeconomic information at a national scale to help coastal managers gauge the status, trends, and conditions of US coral reef ecosystems. NCRMP has biological, climate, and socioeconomic monitoring components. NCRMP’s biological monitoring of fish and benthic communities in the Atlantic and Caribbean jurisdictions began in 2013; and will occur biennially in Puerto Rico, US Virgin Islands, Florida, and the Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary. Biological monitoring occurs through in-situ visual scuba surveys based on stratified random sampling designed for hardbottom areas up to depths of 30.5 m. Reef fish abundance, diversity, and size are being recorded. Benthic metrics include percent cover of dominant benthic communities (corals, sponges, gorgonians, etc) as well as coral abundance, size structure, and condition. Collectively, these data will provide context for existing jurisdictional monitoring and will provide meaningful status and trends information at the jurisdictional scale (and likely island scale as well). Here, we present preliminary information from our maiden USVI surveys (2012-2013) and provide some discussion concerning logistics, coordination, and partnership development. We also discuss the utility of these data to inform coastal managers about the status and condition of coral reef ecosystems within their jurisdictions.

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