Through Florida’s Reef Resilience Program (FRRP), the Partnership has supported coordination between scientists from 13 partner agencies for 14 years. Since 2005, more than 2,000 FRRP Disturbance Response Monitoring (DRM) surveys have been completed to document bleaching impacts and inform disturbance response efforts.

Although it was originally designed to document the effects of coral bleaching, the FRRP’s DRM survey method is adaptable to other coral reef disturbances. In 2015, 250 surveys documented a disease outbreak along the Florida Reef Tract. Data analysis showed this was the largest disease outbreak—in terms of range and impacted coral colonies—documented through 14 years of surveys. Strategic communication materials were created and outreach to local media was conducted to raise awareness of the disease outbreak and its impact on coral reefs. As a result, articles were published locally as well as in the Washington Post.

In 2017, DRM methods were modified and utilized to pinpoint the location of the coral disease front advancing along the Florida Reef Tract. In 2017, Hurricane Irma crossed over the Florida Keys with sustained winds of 130-miles per hour and gusts as high as 160-miles per hour. Massive damage was inflicted on Florida’s coral reefs and island infrastructure. Capitalizing on longstanding FRRP partnerships between public agency reef managers, academic institutions and NGO’s, DRM survey methods were adapted yet again to determine hurricane impacts on coral reefs from Miami to Key West. These assessments resulted in the prioritization of reefs for restoration efforts and the immediate deployment of restoration efforts at 14 percent of the survey sites ranked as top priorities for stabilization.