In partnership with colleagues from SECORE International and the zoo and aquarium community, the organization is developing techniques for large-scale restoration by seeding damaged reefs with sexually reproduced corals grown on self-attaching substrates. This approach helps maintain genetic diversity and significantly reduces the labor and time required for restoration. This work, along with research in their on-site aquarium laboratories, will accelerate the development of the scientific and practical cultivation techniques needed to give coral reefs a hopeful future.

Shepherd is the senior director of Steinhart Aquarium at the California Academy of Sciences and co-director of the Academy’s Hope for Reefs initiative.