Proceedings of the Caribbean Acropora Workshop: Potential Application of the U.S. Endangered Species Act as a Conservation Strategy April 16-18, 2002 Miami, Florida Andrew W. Bruckner U.S. Department of Commerce National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration National Marine Fisheries Service NOAA Technical Memorandum NMFS-OPR-24 January 2003 This publication should be cited as: Bruckner, A.W. , 2002. Proceedings of the Caribbean Acropora Workshop: Potential Application of the U.S. Endangered Species Act as a Conservation Strategy. NOAA Technical Memorandum NMFS-OPR-24, Silver Spring, MD 199 pp. Significant support for the development of this document was provided by NOAA Fisheries, Office of Protected Resources and Office of Habitat Conservation’s Coral Conservation Program. The views expressed in this document are those of the author and the participants of the workshop, and do not necessarily reflect the official views or policies of the U.S. Government, NOAA or DOS. Additional copies of this publication may be requested from: Dr. Andrew W. Bruckner National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration NOAA Fisheries Office of Protected Resources 1315 East West Highway Silver Spring, MD 20910 Proceedings of the Caribbean Acropora Workshop: Potential Application of the U.S. Endangered Species Act as a Conservation Strategy Andrew W. Bruckner Office of Protected Resources, Rm 13604 NOAA National Marine Fisheries Service 1315 East-West Highway Silver Spring, MD 20910-3282 NOAA Technical Memorandum NMFS-OPR-24 January 2003 U.S. Department of Commerce Donald L. Evans, Secretary National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Vice Admiral Conrad C. Lautenbacher, Jr., USN (Ret.) Under Secretary for Oceans and Atmosphere National Marine Fisheries Service William T. Hogarth, Assistant Administrator for Fisheries Proceedings of the Caribbean Acropora Workshop: Potential Application of the U.S. Endangered Species Act as a Conservation Strategy Program Coordinator Andrew Bruckner, NOAA Fisheries Organizing Committee Andrew Bruckner, NOAA Fisheries, Headquarters Margaret Miller, NOAA Fisheries, SEFSC Robin Fortuna, NCORE Cara Dickman, NCORE Workshop Group Leaders Brian Keller, NOAA Sanctuaries Patricia Kramer, AGRRA Diego Lirman, University of Miami John McManus, NCORE Sponsors Office of Protected Resources NOAA Fisheries Silver Spring, MD Office of Habitat Conservation NOAA Fisheries Silver Spring, MD Southeast Fishery Science Center NOAA Fisheries Miami, FL National Center for Caribbean Coral Reef Research Miami, FL ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The Proceedings of the Caribbean Acropora Workshop summarizes the outcome of a meeting held in Miami, Florida in April, 2002, funded through the NOAA Coral Conservation Program with additional financial support by NOAA Fisheries Office of Protected Resources, Office of Habitat Conservation and the Southeast Fisheries Science Center. The workshop was developed and conducted in response to the listing of elkhorn coral and staghorn coral as Candidate Species for the Endangered Species Act (ESA) with the primary objective of obtaining recent information on the status and trends of these corals throughout the wider Caribbean and the severity of threats affecting them. This information is needed to complete a status review of these species, which will be used to determine whether these species qualify for listing on the ESA as threatened or endangered. The workshop objectives and the working group tasks were developed by Andrew Bruckner and Margaret Miller through consultations with key Acropora biologists, State, Territorial and Federal Wildlife Agencies, as well as ESA experts at the NOAA Fisheries Headquarters Office and the NOAA Fisheries Southeast Regional Office (SERO). The workshop and this document would not have been possible without the dedicated efforts of all of the participants and in particular, the Working Group Chairs, including Dr. Brain Keller, Ms. Patricia Kramer, Dr. Diego Lirman, and Dr. John McManus. The success of the workshop is also due in part to the National Center for Caribbean Coral Reef Research (NCORE) including Cara Dickman, Robin Fortuna and several graduate students who provided facilities, coordinated all logistics, and ensured that the speakers and participants had all necessary equipment and supplies used during the workshop. I am deeply indebted to the numerous experts from Florida, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, including 1) Margaret Miller, Walt Jaap, Mark Chiappone, Bernardo Varga-Angel, Brian Keller, Rich Aronson and Eugene Shinn (Florida); 2) Ernesto Weil, Edwin Hernandez-Delgado, Antonio Ortiz, Michael Nemith and Hector Ruiz (Puerto Rico) ; and 3) Caroline Rogers, William Gladfelter, Dennis Hubbard, Elizabeth Gladfelter, John Bythell, Rikki Dunsmore, Christy Loomis, Barry Devine, Zandy Hillis-Starr, and Brendalee Phillips (U.S. Virgin Islands) for their efforts in developing white papers on the status, trends, threats, and patterns of recovery of Acropora populations in their respective areas. I would also like to acknowledge each of the speakers, without whom much of the key background information on these corals would not have been included in the working group reports. I am also grateful for the contributions by Dr. Eric Jordan-Dahlgren and Dr. Steve Vollmer, who were unable to attend, but still provided important information that contributed to the workshop goals. Finally, I am grateful to each of the participants for all of their efforts and contributions to the working group reports, as well as the final edits and revisions which have greatly improved this document. i i i PREFACE The Caribbean Acropora Workshop was conceived to obtain recent information on the status of Acropora populations throughout the wider Caribbean and determine appropriate strategies to conserve these critical resources. Because the emphasis was on the potential use of the U.S. Endangered Species Act (ESA) as a conservation tool, the majority of the participants were from the United States, including fisheries officials, resource managers and scientists from Federal, State and Territorial governments, universities and non- government organizations. Scientific and management expertise from a number of other countries were also represented to obtain a more regional perspective, as a determination of an endangered or threatened listing in the U.S. ESA for invertebrates requires an evaluation of the status, trends and threats affecting these species throughout their range. The workshop was divided into background presentations given by the participants followed by two days of working group discussions. Presentations were given on the status and trends, threats, and biology and ecology of Acropora cervicornis and A. palmata1; the application of research data to improve our understanding of these species; and existing and new management tools necessary to develop effective conservation programs for these species. The morning session included a regional overview as well as more detailed presentations on Acropora populations in Florida, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands and several non-U.S. countries including the Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Belize, Netherlands Antilles, Colombia and the northeast Caribbean. The afternoon session discussed mapping of Acropora habitat and colonies, the relevance of geological information in evaluating risk factors, population dynamics and life history traits, genetic information, the use of aquaculture and mariculture to restore degraded populations, existing management measures, and potential application of the ESA as a conservation strategy. This was followed by four concurrent breakout working group sessions on 1) status and trends of Acropora populations throughout the Caribbean; 2) biology and ecology of Acropora spp. and how these influence the potential for recovery; 3) existing management measures in the U.S. and wider Caribbean and their relevance to Acropora conservation, and new initiatives needed to protect these species; and 4) information and research needs to better understand and address the threats these species face, and predict the likelihood of recovery. This document includes four working group reports, white papers from Florida, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, abstracts from the talks, restoration approaches applied to these corals, background information used to list these species as Candidates for the ESA, and a reference compilation of literature specific for Caribbean Acroporids. The Executive Summary highlights the major outcomes and conclusions from the workshop, including the specific resolutions of each working group. These Proceedings should provide the information needed to complete a full status review on these species and make a listing determination for the ESA. 1Acropora prolifera is mentioned in several reports and abstracts throughout these proceedings, but it was not listed as a candidate species for the ESA and was not considered a separate species during this workshop. Vollmer and Palumbi (2002) present data that demonstrate that A. prolifera is a morphologically variable, first generation hybrid of A. palmata and A. cervicornis. i v TABLE OF CONTENTS Executive Summary .......................................................................................................................... 3 Summary of Resolutions from the Biology and Ecology Working Group ....................................... 5 Summary of Resolutions from the Status and Trends Working Group ..........................................