Nursery programs for corals receive TLC from NOAA this Independence Day

$350K in stimulus funding to greatly expand reef restoration efforts in Florida, US Virgin Islands

		IMAGE: University of Miami scientist Dr. Diego Lirman makes sure new staghorn coral fragments are safely installed at the underwater nursery in Biscayne National Park. Established in 2007, the nursery... Click here for more information.

VIRGINIA KEY, Fla. — As the nation celebrates its birth on the 4th of July, University of Miami (UM) Professor Diego Lirman and fellow Caribbean coral reef nursery scientists will be celebrating as well. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) today announced that The Nature Conservancy and its partners' staghorn and elkhorn coral recovery project, including Lirman's nursery in Biscayne National Park, will receive support from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) to further develop large-scale, in-water coral nurseries and restore reefs along Florida's southern coast and in the U.S. Virgin Islands (USVI).