However, four out of four experts also agreed that efforts can be taken and are being taken to address and alleviate these threats. That was the hopeful conclusion of Thursday’s ORR weekly lecture series, YOU DON’T KNOW WHAT YOU DON’T KNOW, a special two hour program on corals. Guest host, Gary Shigenaka, OR&R’s Emergency Response Division senior biologist led four experts, Dr. Jennifer Moore of NOAA’s Coral Recovery Program, Dr. Abby Renegar of Nova Southern University, Greg Challenger of Polaris Applied Sciences, and Dr. David Vaughan of Plant A Million Coral Foundation and more than 200 attendees on a journey to discover the threats, reconstruction methods, and coral reef restoration initiatives around the world. Questions poured in from the audience, too many to answer. This panel exemplified the professional cross-section of the work to protect and restore corals. Federal government, academia, private industry and non-profit sectors were represented on the panel. Clearly there is concern, but equally clearly there is hope.  A recording of the program is available. 

Join us next week when we explore NOAA’s work to address marine debris after natural disaster events with Dr. Caitlin Wessel and Amy Gohres of the OR&R Marine Debris Program.

For questions, contact Steve.Lehmann@NOAA.gov or youdontknowwhatyoudontknow@noaa.gov.

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