Territorial Coral Reef Monitoring Program (TCRMP) Caribbean Fishery Management Council Meeting St. Thomas USVI December 15-16, 2015 Leslie Marie Henderson Department of Planning and Natural Resources Division of Coastal Zone Management Who am I? From Lewisville, North Carolina B.S. Degree in Marine Biology from UNC Wilmington M.S. Degree in Marine and Environmental Science from University of the Virgin Islands Research Analyst for UVI Coral Reef Initiative Coordinator for DPNR Coastal Zone Management Contact What is TCRMP? Vision To provide critical information on the status and threats to all Virgin Islands coral reef ecosystems in order to increase management effectiveness and improve basic and applied coral reef research What does that mean?.... What is TCRMP? Once a year surveys at 33 permanent sites Corals Fish Algae Black Spiny Urchin Temperature (collected year-round) So How are the reefs doing? Coral Cover Higher is better = more corals Calculated from pictures looking straight down at the reef. Coral Cover Fish Biomass Underwater visual survey 25 x 4m 15 mins Fish Biomass STXSTT/STJ Invasive Lionfish Black Spiny Sea Urchin And so much more! Other data we have upon request Coral disease Temperature Currents Site specific profiles Species specific profiles Sedimentation levels NCRMP blitz surveys Possible future directions Coral recruitment Fish recruitment Reef accretion/erosion Coral larval connectivity modeling Suggestions? Contact information Leslie Marie Henderson ext TCRMP website https://sites.google.com/a/myuvi.net/tyler-b-smith-lab/ Access to data and reports!