The Reef Ball Foundation, working with the DOE & West Indian Marine deployed and anchored 4 reef balls and planted them with coral as a one year test for nearshore reef habitat rehabilitation after hurricane damage weakened nearshore reefs. One year later, the monitoring showed a sucess survival of corals and good fish populations including fish spawning on the Reef Balls. However, coral growth was slow and some transplants did not survive likely due to the nearshore loss of red mangroves that have an interconnected ecosystem providing corals with both cleaner water and food supplies.
