The Center for Research and Restoration of Marine Organisms (CIROM in Spanish) facilities are the first land-based nurseries for marine organisms in Puerto Rico, developed and run by ISER Caribe, with collaboration and/or funding from the Puerto Rico Department of Natural and Environmental Resources, DMS, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Restoration Center. We currently have facilities in La Parguera at the Isla Magueyes Marine Station and Department of Marine Science, UPRM, and in Ceiba. For details of the nursery locations please visit the CIROM page.

Coral reef restoration is impacted by the same symptoms of climate change that impact coral reefs such as coral bleaching. We recognize that this also makes restoring coral reefs hard! However, there are still things that can be done in the face of climate change to restore and preserve coral reefs. 

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At ISER Caribe, our land-based nurseries currently serve as an emergency refuge to keep sensitive and/or endangered corals alive during extreme bleaching events, to preserve coral species and genetic diversity. We also plan to focus our restoration efforts on particular coral colonies that have shown resistance to higher temperatures and disease events. Future research and restoration at ISER Caribe may also include raising corals at our land-based nurseries to be more tolerant to higher temperatures.  

The ecosystem-based approach is a strategy for the integrated management of land, water and living resources that promotes conservation and sustainable use of resources equitably. We restore corals and other important reef organisms, such as herbivores like urchins and crabs, that eat nuisance algae to reduce competition, increase coral growth, and restore balance to the ecosystem. 

Caribbean coral reefs have been severely impacted by climate change and disease events, resulting in widely degraded coral reef ecosystems. To help restore the coral reefs, we are working to restore both hard corals and important herbivores such as urchins and crabs.  

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For hard corals, we use the technique of microfragmentation to grow corals in our land-based (ex-situ) and in the water (in-situ) nurseries at a much faster rate (Christopher A. Page, Erinn M. Muller, David E. Vaughan, Microfragmenting for the successful restoration of slow growing massive corals, Ecological Engineering, Volume 123, 2018, Pages 86-94, ISSN 0925-8574,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecoleng.2018.08.017). After the corals have reached a size where they are more resistant to predation, the corals are outplanted on degraded reefs for restoration. We are also spawning certain types of corals in the laboratory to raise them from larvae to adult coral colonies before planting them on the reef, a, increasing the chances of survivorship.  

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For herbivores, our primary technique is to spawn them in the lab and grow them to their adult stages. However, for some species, such as Diadema antillarum, which is extremely hard to rear their larvae, we collect them as babies (settlers) and grow them to adulthood in the lab. Through growing species to adulthood in the lab before releasing them on the reefs, both corals and herbivores have a much better chance of surviving and can go on to contribute to a healthy coral reef ecosystem.  

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We also do a lot of outreach and education on coral reefs, and train high school through graduate school students in the marine sciences through internships, assistantships, and mentoring.  

We work with all kinds of Caribbean corals! However, the focus for our restoration work is on species of corals that are on the endangered species list, such as the Acropora palmata or elkhorn corals, massive corals such as Orbicella species, or other framework building species that have been decimated by disease such as Dendrogyra cylindrus, Pseudodiploria strigosa, Montastraea cavernosa, and Colpophyllia natans.  

The microfragmentation technique consists of cutting the corals into smaller pieces using a specialized saw. Through cutting the corals into smaller pieces, tissue growth is simulated, and fragments have been shown to have increased growth and greater outplant survival4. In addition, because microfragmentation makes many coral colonies out of one coral colony, it increases the number of coral colonies on the reef, and can help restore numbers of threatened, endangered, or other coral colonies on the reef!

Typically, the minimum age is 18. However, with the permission of a parent or guardian, we may accept high school-age students on a case-by-case basis.  

Please see our events calendar for specific events at ISER Caribe, to visit the CIROM Facilities or for volunteer opportunities please fill out this form.