Coral Restoration Foundation™ (CRF) is celebrating a major milestone this April 2025, the first anniversary of our operations in St. Croix, US Virgin Islands. This anniversary is a chance to reflect on the dedication and progress that has been made for our restoration efforts in the USVI’s. From the beginning, our goal has been clear: to support the recovery of Long Reef, one of St. Croix’s most important reef systems that protects Christiansted Harbor, and to build meaningful partnerships with the local community.
Our commitment to St. Croix began in July 2023, when we received crucial funding through NOAA’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. With this support, we conducted site surveys in August 2023. We selected ideal locations for our coral nurseries, carefully chosen for their potential to support healthy, thriving coral growth. CRF was named a partner in Department of Planning and Natural Resources’ Virgin Islands Coral Restoration Plan, with Long Reef designated as our primary restoration site.
In March 2024, our USVI Reef Restoration Coordinator, Bailey Thomasson, relocated to St. Croix, dedicated to managing restoration activities and collaborating with local stakeholders. Just one month later, in April 2024, the first coral trees and coral fragments were installed into the nursery, marking the beginning of active coral restoration for CRF St. Croix.
A prominent highlight occurred in June 2024, when we trained and hired our first local contract divers. These divers are an essential part of our work in St. Croix, not only providing skilled support in the field, but also bringing local insight and enthusiasm to coral restoration. Their dedication has helped connect the broader community to our mission, creating local champions for reef conservation. This year we hosted three training events and now have a pool of over 20 contract divers.
Also in June, we hosted our first Coralpalooza™ dive event in St. Croix. Recreational divers joined us underwater to clean and care for corals in the nursery, getting hands-on experience and learning about reef restoration. Events like this are just the beginning of our growing community outreach efforts on the island.
During October 2024, we faced a stark reminder of why this work is so urgent. A coral bleaching event caused significant mortality on the reefs around St. Croix. While heartbreaking, it underscored the need for rapid, scalable restoration and mitigation efforts.
Despite the impacts of the bleaching event, our growth continued in January 2025 when we welcomed a new Restoration Associate, a former contract diver whose passion for the work led her to pursue the full time position. This addition will help grow the program tremendously both in-water and throughout the community.
Today, our coral nursery in St. Croix holds 30 coral tree structures and over 5,000 coral fragments, all intended for future outplanting at Long Reef. We’re proud of what we’ve accomplished in just one year and even more excited for what’s to come.
CRF St. Croix showcases that our restoration techniques and strategies can be applied in new locations to achieve large-scale restoration in areas that are quickly degrading.
Happy birthday CRF St. Croix!
Written by: Bailey Thomasson, CRF USVI Reef Restoration Coordinator
