Staghorn coral (see above) was once dominant in reefs throughout the Cayman Islands and the Caribbean, but its  has declined dramatically in recent decades.

In a bid to resestablish the branching coral, the Central Caribbean Marine Institute, has set up the coral nursery in Little Cayman.

'Removing coral branches for use in a nursery does not harm the donor colony or the donated branch,' said Katie Lohr, CCMI’s Conservation coordinator and leader of the nursery project in Little Cayman. 'Additionally, staghorn coral has been shown to grow faster in a nursery setting than it does in the wild.'

Once the corals grow large enough in the nursery, they will be fragmented again and the fragments will be put back into the nursery, thereby increasing the number of colonies in the nursery without requiring the removal of any additional wild tissue. Ultimately, the nursery colonies will be returned to the wild, which will increase the number of healthy staghorn colonies on the reef. The hope is that these 'outplanted' corals will grow large enough to spawn.

'These techniques are proving successful in other areas of the Caribbean, and while focus should not be removed on safeguarding our existing coral reefs, we are excited about the potential these kind of approaches offer to assist the natural recovery of this once very abundant and important reef species,' said John Bothwell of the Cayman Islands Department of Environment.

'More healthy, mature colonies on the reef mean more chances for successful spawning. By growing corals in our nursery and then outplanting them back to the reef, we will give this endangered species a better chance of recovering naturally,' Katie Lohr said.

Since 1980, the population of staghorn coral in the Cayman islands has declined by 98 per cent, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries’ Office of Protected Resources.

Staghorn coral is listed as critically endangered on the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List of Threatened Species.