Coral Reef Report Card workshop during the XI Mexican Coral Reef Congress and II PanAmerican Coral Reef Congress

A Coral Reef Report Card workshop was held on September 27th in Veracruz, Mexico as part of the activities of the XI Mexican Coral Reef Congress and II PanAmerican Coral Reef Congress. While in 2019 the Harte Research Institute for Gulf Mexico Studies (HRI) and UNAM-Sisal released a preliminary report card, the goal now is to develop a tri-national quantitative coral reef assessment for the whole Gulf of Mexico.

To highlight the work already done in the region, the workshop included short presentations of report cards developed in Mexico, the U.S., and Cuba. In 2021 in Mexico, Sea&Reef and local partners released a report card for the reefs in the state of Veracruz, while LANRESC, HRI and UNAM-Sisal produced the Alacranes Reef National Park report card for the Yucatán area. In the U.S., HRI developed the first Texas Ecosystem Health Report Card in 2019 and is now working on updates; NOAA and IAN published the Coral Reef Ecosystem Status Reports in 2020, including the Flower Garden Banks and Florida Keys reefs in the northern gulf. Cuba’s report card is hot off the press and will soon be available.

This workshop was special in that rarely people from the U.S., Mexico, and Cuba can engage in in-person discussions. Around 30 participants from universities and government agencies brainstormed ideas on common and shared coral reef socio-ecological indicators and funding options.

Overall, this was a great opportunity to continue building and strengthening a community of practitioners within the Gulf of Mexico region.

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