Jessica Levy | Source | Director of Restoration Strategy at Coral Restoration Foundation
Jessica Levy
Jessica is the Director of Restoration Strategy at Coral Restoration Foundation. Jessica is a self-proclaimed coral geek passionate about tropical coral reef conservation. While pursuing a BS in Marine Biology at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington, her interest in tropical coral reef ecosystems began in 2008 while studying abroad at James Cook University (JCU) in Australia. JCU is situated only a stone’s throw away from the Great Barrier Reef (GBR) and from her first dive on the GBR she was hooked on corals! Since then she has spent her time traveling to destinations like Curacao, Bermuda, and California following her interest in reef conservation.
In 2011 she found herself back at JCU pursuing a Master's degree in Marine Conservation with a special focus on incorporating climate change modeling into Marine Protected Area design.
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Coral Restoration Foundation (https://www.coralrestoration.org/)
Director of Restoration Strategy
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AI Could Give Coral a Fighting Chance in Rapidly Warming Oceans - BNN Bloomberg
Scientists are working on a unique solution to speed up coral restoration. But it may not be enough to save reefs.
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What’s killing Florida’s coral reefs — and why you should care
A blistering marine heat wave has sent water temperatures off the coast of South Florida skyrocketing to record highs, causing a massive coral bleaching event.
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Extreme heat is one of the biggest threats facing coral reefs today, and halting climate change is ultimately the only way to address it. But other environmental stressors, such as pollution and overfishing, can make them more vulnerable.
Highlighting the problem could help motivate policymakers to mitigate some of these additional stressors, Levy noted — potentially buying coral reefs more time in the short term.
CRF and other coral restoration groups also are paying greater attention to genetics these days, Levy added, studying which coral species are the most resilient to extreme heat and making efforts to bolster those populations on vulnerable reefs. They’re also working to catalog as much of the reef’s surviving genetic diversity as possible and bank genetic material in secure, land-based facilities so they won’t be lost forever during future bleaching events.
Levy also hopes that extreme events, such as last summer’s heat, will put a spotlight on the plight of the world’s coral reefs.
“If this event did anything, it is that it’s made people really pay attention, and it’s started conversations about what does restoration success mean and what does it look like,” Levy said. “Particularly if you — and by you, I mean the world, the collective you — can’t pull back on the effects of climate change, can't ameliorate what’s coming.”