Meet Lisa Carne, an American marine biologist who has helped save the world’s second largest coral reef through a radical restoration project launched ten years ago.
Growing up in California, Lisa always had an affinity for the ocean. In 1994, after graduating with a biology degree, Lisa travelled to Southern Belize and started working as a volunteer research assistant at the Smithsonian field station in Placencia, where she witnessed the impact that climate change and rising sea temperatures were having on ocean habitats.
In 2001 Hurricane Iris devasted Belize, turning the magnificent coral reef into 'a wasteland.' Instead of waiting for a large organization to come up with the solution, Lisa devised her own radical plan. After noticing living pieces of Elkhorn coral that had broken from the reef but were still alive, Lisa questioned if it was possible to restore the reefs by transplanting coral?
Lisa worked tirelessly for years, trying to convince people that her transplanting experiment was viable. In 2006 she finally received a research grant to create a natural laboratory and coral nursery. Local fishermen and tour guides were the first to notice the reforested reefs and offered to help with the planting. In 2013 she registered a community-based NGO called Fragments of Hope to continue the restoration work and developed a coral restoration training course, which has certified over 70 Belizeans to date and helps supplement local people’s income with restoration jobs.
In 2014 she was named an Ocean Hero by Oceana Belize and in 2017, Fragments of Hope received the Lighthouse Activity Award from the UN Secretariat for Climate Change. What started as a very personal labour of love is now considered the Caribbean’s most successful reef restoration project, and today conservationists around the world follow Lisa’s lead.
When we first started maybe one or two people were doing reef restoration. But nowadays, everybody's doing it. I joke that it's like yoga now.
