The Atlantis Blue Project Foundation is pleased to share an encouraging progress update from the first in situ Diadema antillarum sea urchin nursery in The Bahamas, a project we are proud to fund through our partnership with Sustainable Ocean and Reefs Inc. (SOAR).

Since the nursery was established in mid-2025, monitoring has revealed healthy Diadema antillarum individuals thriving within the micro-reef rock pile formations installed by the SOAR team. The structures are performing as intended, providing essential shelter and habitat that supports natural urchin behaviors while offering protection from predators during the animals' most vulnerable stages. Research from restocking programs in the Caribbean Netherlands has shown that predation is one of the biggest challenges facing sea urchin restoration, making these protective structures critical to the nursery's success.

This is a significant early milestone. Long-spined sea urchins are one of the most ecologically important species on Caribbean coral reefs. As primary grazers, they control the algae growth that would otherwise smother reef surfaces and prevent young corals from establishing. The catastrophic loss of Diadema populations in the 1983 Caribbean-wide die-off, followed by a second mortality event in 2022, has been linked to widespread shifts from coral-dominated to algae-dominated reef ecosystems across the region.

The Bahamas faces additional pressures from Stony Coral Tissue Loss Disease (SCTLD), which has been affecting reef-building corals across the archipelago since at least 2019. Restoring the natural grazing functions that healthy urchin populations provide is one piece of a larger puzzle in building reef resilience against multiple stressors.

In situ nurseries like this one take a different approach from lab-based hatchery programs by creating conditions for urchin populations to grow and reproduce directly on the reef. This method supports natural recruitment and may prove to be a cost-effective complement to other restoration strategies.

The nursery is progressing well and showing early signs of success. The Foundation looks forward to continued monitoring and sharing further results as this pioneering project develops.