Our primary reason for visiting is as a preliminary appraisal of the reefs, and the field station and its facilities, in anticipation of collaborative research with PJ Edmunds (California State University Northridge), P Cleves (Carnegie Institution for Science) and S Burgess (Florida State University). We should also like to take tissue samples of Pocillopora species to support an ongoing global study and collect larvae from spawning Pocillopora to assess the feasibility of transporting and maintaining larvae for settlement ex situ. We would like to place settlement tiles prior to spawning in May and remove tiles after settlement (< 3 weeks).

Approved