As a part of Bleaching Awareness Month, led by our partners with the Coral Reef Alliance and International Coral Reef Initiative, we check in with longtime friend of the Network, Dr. Steve Schill. Steve talks with Henry and Annick about the process of going from using a small drone affixed with a digital camera to survey reefs to operating a fixed-wing surveillance drone that can monitor hectares of reef area in a single day’s work. As the frequency and severity of coral bleaching events increases, having the ability to conduct rapid reef monitoring enables managers to make timely and effective decisions.

Description: In response to the excitement and interest across the Network in MERMAID after our webinar on the topic earlier in 2025, we invited Dr. Emily Darling, Director of Coral Reef Conservation and Co-Founder, MERMAID, back to the network to talk with us a little more about how she developed the MERMAID platform. Emily brings along Shinta Pardede, Marine Science Unit Manager with the Wildlife Conservation Society in Indonesia, who tells us more about her experience using MERMAID in the field. Access this free guide to learn more about how to use MERMAID.

In collaboration with The Nature Conservancy Northern Caribbean Program, the Reef Resilience Network created a process for updating MPA management plans to be Climate-Smart and led implementation of that process with the Bahamas National Trust (BNT).

In this episode, we sit down with two BNT staff to learn about their experience. Ellsworth Weir, the Director of Parks, and Alyssa Bastion, a Parks Planner, provide their perspectives of working to prepare their parks for the impacts of climate change. They share advice for MPA managers and planners who are just beginning to think about updating management plans to be Climate-Smart. You can read more about the project through this case study, hear more from Alyssa through this webinar recording, and take a deeper dive into the process through the Climate Adaptation Toolkit.