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• Susan L. Williams National Coral Reef Management Fellowship

Whitney Hoot (Guam)

During the fellowship, she is working on crafting an island-wide reef resilience strategy for Guam that incorporates extensive stakeholder feedback to create a new framework for coral reef management among the island’s natural resource agencies. Additionally, she is coordinating the island’s coral reef response team and developing standard operating procedures to address acute reef impacts—such as vessel groundings, oil spills, coral disease outbreaks, and bleaching events.

Whitney’s projects include:

• Writing an island-wide reef resilience strategy for Guam, including response plans to address acute coral reef impacts, such as coral bleaching, crown of thorns outbreaks, and vessel groundings
• Coordinating Guam's coral reef response team, which includes local government agencies, the University of Guam, and federal partners
• Collecting data on coral reef health and contributing to an index of the resilience of Guam's reef sites
• Conducting public outreach through the Eyes of the Reef Marianas program, which encourages ocean-users to report reef impacts to inform local scientists and managers
• Assisting National Park Service staff in surveying clam populations and their response to bleaching within and outside of a marine protected area