William F. Precht

“I met Dr. William Precht in 1998 as the National Program Manager of the National Park Service’s (NPS) Damage Assessment and Restoration Program. Bill was a contractor that was brought in to assess the impact of the Grounding of the MV Allie B. fragile and important protected coral reef associated fauna in Biscayne National Park, Florida (BISC). Bill was very familiar with the biology of these coral structures and their function in providing essential habitats to many of the finfish and shellfish that were vital to maintaining the congressionally mandated purpose of the park; that was, to preserve a subtropical underwater wilderness for the enjoyment of the American people in perpetuity. Bill’s dedication to this NPS goal was extraordinary and not only did he and his team direct the extrication of the grounded vessel from the reef to minimize its impact but he then conducted a very scientific damage assessment cataloguing all of the impacted park resources from the grounding. Following the assessment, Bill recommended the best long term reef restoration project that would allow for the recovery of the impacted underwater resources to their pre-grounding condition which was the purpose of the Park System Resource Protection Act that empowered the NPS to both the assessment and restoration work. Bill’s exceptional professionalism and understanding of the NPS’s goals for preservation of the underwater coral and associated faunal and floral resources led to the NPS utilizing Bill and his associates on other damage assessment projects in BISC. Those incidents were handled with the same professional approach to impact assessment and coincident restoration project implementation.”

“It is my honor and with the deepest respect to express the great value I hold specifically for the collaboration of the scientific coral disease assessment, abatement, and restoration plans and contributions from William Precht and his colleagues. His 2014 discovery of SCTLD in southeastern Florida and his subsequent landmark paper in Scientific Reports (Precht et al 2016) “Unprecedented Coral Mortality in SE Florida” were essential ingredients for the initial assessment and local response of the same coral disease that broke out across the Yucatan Peninsula in 2018/2019. His willingness to freely give advice to local academic and government scientists set the foundation for the series of management response actions to this catastrophic coral disease. This included closing a sector of the National Underwater Park (Parque Nacional Arrecifes de Cozumel) to scuba divers to help abate the spread of this highly virulent disease. He has subsequently developed active coral restoration plans with local officials for recovering these damaged ecosystems. In November 2019, he traveled to Cozumel (pro bono), to meet and work with Mexican coral reef scientists from the Healthy Reefs Initiative at the Puerto Morelos Marine Lab, and to speak on several panels at Cozumel’s 1st Coral Disease Summit, and specifically to dive on the reef and observe first-hand this disease outbreak in the waters off Cozumel. Furthermore, he eagerly joined me speaking to and inspiring science career paths to Students of Excellence from Cozumel’s Federal Parks Museum’s program. The greatest value was William meeting with the President of Cozumel to present the economic importance that this disease is currently having and will have on the local economy in terms of lost ecotourism-based revenue and why it is essential to develop long-term, science-based coral restoration plans. I cannot overstate the merits of William coming at my request to assist in this critical issue for Cozumel. The importance and significance of having a panel of experts personally use their personal time, talents, and to eagerly share their coral knowledge was truly admirable. To exhibit totally Open Source attitudes should be commended. His personal SCTLD expertise was extremely valuable in securing financial pledges from multiple government VIPs in Cozumel. This led to securing the ACTION plans for adopting and deploying proposed SDG14 target coral disease restoration solutions. In summary, William and his team should be commended for being the first to sound the alarm and for publishing a paper that has set the foundation upon which all other SCTLD studies are based. Respectfully, George Cummings SDG 14 Ocean Ambassador Mission Blue Project Partner-World Federation Coral Reef Conservation”