PALAU CORAL REEF RESEARCH FOUNDATION

The Coral Reef Research Foundation (CRRF) is a non-profit organization whose purposes are to increase knowledge on coral reefs and other tropical marine environments to allow intelligent conservation and management decisions. CRRF was founded in 1991 by a group of marine biologists as a vehicle to increase our understanding of the species, dynamics and interrelationships of marine environments and their relationship to man.

CRRF maintains a 200 square meter research laboratory on Malakal Island, Koror, which is used for in-house research work and in support of visiting scientists. It is designed to meet the needs of field researchers to allow maximal exploitation of precious research time in the field. CRRF is an organization totally sustained by research grants and contracts from outside of Palau . It has a staff of seven. CRRF has the U. S. National Cancer Institute's (NCI) shallow water marine collections contract which uses Palau as home base for the program which ranges throughout the Indo-Pacific region. Through this program Palau has become the most thoroughly sampled region for potential anticancer drugs. This NCI work has resulted in an unequalled understanding of marine species diversity, ecology and biogeography of selected invertebrates from throughout the Micronesian region. The laboratory maintains an exceptional collection of Indo-Pacific marine specimens, which are under active study by specialist taxonomists from the international scientific community.

CRRF also carries out high quality research on coral reef fish aggregations, spawning and oceanography. The aim of this work is to allow thoughtful management of marine fishes, based on biology and oceanography. CRRF has instituted a monitoring program which provides a coherent picture of status and thermal dynamics on the reef tract. CRRF does detailed work on the marine lakes of Palau aimed at understanding the dynamics of these unique ecosystems.

For more information, please contact tel. no. (680) 488 5255