Rebecca Gibbel

2024 Short-Term Workforce Fellow

Veterinarian Rebecca Gibbel completed her Master of Marine and Environmental Science program at the University of the Virgin Islands in 2024. Shortly thereafter Gibbel began an 8-week Securing STEM Island Pathways Fellowship with the Coral World Ocean Reef Initiative (CWORI) at the Coral World Marine Park in St. Thomas. Here she participated in the CWORI Ark program, an in-land coral nursery for rare and endangered species. CWORI is particularly focused on the Dendrogyra cylindrus corals which are highly endangered and are now extinct in Florida. Dendrogyra is teetering on the brink of extinction in the Virgin Islands but, thanks to this living coral laboratory, a sampling of this species is thriving.

Although Gibbel has worked as a volunteer and intern with the CWORI Ark program in the past, the Fellowship gave her the opportunity to continue this work as a full time position which was a game changer for her and the program. “Initially it was not clear that whether these sensitive corals would survive in closed artificial environments,” said Gibble, “but after helping to get the aquarium system established I’m happy to report that the corals are all thriving and growing well. We are keeping our fingers crossed that they will spawn this summer so that new, potentially stronger genotypes of Dendrogyra will be created.”