Speaker's Profile

Judith (Judy) Lang, a marine ecologist who has been energised by reefs in Jamaica and the wider Caribbean for over 60 years, provided the initial description of a mechanism by which coral compete for space in nature. She helped develop the Atlantic and Gulf Rapid Reef Assessment (AGRRA) protocols in the late 1990s and, as its Science Coordinator since 2005, has prepared many of its instructional materials. After a devastating stony coral disease spread from Florida to Caribbean in 2017-2018, AGRRA’s efforts were diverted to helping our regional colleagues respond to this disaster. When long-spined sea urchins, the region’s major reef herbivore, began dying across the eastern and northern Caribbean (including Jamaica) in spring 2022, AGRRA remobilised to collaboratively create the open, inclusive, Diadema Response Network.