EMBARGOED UNTIL 27th AUGUST 2026.
Title: Status of Coral Reefs of the World: 2025 – Chapter 3 – Caribbean
Authors: Laëtitia Mathon, Andrea Rivera-Sosa, Melanie McField, Alex H. O’Brien, Lorenzo Álvarez-Filip, Alwin Hylkema, Jahson B. Alemu I, Shanna-Lee Thomas, Patrice Francis, Erik Meesters, Ben Charo, Johanna Calle-Triviño, Erica K. Towle, Maria Vega Rodriguez, Tyler B. Smith, Struan R. Smith, Andreina Valdez-Trinidad, Ruben Torres, Chantale Bégin, John Parkinson, Sydney Tritschler, Sandra Little, Miguel Ángel Ruiz Zarate, Isael Victoria-Salazar, Rita I. Sellares-Blasco, Maria F. Villalpando, Aldo Croquer, Paula Sills.
Contributor Roles: CRedIT statement for this chapter
Date: 27th August 2026
Institution: Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network (GCRMN), International Coral Reef Initiative (ICRI)
DOI: https://doi.org/10.59387/LFPR6347.CAR
Part of: Status of Coral Reefs of the World: 2025
Cite this chapter: Mathon, L., Rivera-Sosa, A., McField, M., O’Brien, A. H., et al. (2026). Chapter 3 – Caribbean. In González-Rivero, M., et al. Status of Coral Reefs of the World: 2025. Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network (GCRMN), International Coral Reef Initiative (ICRI). https://doi.org/10.59387/LFPR6347.CAR
Copyright Information: Copyright © 2026, Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network (GCRMN) and International Coral Reef Initiative (ICRI).
Supplementary Material: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.21824430
This publication may be reproduced in whole or in part and in any form for educational or non-profit services, provided acknowledgement of the source is made. No use of this publication may be made for resale or any other commercial purpose without prior permission in writing.
With thanks to the co-authors of this chapter:
Laëtitia Mathon, Andrea Rivera-Sosa, Melanie McField, Alex H. O’Brien, Lorenzo Álvarez-Filip, Alwin Hylkema, Jahson B. Alemu I, Shanna-Lee Thomas, Patrice Francis, Erik Meesters, Ben Charo, Johanna Calle-Triviño, Erica K. Towle, Maria Vega Rodriguez, Tyler B. Smith, Struan R. Smith, Andreina Valdez-Trinidad, Ruben Torres, Chantale Bégin, John Parkinson, Sydney Tritschler, Sandra Little, Miguel Ángel Ruiz Zarate, Isael Victoria-Salazar, Rita I. Sellares-Blasco, Maria F. Villalpando, Aldo Croquer, Paula Sills.
Edited by: Manuel Gonzalez-Rivero; Thomas Dallison; Jeremy Wicquart; Amanda Brigdale; Erica K. Towle; Murray Logan; Emily K. Fobert; Francis Staub; Serge Planes.
With thanks to the data contributors:
Andrés Felipe Acosta-Chaparro; Jahson B. Alemu I; David Alejandro Alonso-Carvajal; Juan José Alvarado Barrientos; Lorenzo Alvarez-Filip; Robert Anderson; Shamwari Anseeuw; Maria G. Aponte; Eric Appeldoorn Sanders; Melissa Arbona Fernández; Jesus Ernesto Arias-Gonzalez; Francisco Arias Isaza; Rolf P.M. Bak; Robert Balza; Chantale Bégin; Aude Berger; Tadzio Bervoets; Macarena Blanco-Pimentel; Max Bodmer; Mélanie Bon; Clément Bonnardel; Amandine Bordin; Claude Bouchon; Yolande Bouchon-Navaro; Leo Brewster; Sophie Brugneaux; Frances Budd; Eleanor Butler; Johanna Calle-Triviño; Shannon Cameron; Sophie Carolan; Julien Chalifour; Dorka Cobián Rojas; Alistair Cole; Michael Colella; Raul Igor Corrada Wong; Jacque Cresswell; Aldo Croquer; Lizeth Cruz; Monique Curtis; Carlos Daza-Guerra; Didier M. de Bakker; Mareike de Breuyn; Danielle de Kool; John Debuysser; Ethan Degner; Gilles Delouche; Charlotte R. Dromard; Priscilla Dupont; Caren Eckrich; Graham J. Edgar; Peter J. Edmunds; Olivia Eisenbach; Dan Exton; Cindy Fernández-García; Miguel Figuerola Hernández; Graham Forrester; Patrice Francis; Jan Freiwald; Donavon French; Victor Galván; Rebecca Garcia Camps; Joaquin Rodrigo Garza; David Gilliam; Catalina Gómez-Cubillos; Diana Isabel Gómez López; Melina R. Gonzáles; Patricia González Díaz; Juliett González Méndez; Gretchen Goodbody-Gringley; Sébastien Gréaux; Sergio D. Guendulain-García; Geury Guerrero; Tessa Haanskorf; Andreas Haas; Toby Haddon; Ryan Hannum; Julie Hawkins; Sarah Heidmann; Katalina Henao Orozco; James Henkel; Joan Hernández Albernas; Ana Carolina Hernández-Oquet; Pilar Herrón; Heidi Hertler; Leslie Hickerson; Jenny Hickman; Shoneé Howell; Alwin Hylkema; Walter Hynds; Ayumi Izioka; Jack Johnson V; Michelle A. Johnston; Laurent Juhel; Mohsen Kayal; Thomas Kemenes Van Uden; Oliver Klokman; Patricia Kramer; Nicole Krampitz; Florian Labadie; Jean Claude Lalanne; Damaris Landers; Sophie Le Loc’h; Raoul Lebrave; Hélène Legrand; Marnik Lehwald; Sarah Leinbach; Ainhoa Leon Zubillaga; Sandra Little; Max Louis; Natalie Lubbock; Josianne Mahieu; Jennie Mallela; Jean-Philippe Maréchal; Tom Martin; Laëtitia Mathon; Croy McCoy; Melanie McField; Alexander R. McLeod; Erik H. Meesters; Jenny Mihaly; Emy Miyazawa; Courtney Moll; Clare Morrall; Amy Morrison; Thaddeus Murdoch; Mylène Musquet; Tamarah Myles; Raúl Navas-Camacho; Gerard Nieuwland; Stephen Nimrod; Ernst Noyons; Maggy Nugues; Marissa Nuttall; Alex H. O’Brien; Kelly O’Connell; Lizzi Oh; Lauren Olinger; Vincent Oliva; Felipe Ossandon; Fernando J. Pardo Urrutia; John Everett Parkinson; Rebecca Hamel Pepin; Cécile Pérez; Gabriela Aguilera Pérez; Esmeralda Perez-Cervantes; Valeria Pizarro; Pedro Portillo; Fabio Quesada-Perez; Melissa Radley; Amanda Ramos Romero; Angela Randazzo Eisemann; Chanel Raynor; Bernard Renaudie; Mariana Reyna; Charlie Riddick; Chris Riley; Andreina Rivera; Callum Roberts; Lynnette Roth; Yann Rousseau; Jasmin Ruan; Hannah Rushton; Rob Ruzicka; Laura Sánchez-Valencia; Léa Sebesi; Rita I. Sellares-Blasco; Claude Séraline; Paula Sills; Struan Robertson Smith; Tyler B. Smith; Robert Steneck; Stephanie Stinson; Sandin Stuart; Rick D. Stuart-Smith; Ella Tabares; Maureen Tejeda Metz; Victor Tersiguel; Rubben Torres; Erica K. Towle; Ewan Trégarot; Sydney Tritschler; Sanne Tuijten; Andreina Valdez-Trinidad; Matthijs van der Geest; Marijn van der Laan; Alex van der Last; Saskia van Dongen; Juliana Vanegas Gonzalez; Maria Vega Rodriguez; Anna Venema; Mark Vermeij; Angelica Verschragen; Patricia Vicente Castro; Maria F. Villalpando; Ross Williamson; Sven Zea.
The GCRMN produces estimations regarding the status and trends of coral reefs using data acquired by the members of the GCRMN network. The data are collected following Data Sharing Agreements (DSA) with data contributors and as such the GCRMN is not the owner of datasets shared by its members. Therefore, for the “Status of Coral Reefs of the World: 2025” report, the GCRMN is unable to share the raw datasets. However, some members of the GCRMN network and report contributors have made their datasets publicly available. For benthic cover monitoring data, such open access datasets are listed here.
All code used to produce the results and figures presented in the “Status of Coral Reefs of the World: 2025” GCRMN report is openly available on a GitHub repository. This repository allows full reproducibility and transparency of the analyses.
