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Coral Spawning International was founded by Dr Jamie Craggs and Kate Craggs, a husband and wife team combining world-leading coral reproductive science with the partnerships and systems needed to deliver restoration at scale.​​
An award-winning coral reproductive biologist and a global pioneer of ex situ coral spawning techniques, Jamie's career began as a coral aquarist, where hands-on experience with coral husbandry led him to tackle one of coral science’s greatest challenges: understanding and controlling coral spawning.
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Through the creation of Project Coral, Jamie achieved the first predictable broadcast spawning of corals in controlled environments, transforming a rare natural event into a repeatable scientific process. This breakthrough fundamentally advanced coral reproductive science and enabled new pathways for research, aquaculture, and reef restoration based on genetic diversity and resilience.
Today, Jamie’s methods underpin coral spawning systems and programmes used by leading aquariums, research institutions, and conservation organisations worldwide.
Kate brings the strategic and operational perspective that turns pioneering science into real-world impact. With a background in project coordination, relationship management, and collaboration across conservation and industry, she plays a central role in shaping CSI’s direction and delivery.
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Kate leads the development of partnerships with conservation organisations, technology providers, suppliers, and sponsors, ensuring coral spawning innovation is matched with practical implementation. Her focus is on building strong, trusted collaborations that allow complex scientific projects to function, scale, and endure.
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Together, Jamie and Kate founded Coral Spawning International to bridge the gap between scientific discovery and applied reef restoration. Their shared mission is to advance coral spawning as a core tool for reef resilience, combining innovation, collaboration, and evidence-based practice to support reefs now and into the future.
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Dr Jamie Craggs
Kate Craggs
Restoring reefs through science, innovation, and global collaboration
At Coral Spawning International, we utilise cutting-edge science and technology to drive effective conservation efforts. Our approach enables us to make informed decisions and implement targeted strategies for the preservation of coral reefs and marine ecosystems.
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Our approach to coral spawning has been shaped by decades of research into coral reproductive biology and refined through years of hands-on experimentation. Drawing on the pioneering work of Dr Jamie Craggs, we recreate the seasonal rhythms that corals respond to in the wild — changes in temperature, day length and lunar cycles — to trigger predictable, multi-species spawning events in controlled environments. This makes coral spawning something that can be studied, planned for and repeated, rather than a rare or unpredictable event limited to narrow natural windows.
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What sets this approach apart is its focus on reliability and transferability. The systems and protocols developed through Coral Spawning International are designed to work across different facilities, teams and regions, allowing organisations to integrate coral spawning into long-term research and restoration programmes with confidence. By removing uncertainty around when and how spawning occurs, our methods support larval rearing, assisted coral reproduction, selective breeding, cryopreservation and reef restoration. The result is a practical, science-led approach that has been tested, published and applied internationally — and continues to evolve through collaboration with researchers, NGOs and restoration practitioners worldwide.
Our long-term ambition is to develop selective breeding methods that produce coral strains with greater resilience to environmental stress. We are actively building the research foundations and technical capacity to achieve this.
Building on over two decades of coral reproduction research, our team uses controlled environmental systems, precise monitoring tools, and refined spawning techniques to better understand and optimise coral reproduction.
By cultivating coral gametes and larvae in controlled settings, we aim to accelerate reef recovery and improve restoration outcomes in regions where coral ecosystems are declining.
We work with global research institutions, aquaria, NGOs, and community-led conservation groups to expand access to coral spawning technologies and accelerate reef restoration at scale.
Through storytelling, outreach, and media engagement, we help broaden public understanding of coral biology, reef decline, and the pathways to recovery.
Building the Foundations for Reef Recovery
Reliable coral spawning is essential for understanding reef resilience, maintaining genetic diversity, and scaling restoration efforts beyond small, opportunistic interventions. By making coral reproduction predictable and repeatable in controlled environments, this approach removes one of the biggest bottlenecks in coral research and restoration – access to viable larvae at meaningful scales. The result is a practical foundation for long-term science, collaboration and action, supporting efforts to safeguard coral reefs in a rapidly changing ocean.
By increasing the reliability and scale of coral propagation, we help reefs better withstand current climate pressures while long-term mitigation efforts progress.
Controlled spawning and larval rearing offer a critical boost to natural recovery processes, especially in areas where wild coral reproduction has become unreliable
By refining spawning protocols and improving larval survival, we support the development of corals better able to withstand a changing ocean environment.