Asa Miller

Hartsdale, New York

Helping restore Cuba’s coral reefs

In 2022, Asa Miller, an aspiring marine biologist with deep roots in Cuba, first read about efforts to restore coral in the country’s Matanzas Province. While coral loss is a global crisis, developing countries like Cuba are disproportionately affected and often lack the resources to address it. In 2023, Miller launched ¡Viva el Vivero!, (Long Live the Nursery!), an international campaign to help restore Cuba’s stunning coral reefs that has since won multiple conservation awards.

Over a series of visits to Matanzas, Miller, 17, conducted extensive interviews with divers and scientists to document their efforts, helped analyze data to determine which of their coral nurseries had the highest survival rates, and drafted detailed maps of the restoration project. Back in New York, he founded a marine biology club in his high school to help raise funds to purchase tools to plant coral fragments grown in the nurseries back into reefs. Miller then produced a short documentary about his team’s restoration methods to serve as a primer for other developing countries interested in doing the same. The film won awards at film festivals worldwide.