Responding to enquiries by a concerned CNS reader, who contacted Vaughn’s previous employers about the claims he is making, they distanced themselves from the self-proclaimed coral miracle worker.

Cooper said that the restoration technology pioneered and conducted by coral experts like the Mote team is essential to restoring the vitality of coral reefs that are slipping into functional extinction in Florida, the wider Caribbean and around the world. But leaving existing reefs in place provides the best ecosystem functions and services for society at large.

Vaughn retired from Mote last year and has had no affiliation with it since, and Cooper said he does not represent the views of the organisation in any way. He said that Vaughn’s activities in Florida, the Cayman Islands, or elsewhere are “not endorsed, supported or affiliated with Mote, nor are they a reflection of Mote coral reef research, restoration and conservation activities”.

Vaughn is being placed front and centre by both government and the Verdant Isle group as the person who has developed a speed technique for growing coral and has made dramatic claims about not only replacing all the coral that will be lost in George Town Harbour as a result of the proposed cruise berthing facility, but that he will regrow ten times as much.

However, Vaughn’s work has not been peer-reviewed, and while there is interest in what he claims he can do, there is no evidence anywhere that Vaughn’s work would lead to the equitable replacement of the many acres of ancient pristine coral reef currently in the harbour.

Cooper is yet another voice among many experts in the field working on coral conservation, regrowth, restoration and relocation who challenge the claims made by Vaughn and point out that his work has not be tested. The Central Caribbean Marine Institute, based on Little Cayman, has warned that there is very little scientific research to support his claims

But Vaughn stands to gain a significant annual fee of around half a million dollars to establish a laboratory in Cayman to grow coral for this project. He claims that his microfragmentation technique, where coral is smashed into tiny pieces and allowed to regrow in a lab, then grows much faster when replanted on dying reefs.

He has spoken at various government meetings about the port project, where he has described “reskining” dead brain coral with live tissue, which led to the creation of his organisation, ‘Plant a Million Corals’.