“Human values need to be considered in decision-making to improve long-term coral reef management,” says Dr. Christina Hicks, research fellow from Stanford. Researchers from the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies (CoECRS) at James Cook University and Stanford University are linking social science to ecology in order to improve the environmental problems in these sensitive ecosystems. Currently little thought is given to the human community’s needs including food and wellbeing for the more powerful economic interests, such as tourism, which drives coral reef management.