The recommendations summarized below are a product of the lengthy research underlying the project report, but three special sources are gratefully acknowledged. In 2009, the author and Lara Hansen (EcoAdapt) were on the writing team of a scenario study of the Coral Triangle in Southeast Asia, listed under “further reading” below. With her colleague, Keys‐based Alessandra Score, Lara Hansen adapted the policy recommendations for the Coral Triangle study for this project. Chris Bergh’s study of sea‐level rise in the Keys and the US Global Change Research Program’s 2009 report provided further valuable insights. These contributions are part of Chapter 8 of the project report. The author, however, takes full responsibility for the synthesis reproduced below from the report. As noted above, the recommendations are not necessarily endorsed by NOAA or FKNMS, or by the persons mentioned in the previous paragraph, but the author stands by his statement that the US Government should act with the utmost possible urgency despite its political setbacks. The list is unchanged from the version shown in the original project report of July 2010, including item 5, where political reality following the mid‐term elections may now regrettably suggest 2012, rather than 2011.