The threat of increased intensity and frequency of mass coral bleaching requires us to respond with innovative new strategies that build resilience into MPAs.

• Building coral reef survivability based on patterns of resistance and resilience into our management strategies for MPAs is a relatively new concept.

• Resilience has never been explicitly defined and listed as a criterion for MPA selection or in the principles for MPA design, nor has it been factored into large-scale ecoregional planning.

• Yet the concept of resilience demonstrates that there are positive actions that we can take to counter the potentially devastating impacts of climate-related bleaching on coral reefs.