The purpose of this symposium was to share cross-cutting research and management approaches for understanding biological connectivity in the Caribbean Sea and Gulf of Mexico and to provide a forum for resource managers and the academic community to address questions on how to apply scientific information to better manage MPAs in the region. The primary goals of the symposium were to 1): provide a forum for information-sharing and feedback between scientists conducting research on marine connectivity and resource managers who are managing resources at a local or regional scale, 2) provide hands-on training opportunities in technologies and approaches for predicting connectivity in the Caribbean region, and 3) provide a synthesis of the information available and future research recommendations on Caribbean connectivity at local and regional spatial scales.