Coral Reef Gardening

Coral Gardening from Jonathan Clay on Vimeo.

What started off as an inspired scheme to save the coral reefs has now become a full fledged rescue mission. The organization Corals for Conservation began this amazing project in 1999 in Fiji where effects of over-fishing and coral destruction for tourism and commerce had begun to chase away prospective inhabitants.

It is well known that a coral reef is not simply a beautiful piece of living art on the ocean floor but that it is home to thousands of species of marine life. And without the opportunity for food and shelter that the coral reefs provide, many fish go elsewhere. With the fish gone, the coral reefs that were once teaming with life and color are left barren landscapes of coral skeletons. Coral destruction leaves a previously healthy coral reef dead, turned white as snow. Fish are fickle creatures, just like women, they are attracted to beautiful colors and prefer socialization. Therefore, without the bright color or crowds to attract the fish to the coral, the local community’s fishing industry also suffers due to lack of supplies.

So, to bring help to all, Corals for Conservation began “The Coral Gardening Initiative” to bring back the coral reefs and fish as well as help improve the local economy. This initiative would not be as successful as it is without the dedication of the local community. Ultimately, the Coral Gardening Initiative

“focuses at restoring degraded coral reef ecosystems by working in partnership with marine resource owners to develop community-based marine management plans and to implement strategies to rectify problems such as over-fishing and coral reef decline.”

There are two ways the Coral Gardening Initiative works:

1. Marine scientists trim bits and pieces off of rare or endangered corals and grow them for two years to about one hundred times the size of the trim to create what they call “Mother corals.” Next, small trimmings from the “Mother corals” are used as seeds in dead and dying coral reefs. Over time, those small bits from the “Mother corals” become what scientists refers to as second and third-generation corals that become part of the appropriately named coral gardens. The habitual trimming and re-planting eventually bring corals that were on the brink of destruction back to life. Once the coral begins to grow again, the fish follow almost immediately.
2. If there is an extremely degraded coral reef, scientists may decide to build a coral castle rather than a coral garden. A coral castle is the result of gluing stones together with cement and then transplanting coral on top of the stones to create a makeshift fish house.

• According to Corals for Conservation, a “Majority of the Hotels or Resorts that the project works with, is using this as a recreational/restoration activity for tourists (International and local) as part of effective management of their Marine Park.”

If the Coral Gardening Initiative sounds like a small amount of work, keep in mind that the Marine scientists and the local communities care for these coral gardens and castles on a daily basis to ensure their health and safety. Transplanting coral is only the beginning because participants in the Coral Gardening Initiative must work to

“remove overabundant coral-killing predators, to weed excessive seaweeds that are smothering corals, to dust sand kicked up by snorkeler's off of massive corals, and to replant corals broken by careless divers and storms to dead reef areas."

I am extremely proud of Corals for Conservation for bringing so much success to such a massive undertaking and I urge my readers to visit the Corals for Conservation website to learn even more about this amazing conservation project.