Promising Signs of Coral Growth

Today we headed down for a monitoring and maintenance dive, checking on our coral nurseries and the outplanted coral colonies on the metal cages. This year the structures weathered the intense conditions of the rough season surprisingly well. The main task for the day involved to unentangle all coral fragments that had become twisted around the nursery branches due to heavy surges. We were relieved to find that only about a dozen coral fragments were missing across the entire nursery site.

We then moved to the shallower end to evaluate the 75 coated metal cages where we outplanted over 500 coral colonies before. All of the 11 cage groups remain perfectly in place. While making some photos of their progress, we noted that the Pocillopora and some Acropora species had firmly attached themselves to the cages. Incredibly, some very healthy colonies have already doubled in size in just 3 months (!).

While the overall results are our most impressive to date, the dive also provided some early insight on environmental challenges. We noticed a loss of roughly 30% of sensitive Acropora species following the thermal stress event in April. However, seeing the remaining majority thrive and anchor so securely gives us hope and confidence. We suspect that the new coating and the slightly shallower placement of the metal cages are providing our corals with an optimal environment to adapt and grow.

Unfortunately, we also discovered a fish trap that had been placed within the protected boundaries of our area, next to a coral nursery. We carefully opened the trap to release the panicked herbivorous fish inside. Keeping these fish free on the reef is critical for our restoration work; they act as natural caretakers, constantly grazing on and removing the algae that otherwise smother our nursery structures and artificial reefs.