What is coral gardening?
Coral gardening is the process of growing corals ourselves through asexual propagation. Corals can produce both sexually (through mass spawning events) and asexually (by fragmenting a coral).
We use ocean based nurseries to grow our coral fragments. which have already been broken off the parent colonies by boat anchors, storms and human interaction and then attach them to metal frames. We then place these frames in a location ideal for growth and regularly monitor and maintain them. All coral fragments used on our coral frames would have certainly died if left on the sand.
Why do we coral garden?
Reefs in the Maldives are suffering
The Maldives suffered a severe bleaching event in early 2016. With climate change only on course to become more severe, we need to act now if we are going to save our reefs.
Education & Awareness
We use our coral frames as an educational tool for when our volunteers visit us. We teach them the methods we use to grow corals and why this is so important.
Plans to expand
Corals do not grow quickly which is why any damage to a coral has a long term effect. We hope to use the established colonies on our frames to fragment and eventually out-plant onto our house reef.