Coral Propagation

We know our forests on land need attention and reforestation but most of us don’t know that we can do similar below the water surface to help our coral reefs/forests.

We started an initiative in 2015 to regrow an entire reef from broken off corals be that through anchors, people who stood on it, abandoned fishing nets, mass tourism or waves.

With the Standards of Ocean Quest and Sea Shepherd Dive.

Unfortunately due to many impacts like trawler fishing, anchor dropping, abandoned fishing nets, people standing on them, high water temperatures and untreated waste water, Corals suffer!

In short what we do!

We have many different species of broken off Corals which one dive group collects off of the ground and puts them in separate zipper bags. Never put different species of corals together they’ll fight each other.

Another dive group gets substrate which are rocks with no other coral growth on it.

Both will be brought on the Boat.

The Corals will be cut into smaller pieces, each from about 3 cm in length and then glued onto the substrate by power glue and a specially made activator to let the glue dry in seconds even on wet surfaces.
Corals and Substrate always need to be kept wet at all times.

1 Coral per one Substrate.

Once the corals have been glued on the substrate they will be brought back on the reef on a quarantine area where they will stay for another 5-6 weeks, to see if they grow properly or spread any diseases, before they actually get moved onto their final growing place.

Since 2015 we have now planted over 2500 Corals and have had a 83% Surviving/Success rate of the propagated Corals.

For a Coral propagation Course we often have 10-12 Students and 3-4 Volunteers who are able to teach and guide.

Coral propagation has become an increasing project due to all the damage is made to reefs and especially Corals.

No Corals no food for fish no food for fish no corals hence no reef! It’s a circle!
A healthy reef needs both corals and fish. They compliment each other.