Coral Gardening For The Future

For thousands of years the human race has been cultivating. From food crops to building materials to aesthetic flowers, we want to create more and better plants. Now we’ve branched our green fingers into the blue and started creating gardens of coral delights, planting and nurturing small pieces of coral in suitable beds in order to help them start a new colony.

On a recent trip to Fiji I discovered, on dipping into a popular snorkel spot, a rather out of place metal bed frame. I was surprised to find on closer inspection that the little mounds covering its base were actually foundations for tiny pieces of coral. Pieces broken off a coral head had been ‘replanted’ on individual bases with space to start off a new colony of polyps which can then be placed in a suitable environment once having established a base. The mini ‘coral patch’ I saw was off a resort beach on the island of Mana in the Mamanuca group. I hope there are more resorts doing the same thing. Wouldn’t it be great if everyone could grow coral to replace all the poor polyps that get destroyed by negligent holidaymakers, frolicking about the precious reefs and breaking the coral. Coral is not a fast growing entity with ‘growth rates of 0.3 to 2 centimeters per year for massive corals, and up to 10 centimeters per year for branching corals’ (noaa) it can take a very long time for all the little pieces that get broken off to rebuild.

Some places and people have never been introduced to the idea of sustainability, it’s great when everyone wants to come and visit your beautiful reefs but when they’ve been all but obliterated from the traffic they’ll start to realize it’s too late to start looking after them. A little education goes a long way and  even simply advising snorkelers where is best to snorkel in water that’s deep enough you don’t have to scramble over the reefs and at the right time in the tide movement can make a huge difference to the welfare of the reef. With the other problems that reefs face these days from climate change, invasive species and ocean acidification there’s fear it may all be too much for reefs to take.

Some organizations have been replanting corals and nurturing new colonies around the globe for several years but it would be really nice to see the tourism industry doing a little not only to help the reefs but to help themselves’ by protecting the future of their attractions. Secore are an American based organisation striving to help reefs through reproduction and education initiatives. Another project in Vanuatu organised by Nguna-Pele Marine and Land Protected Area Network which started in July this year is hoping to bring coral gardening to the tourist by getting them planting coral gardens to counteract damage from climate change. Let’s get gardening under the waves and protect the future of our struggling reefs.

Did you ever meet a coral that can dance?

I met this supercool coral in Fiji, first time i've seen anything like this and i was in awe. I'd like you to meet the pulsating pom pom xenia coral. . .

It's such a lovely thing to see because it looks so graceful. When I looked it up after my dive it made me smile to find that it's been dubbed the 'pom pom' coral. But it totally looks like a crazy underwater cheering team, dancing at the fishes that swim by, or any divers that happen to pass their way! There is a whole genus of xenia elongata corals which are also referred to as waving hand corals!
So whats all the motion about? You might think that these corals are attempting to grab their food out of the water, snatching at morsels, but scientists have discovered that the xenia are photosynthetic, mostly taking their energy from the sun and possibly filtering some dissolved organics from the water. It has been suggested perhaps they are actually trying to better oxygenate themselves in order to increase their photosynthesis rate. The truth is somewhat of a mystery but if you are lucky enough to meet the dancing coral I am sure you will be delighted by their entrancing movements.

WA Shark Cull: No Deal says EPA

I am delighted to be able to write my first post to this blog about an event worth celebrating. It seems someone in Australia has finally seen sense and suggested baiting the beaches to lure sharks into traps perhaps isn't the best approach to reduce human interaction. After a three month trial using baited drum lines off Western Australian beaches earlier this year, The Western Australian Environment Protection Agency (EPA) has rejected the state governments proposal to continue baiting beaches and culling sharks for a further three year period. The controversial matter has been spreading through the wires of the ocean loving and environmental community and has received disapproval and condemnation accross the globe. In my humble opinion whoever suggested such an absurd solution in the first place is deeply misguided. Who would think attracting sharks to a particular point in their watery environment using food to appeal to their highly developed senses in order to deter them from coming to those precise places looking for food is a good idea?
Say you had a pack of wolves, for example, that usually eat say, ferrets and rabbits, which had happened to explore close to your farm and due to perhaps a lack of ferrets on that particular day they spot a lamb from your herd and think they'll test that out. Turns out it's very easy to catch but it doesn't really taste very good and so the wolf returns to searching for ferrets, unless perhaps circumstance has put this particular wolf in a position where it is so terribly hungry that it eats the lamb regardless of its unappealing taste. As a concerned farmer would you proceed to set delicious ferretty baits around your farm in order to draw in the wolves and kill them all? I wouldn't. Why? because it's silly. For starters without the wolves I'm going to become terribly overrun with rabbits and ferrets which will cause all kinds of problems for the health of my farm. Plus I'd be more than a little worried that the baits would entice in more wolves which may never had ventured anywhere near my farm otherwise. These surplus wolves combined with a lack of their usual food source may become even more inquisitive towards my defenseless lambs!

Over 3 months last summer 172 sharks all of which are protected by WA law were caught on drumlines along the coastline, none of which however were great whites, which they were targeting but 50 of which had their lives taken and many of the 'released alive' individuals have been rumored to be too badly injured to survive. I hope the Australian government listens to the reasonable arguments of the protestors to this proposal and no more sharks need to be killed in such an inhumane and tragic way.