Coral Gardening: Restoring Damaged Reefs

"Its been an absolute buzz making my first (of hopefully many) coral garden over the last few days. After having seen first hand the deterioration of Indonesia’s world class reefs, it was rather exciting to learn how much impact coral propagation can actually have. The ability to control the water temp (shallow vs deep) means we’re able to help develop some pretty resilient and robust coral. With the grafts coming from mature coral it means these little guys are already able to reproduce as well! I went for a more traditional garden set up which originated from the Solomon Islands and uses the most accessible resources possible. This cost me about $10. Super excited to see the progress of my new little friends and the comeback of damaged reef close to home." - SamanthaJHoney

Coral reefs serve as an effective first line of defense to incoming waves, storms and rising seas. Conservation efforts often focus on remote coral reefs, but reefs near people should be at least as high a priority. Not only are those reefs often at greatest risk from pollution, development and overfishing, but they also have the most potential to directly protect civilization. About 197 million people worldwide live less than 10 meters above sea level and within 50 kilometers of a coral reef, and they'll face much higher costs from natural disasters if those reefs die. (Ferrario, 2014)