In April 2006 the Phuket Marine Biology Center, supported by The Adventure Club installed an underwater floating coral nursery.
The concept of the nursery came from researchers from the National Institute of Oceanography in Israel who participated in a cooperative research project with the PMBC and researchers from 4 other countries, UK, Italy, Singapore and Philippines, under the programme “Developing ubiquitous practices for restoration of Indo-Pacific reefs”, REEFRES, supported by European Commission.
The first nursery in 2006 was home to 1500 fragments which have since been transplanted to the concrete blocks and also natural substrates.
The 2nd nursery was set up in February 2007 and is an adaption of the original nursery design.
Concept
The concept of the nursery came from researchers from the National Institute of Oceanography in Israel who participated in a cooperative research project with the PMBC and researchers from 4 other countries, UK, Italy, Singapore and Philippines, under the programme "Developing ubiquitous practices for restoration of Indo-Pacific reefs", REEFRES, supported by European Commission.
The nursery method is a way of cultivating coral fragments using traditional forestation techniques. By removing limited amounts of coral fragments this reduces the impact to the donor colonies and aids reproduction of new coral colonies.
The nursery is suspended above the substrate, which allows the fragments to grow with reduced threats from corallivoes, such as parrotfish, crown of thorns and drupella.
Goals
The principle of cause and effect embodies the idea that there is a cause for every effect and an effect from every cause.
By applyingthe principle that every little causehas some effect we hope our causecombined with the countless other causes all around the world,will highlight the necessity for action to take the steps of change before it’s too late and we lose the very things that MAN is so dependant upon.
The coral nursery and artificial reef program have been initiated as a tool to highlight the problems facing coral reefs around the world and to educate people that are dependant on the sea to reconsider the methods they use that could reduce the impact on our world.
Growing corals is both time consuming, slow and very expensive considering the amount of corals that can be produced in one year. Therefore focus has been directed towards promoting sustainable tourism and highlighting the need for greater protection of coral reefs and marine resources rather than attempting to replant thousands of hectares of coral reef.
This promotes the concept that if greater awareness, can reduce the anthropogenic impacts on reefs on a wider scale, then this will help to improve the reef’s natural ability for reproduction and self-restoration.
Priorities
Therefore the priorities for producing a reef restoration project are based upon the following:
i. Promoting sustainable activities. Conducting Reef Rehabilitation Workshops and promotion of activities to educate and create greater awareness.Make available the collected data for public use.
ii. Collecting data relating to our coral transplanting techniques, our failures and successes Studying the growth rates of different coral species and their ability to survive in the nursery
iii. Transplanting nursery fragments to areas of damaged reef. Studying survival rates of transplanted corals.
Priority is to create a reef education program that coincides with the nursery program. Education and participation of local people has to be one of the most important factors of a coral rehabilitation program. Use the coral nursery to do this.
Attempting to restock 1000's of square meters of coral reef is financially not practical nor physically possible. Even if it were possible, without appropriate re-education of local people, the new coral reefs stocks will be subjected to the same injuries that caused the corals to die in the first place.