Ten years ago, the Adventure Club in the beautiful Phi Phi Islands installed a floating coral nursery to cultivate coral fragments – a way of preserving the coral reefs surround the islands.
The nursery is suspended above the substrate allowing the coral fragments to grow with reduced threats from corallivores – parrotfish, crown of thorns, drupella snails etc.
For too long, the problems facing the world’s coral reefs have been ignored and the coral nursery aims to highlight the issue and educate people around the world.
Each year, a special workshop on coral rehabilitation is held, during which university students visiting the coral nursery replant the corals grown the previous year. The group of students will then restock the nursery for another year of growth.
The workshop educates students about the delicate marine ecosystems – the important roles of organism within them and the impacts that can affect them.
Each month, volunteers come together to perform the required maintenance on the nursery. Armed with toothbrushes and scrapers, divers ensure corals
are not smothered by algae during this critical growth period.
This year marks the 10th anniversary of the Phi Phi island coral nursery and there is much to celebrate – although the
world’s corals were subjected to another global coral bleaching event, this year studies show that the impact was not as bad as originally expected and survival rates of corals in the nursery are at 85%!
For more information, please visit the Phi Phi Island Coral Nursery Facebook Page or click here.
