Guam project – successful spawning work 2015
This year, Mike McCue, project leader on-site and curator of Underwater World (UWW), together with senior aquarist Andrea Pierce, as well as several co-workers and partners, such as the Marine Lab of the University of Guam (Marine Lab UOG), were able to collect spawn of two Acropora species (A. digitifera, A. surculosa). Larvae were reared at UWW and at Marine Lab UOG, and thousands were settled on tiles. Andrea took the lead in the hands on work and was overwhelmed by the promising start of this year's batch of corals: "Many of the A. digitifera larvae successfully settled on the tiles, and still look great. The A. surculosa also look excellent, I had really high settlement rates and at least 80% of the colonies have color now. Both species are feeding and growing very quickly!" In the photo you can see two coral recruits close together, one has gained color already, the other is still pale, as well as two sister colonies seen through binoculars.
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Part of the young Acropora colonies have been transferred to a floating midwater nursery at Piti Marine Preserve, which was deployed during the 2013 and 2014 SECORE workshops. In the photos Mike McCue points to one of the coral substrates, populated with young colonies. In the next photo some of the growing corals are exemplaryly highlighted―all off them brownish in color.
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At UWW visitors can witness coral spawning work and the growth of coral recruits at the new public laboratory. They learn about coral reproduction and conservation and get a tour behind the scenes. "The idea is to have some of the coral recruits to show to the public in the SECORE-Lab at UWW and to use the majority of the corals to start a pilot restoration effort in Tumon Bay." says Dirk Petersen. In Guam it is not only necessary to expand coral conservation and restoration efforts, but to give outreach a special focus. "We plan to develop additional outplanting sites with our recruits, including an underwater visitor's site for tourists," explains Mike McCue. The visitor's site is planned as an exemplary adventure trail under water, where divers and snorkelers can experience restoration efforts by themselves.
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Further partners of project Guam are the Henry Doorly Zoo (USA), the Horniman Museum and Gardens (UK) and the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium (USA). Special thanks go out to Dr. Laurie Raymundo, The UOG Marine Lab, and, most of all, Samuel Nietzer funded by 'German National Academic Foundation', as well as Mareen Moeller funded by 'Ministry of Science and Culture, Lower Saxony' both PHD Students from ICBM, University of Oldenburg, Germany, who both helped with the spawning work.
