giving coral reefs a future

This morning, we visited the Sea Aquarium to check the status of the aquaria facilities. We were happy to see that the coral settlers from last year’s workshop had developed in the meantime to an impressive size on the tripod substrates: live tissue area of several cm². Not only the branching coral species Acropora palmata grew well, but also the massive species Favia fragum, Porites asteroides, and Diploria labyrinthiformis.

[pic 1]

In the afternoon, we went for an orientation dive to explore the status of the mother coral colonies and the mid-water coral nursery that was installed last year in the reef close to the Sea Aquarium.

[pic 2]
During that dive, we observed that the reef itself was not in an optimal condition. We saw lots of cyanobacteria mats and turf algae. However, the large elkhorn coral mother colonies were in good shape―impressive as always they enthrone on the reef. We also passed by some of the coral colonies from previous workshops and were impressed how large they had grown already. This is an encouraging sign for our upcoming workshop that aims to breed a new generation of corals, which will be restored in Curacao reefs.