Saturday, January 10, 2009

Coral Transplantation






Today was the first of our 3 days in which we work on coral reef restoration. Our first dive today was to examine the coral nursery, an artificial reef, and transplantings from previous years. The extent of regrowth was really quite amazing. The first photo is of some coral fragments that were transplanted into a dead reef by last year’s class. What was planted at that time is equivalent to just one of the individual branches of the growing coral colony. The stick adjacent to the transplant is used as a shim to keep the base of the coral tight in the hole until it encrusts over the rock base; (2) Katie swimming toward the dead reef, (3) Planting coral fragments are Grant, Katie, Ryan (swimming in with the tool basket), and Richard (divemaster); (4) Grant drilling a hole for the coral fragment, and (5) Richard showing Ryan the effect of coral bleaching after the dive.

1 comment:

  1. Hey Everyone
    This is the Katie's Family. Hope everyone one is having a great time. It looks amazing down there and please tell katie saw all the pictures. So, keep having fun and we'll be waiting for more blogs.
    Katie's Family

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