Coral translocation kick-starts International Year of the Reef celebrations |05 March 2018

As part of its activities to celebrate International Year of The Reef (IYOR), the Seychelles National Parks Authority (SNPA) translocated forty corals from a nursery to a degraded reef near St Pierre (located in the Curieuse Marine National Park).

It was in May 2016 that the SNPA launched its coral restoration project by setting up an in-water nursery in which coral fragments are grown either on ropes or on tables. The nursery project, funded by the Unep (United Nations Environment Programme), is located at Baie Laraie, Curieuse.

SNPA undertook the delicate tasks of rehabilitating the reef near St Pierre in partnership with Octopus Dive Centre, Praslin.

The corals, ranging in size from 7cm to 20cm, were removed from the rope nursery, placed in baskets and loaded onto the boat where they were transferred into water buckets.

Great care was taken to ensure limited stress to the corals.

Upon arrival to St Pierre the reverse was done and the corals were eventually glued onto the granitic reef using marine epoxy which is non-toxic to marine life.

The team was very happy with its first attempt at coral translocation.

More are expected to be placed at St Pierre in due course. 

What a way to celebrate Seychelles’ reefs, by rehabilitating damaged ones!

Contributed