In the continuous effort to save the coral reefs, a new way to restore this underwater ecosystem is happening in Thailand. Coral restoration, called coral gardening, is now being experimented on the island of Koh Ha. The said process is addressing the worsening problem of the dying coral reefs in the country.
Coral reefs all over the world are now in danger. According to the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), between the years of 2014 and 2017, the increasing water temperature in the ocean resulted in the most extensive "global coral bleaching" on record. World Resources Institute in collaboration with The Nature Conservancy, UNEP World Conservation Monitoring Centre, and other agencies noted in a 2011 study that over 90 percent of the world's corals would disappear by 2050.
Advocator reported heat waves, instigated by global warming, caused the extinction of coral reefs. The human footprint and radical weather phenomena, which is also the result of climate change, add to the endangerment of the corals.
So there is a dire need to use an alternative method to boost the restoration of coral reefs, not just in Thailand but all over the world, to give it the chance to survive the worsening global warming. Hence, coral gardening is born.
Coral gardening is a method to grow corals in nurseries, per the South China Morning Post. The growing corals get replanted on reefs. It starts by selecting "seedlings" that develop in nurseries.
Malaysian oceanographer and conservationist Anuar Abdul revealed they search for "broken pieces of coral" and give it a second chance to live before they die. The "broken pieces" are taken to the surface and will be attached to a rock with the use of "catalyst" that will be put it in an underwater nursery. When the said "piece" starts to grow, it will begin to form a new coral reef.
Anuar strongly believed coral gardening is the solution to survive coral reefs in the world. He recommended teaching this method to even "leisure divers," so it will quickly roll out. If truth be told, this process is now gaining popularity among conservationists.
"Shifting from engineering solutions, such as physically rebuilding reefs with concrete, to ecological solutions, or rebuilding with coral, is much more cost effective and typically the recovery is more successful," Benthic Ecology and Coral Reef Restoration Lab of the University of Miami senior research associate Dalton Hesley said. "It is a win-win."
