Hello again, well it’s been a long while since my
last blog. Christmas has come and gone, 2013 arrived without the world ending
and now already one month has almost passed so I wanted to get at least one
blog in for January. As I have had a busy month working with the coral frames I
thought that’s a good place to start….
I first started working with coral frames at Four
Seasons in 2010. The company I was working for, a marine consultancy called Seamarc, developed an artificial
reef system called coral frames, but similar structures are used all over the
world. These coral frames are instrumental in enhancing the biodiversity of
existing reef habitats as well as generating new ones. They provide a nice substrate for corals to grow on while reducing sedimentation and predation. In 1998, unusually warm
oceanic waters, resulting from an exceptionally strong El Nino event, caused
the coral to bleach across a large proportion of the Maldivian Reefs. With much
of the coral having died from this event, artificial reef projects have become
a valuable tool for restoring reefs and nurturing them back to health. Sadly, in 1998 not just
the Maldives was affected by the El Nino; 16% of the world's coral reefs died as a result of increased water temperatures!
One&Only Reethi Rah launched "Reethi
Reefs" Coral Propagation Project in September 2012. Reethi actually means beautiful in the Maldivian language, so "Beautiful Reefs". The main aim of the project is
to protect and develop the coral around the resort, as well as increasing
awareness about the vulnerability of coral reefs to our guests. The
transplantation process involves attaching fragments of coral onto a coral
frame, which will eventually grow into new colonies. The frames quickly attract a
multitude of reef fish and invertebrates which call the new reef their home! It’s
really quite amazing and also very beautiful, after a few years of coral growth
the entire frame becomes covered until you can’t see the frame at all. Also
another important part of this project is that after a few years of growth, the corals
on the frames will be mature enough to spawn and produce small coral larvae.
These larvae will drift in the ocean for a few days, becoming part of the
plankton, before settling onto a natural reef were they will grow into a new
colony, thus helping to populate existing reefs in other areas.
So far at Reethi Rah we have 75 coral frames. Most of these are on our house reef which is the area I want to improve. The fish life here is very nice, lots of schools of snappers and sweetlips, butterfly fish and colorful parrotfish but not so much coral. Ideally by placing coral frames here I want to improve the health of the reef (ie. more corals) and the habitat for the many fish and invertebrates that live there. Last week I managed to spot a mantis shrimp and an octopus and sometimes one of the resident turtles may swim past me while I’m working or even a blacktip reef shark. I’m really quite excited to see how the reef will look in the next 6 months when the frames have some growth. I think it’s going to be beautiful and full of life. The guests that come here can sponsor their own frame if they like, they attach the corals to the frame with me and then we drop it on the reef. Every 6 months I send them new photos of their frame so they can watch it grow.
With over 75 frames to look after and continually putting new frames in the water, I can become quite busy. The frames need to be checked regularly to make sure they are growing and any dead fragments need to be replaced with new fragments. The frames also need to be cleaned from algae which can grow over the coral fragments and smoother them. Quite a boring and tedious job but luckily with all the herbivorous fish on the reef they make my life much easier by eating all the algae. Thank you fish! You could call me an underwater gardener which is ironic really as you only need to ask my mum that green fingers in the garden, I don’t have!! Give me any plant and it will probably be half dead in 6 months or even sooner. But underwater gardening, yep that’s me. This is a job I’m good at. So I have left you with a few parting shots of some of the very beautiful coral frames I looked after at Four Seasons and then the start of the coral frames here at Reethi Rah. I will keep you all updated on how these turn out but I am confident that the house reef will become a vibrant and healthy coral garden for us all, including the fish!
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| Puffer Fish |
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| Common Lion Fish |
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| Giant Moray Eel |
