Can we really physically increase the live coral coverage of the reef?

The success rate with coral transplantation and artificial reefs in the past have been relatively poor, implanting the idea that this could never be a solution for the restoration of damaged coral reefs, and that this was even more of an illusion when considering extented devastation such as the ones caused by extended increase of the sea surface temperature. Maybe so, but that doesn’t invite to much action. Fortunately, we persevered after a first unfruitful experiment and developed a technique, which enabled us to rescue many corals and grow them beyond expectations. The technique in itself is not new, and based on the natural process of fragmentation. The fragments are attached to appropriately treated and constructed metal frames and start to build up their skeletons through calcification. These will eventually supplant the initial structures.

What do you mean by sustainable reef?

There is always a possible controversy regarding the source of the corals when starting an artificial reef, as it does not serve a sustainable aim to take from a particular reef to plant in another area. The damage at the donor site will undoubtedly be less than the benefits reaped at the second. This is one of the major problems associated with small scale attempts. The alternative is to take these initial corals from a place where the development of coastal infrastructures jeopardize the survival of coral colonies. In many  case, a large quantity of corals can be salvaged from a certain death. These are then fragmented and grown in order to provide more fragments for seeding of ulterior ecoralarts. There should therefore be a sizeable source of fragment to produce enough ecoralarts for any meaningful purposes. The process of selection to improve such characteristics as resistance to high water temperatures will necessitate new culture stocks to be taken from other development areas, even after the yield of the main source reaches sustainable rate. At the same time, this would enable to increase the biodiversity and profit the conservation of rare species. In this experiment, at the Four Seasons Resort at Landaa Giraavaru, over 500 m2 of reef  were created by mitigating construction works. The growth rate of certain species like the above staghorns exceeded 30 cm/year. This leaves us with a reliable source of fragments as this first generation corals can be pruned to create second generations