Leading the Way to Recovery
Bonaire Reef Pilot Project
The Bonaire Reef Pilot Project has accounted for nearly 1,000 transplants in Bonaire's protected marine park.
Abi Smigel Mullens
It’s July in Bonaire, but by some appearances, it could be Christmas. In the 15-foot shallows of Buddy Beach and Dive Resort’s house reef, I’m with Augusto Montbrun, the resort’s dive-ops manager, surveying a patch of faux PVC “Christmas” trees and their dangling “ornaments” of coral fragments swaying in the Caribbean current. While he inspects each tree and scribbles data on his slate, I carefully pirouette between the branches, realizing that this could be a huge milepost on the road to recovery for coral reefs everywhere.
“They’re healthy and doing great,” Montbrun says back on the dock, gleaming like a proud papa. “They’re growing an average of 2.8 centimeters a month. When they reach 30 to 40 centimeters, it’s time to be transplanted where they can repopulate damaged reefs.”
It might as well be Christmas for Montbrun, considering the prize results he’s discovered. Heading into its third year, the Bonaire Reef Pilot Project has progressed from a hopeful hunch to a certifiable success, accounting for nearly 1,000 individual transplants in Bonaire’s protected Marine Park. The effort in progress has more than 5,000 growing staghorn and elkhorn coral fragments on trees, most of which are located at the main nursery off the unpopulated satellite island, Klein Bonaire. At Buddy Dive’s smaller “demonstration” nursery, a few fin kicks from the docks in Kralendijk, lookie-loo snorkelers and swimmers can easily check out the trees – good PR to hype awareness for the plight of corals and hopefully lure the helping hands of needed dive volunteers.
The project is Bonaire’s own incarnation of the Coral Restoration Foundation, a Florida-based nonprofit centered on the restoration of shallow reefs by establishing nursery and transplant programs that cultivate staghorn and elkhorn corals. Acropora palmate and* Acropora cervicornis* – elkhorn and staghorn corals – are the foundational building blocks of many reefs worldwide, and CRF has worked with local scientists to ID sites for coral nurseries and reef outplantings.
On the face of it, it might seem like a simple matter of propagating broken pieces and gluing them to reef structure. But there’s plenty of science involved. Bonaire’s CRF-trained support group strategically plants small fragments of different genotypes in close quarters to maintain genetic diversity and enhance natural recovery. Though Bonaire’s reefs are relatively pristine – minus damaged patches from errant ships and storm surges – its encircling Marine Park is the ideal lab to perfect the science and technique that can be exported.
“In the Caribbean, staghorn and elkhorn coral loss is roughly 90 percent, and other corals are down by about 50 percent,” notes Ken Nedimyer, founder and braintrust of the CRF, and Scuba Diving magazine's Sea Hero of the Year and CNN Hero recognized last year for his groundbreaking work. “These corals are pioneering species that form barrier reefs that protect and form lagoons. They’re critical in providing structure for marine life to flourish.”
The International Union for Conservation of Nature cites overexploitation, land-based sources of marine pollution, severe natural events, including hurricanes and tsunamis, and warming water temperatures due to climate change as culprits in the demise of coral. According to the Status of Coral Reefs of the World, 70 percent of world coral reefs are threatened or destroyed, with 20 percent of those damaged beyond repair. Another piece of the puzzle coming to light shows the widespread loss of spiny sea urchins – marine grazers that act as guardians by eating coral-suffocating algae – having a significant role in the health of coral reefs.
Since CRF was founded in the Florida Keys in 2007, nursery sites have hatched in Columbia, in addition to Bonaire, amounting to well over 25,000 propagated coral fragments on trees, or transplanted to form reef colonies. Bonaire is leading the pack in terms of coral growth rates, about twice as fast and with healthier outplants when compared to the Florida Keys locations. “Nutrients? Runoff from land? Water temperatures?” posits Nedimyer. “We just don’t know yet, but it’s significant.”
Lessons honed in Bonaire, such as the detrimental effects from smothering sand, algae and fire worms, have increased the body of knowledge in the fledging discipline of coral restoration, says Montbrun. “We’ve completed the project cycle recently, going from collecting to nursing to growing to replanting new reefs on Bonaire,” he says. With this first cycle a success, Montbrun and his crew now know a bit more and can share with other CRF partners in the Caribbean and beyond. “We want to join forces to make this a never-ending program that will restore what is gone and protect what we have.”
Learn more about CRF including volunteering and the CRF PADI specialty course, at www.coralrestoration.org.
Check out Buddy Dive Resort for travel info to Bonaire.
Abi Smigel MullensThe Bonaire Reef Pilot Project has accounted for nearly 1,000 transplants in Bonaire's protected marine park.
It’s July in Bonaire, but by some appearances, it could be Christmas. In the 15-foot shallows of Buddy Beach and Dive Resort’s house reef, I’m with Augusto Montbrun, the resort’s dive-ops manager, surveying a patch of faux PVC “Christmas” trees and their dangling “ornaments” of coral fragments swaying in the Caribbean current. While he inspects each tree and scribbles data on his slate, I carefully pirouette between the branches, realizing that this could be a huge milepost on the road to recovery for coral reefs everywhere.
“They’re healthy and doing great,” Montbrun says back on the dock, gleaming like a proud papa. “They’re growing an average of 2.8 centimeters a month. When they reach 30 to 40 centimeters, it’s time to be transplanted where they can repopulate damaged reefs.”
It might as well be Christmas for Montbrun, considering the prize results he’s discovered. Heading into its third year, the Bonaire Reef Pilot Project has progressed from a hopeful hunch to a certifiable success, accounting for nearly 1,000 individual transplants in Bonaire’s protected Marine Park. The effort in progress has more than 5,000 growing staghorn and elkhorn coral fragments on trees, most of which are located at the main nursery off the unpopulated satellite island, Klein Bonaire. At Buddy Dive’s smaller “demonstration” nursery, a few fin kicks from the docks in Kralendijk, lookie-loo snorkelers and swimmers can easily check out the trees – good PR to hype awareness for the plight of corals and hopefully lure the helping hands of needed dive volunteers.
The project is Bonaire’s own incarnation of the Coral Restoration Foundation, a Florida-based nonprofit centered on the restoration of shallow reefs by establishing nursery and transplant programs that cultivate staghorn and elkhorn corals. Acropora palmate and* Acropora cervicornis* – elkhorn and staghorn corals – are the foundational building blocks of many reefs worldwide, and CRF has worked with local scientists to ID sites for coral nurseries and reef outplantings.
On the face of it, it might seem like a simple matter of propagating broken pieces and gluing them to reef structure. But there’s plenty of science involved. Bonaire’s CRF-trained support group strategically plants small fragments of different genotypes in close quarters to maintain genetic diversity and enhance natural recovery. Though Bonaire’s reefs are relatively pristine – minus damaged patches from errant ships and storm surges – its encircling Marine Park is the ideal lab to perfect the science and technique that can be exported.
“In the Caribbean, staghorn and elkhorn coral loss is roughly 90 percent, and other corals are down by about 50 percent,” notes Ken Nedimyer, founder and braintrust of the CRF, and Scuba Diving magazine's Sea Hero of the Year and CNN Hero recognized last year for his groundbreaking work. “These corals are pioneering species that form barrier reefs that protect and form lagoons. They’re critical in providing structure for marine life to flourish.”
The International Union for Conservation of Nature cites overexploitation, land-based sources of marine pollution, severe natural events, including hurricanes and tsunamis, and warming water temperatures due to climate change as culprits in the demise of coral. According to the Status of Coral Reefs of the World, 70 percent of world coral reefs are threatened or destroyed, with 20 percent of those damaged beyond repair. Another piece of the puzzle coming to light shows the widespread loss of spiny sea urchins – marine grazers that act as guardians by eating coral-suffocating algae – having a significant role in the health of coral reefs.
Since CRF was founded in the Florida Keys in 2007, nursery sites have hatched in Columbia, in addition to Bonaire, amounting to well over 25,000 propagated coral fragments on trees, or transplanted to form reef colonies. Bonaire is leading the pack in terms of coral growth rates, about twice as fast and with healthier outplants when compared to the Florida Keys locations. “Nutrients? Runoff from land? Water temperatures?” posits Nedimyer. “We just don’t know yet, but it’s significant.”
Lessons honed in Bonaire, such as the detrimental effects from smothering sand, algae and fire worms, have increased the body of knowledge in the fledging discipline of coral restoration, says Montbrun. “We’ve completed the project cycle recently, going from collecting to nursing to growing to replanting new reefs on Bonaire,” he says. With this first cycle a success, Montbrun and his crew now know a bit more and can share with other CRF partners in the Caribbean and beyond. “We want to join forces to make this a never-ending program that will restore what is gone and protect what we have.”
Learn more about CRF including volunteering and the CRF PADI specialty course, at www.coralrestoration.org.
Check out Buddy Dive Resort for travel info to Bonaire.
