Courses and Training

Recent studies have found that about 50% of the world’s coral reefs have already been lost, and the other 50% are highly threatened. The long-running philosophy of “protection is always preferred over restoration” is a luxury that no longer applies to most regions. More and more, restoration is necessary to preserve the biodiversity and functionality of reefs and to ensure the sustainability of the resources they provide.

Our Coral Restoration Topics Include:

• • Coral Gardening
• • Coral Fragment Collections
• • Coral Nursery construction, maintenance, and monitoring
• • Outplanting corals to the reef
• • Monitoring transplanted corals
• • Integration of beneficial organisms
• • Predator removal
• • How to take a genetic-based approach to reef restoration

Take This Course If You Want to:

• • Understand the threats to coral reefs, the factors affecting coral growth, and the basics of coral reef restoration
• • Understand coral life cycles, the ecological differences between the asexual and sexual reproductive cycles in corals, and the importance of maintaining high biodiversity on the reef.
• • Understand the history and evolution of coral restoration techniques as well as local standards (do’s and don’ts)
• • Understand the theory behind the use of coral nurseries as well as the practical application of locally and internationally developed techniques
• • Perform the practical steps of building and maintaining a coral nursery
• • Perform a monitoring dive to take data on the health, growth, and diversity of a coral nursery

Other Details:

• • Prerequisites:
  • º Be certified as an advanced diver under a leading diving organization (PADI, SSI, etc) (must include at least 1 deep dive)
  • º Demonstrate proper diving ability at an Advanced Level and be proficient in buoyancy and self-awareness.
  • º Be certified in the Ecological Monitoring Program
• • Expected course time: 12 hours
• • Requirements:
  • º Attend the coral nursery knowledge development session
  • º Attend 3 dive briefings
  • º Perform 3 dives at the coral nurseries (1) collect coral fragments and secure them to the nursery (at least 2 nursery types) (2) perform maintenance and cleaning (3) collect data on growth rates, mortality, and diversity