January was very busy for all of us, but extra for the restoration team. Their main mission was to monitor Tiaia, our first major super coral nursery, that just turned one year old. As they do every three months, the restoration team spent many hours underwater to assess the health of each of the 4,127 coral fragments in the nursery by checking for signs of bleaching, predation or disease. They also measured the volume of randomly selected corals to track their growth over time. The last results are just in and we are all amped because the corals will be ready to be transplanted onto the reef in only a few short months!
The resto team also had quite a bit of cleaning and maintenance to do in January, during which we had some pretty wild storms. But rest assured that the corals are doing quite well, showing their resilience and confirming our Super Coral process with each and every hurdle they overcome.
In case you missed it, be sure to check out the new To’a Ora series we released last month to learn more about our local awareness project to empower Mo’orea’s kids to save their reef.
