Frequently Asked Questions

Coral Gardener is an organization dedicated to the restoration and conservation of coral reefs. We cultivate and transplant corals to damaged reefs to help restore marine biodiversity and ecosystem health.

The process goes like this:

1) Adopt a Coral and receive a digital certificate to share on socials;

2) We fragment your chosen coral species from our list of heat-resistant colonies, put it on a rope, cookie, or tree in our coral nurseries where it stays for 12-18 months, as we monitor its health and growth;

3) Once mature, we fragment and plant this coral onto the damaged reef to revitalize it and bring resilience back to the whole ecosystem. We also send updates on our corals via our newsletters. 

Thanks for your support 🙏🏽

As of right now, we do not have that feature for our adoptions. The best way to ensure you and your giftee receive news on your coral would be to use your personal email and forward them to the other person. I can also change the email associated with your coral, if you’ve already adopted. Be sure to subscribe to our newsletter by going to our website and adding your email to the Subscribe box at the bottom of the page!

We are sorry about that. Have you checked your spam folder? The email with the Super coral card sometimes ends up there. If it is not there, you can email us at support@coralgardeners.org and our team in charge will be happy to sort this out for you.

There are different species and they are all important to create a diverse and resilient reef. You can choose the one that speaks to you the most. 

You can adopt online from anywhere in the world. Even if adoptions are made in USD on our website, the currency conversion will be made to your payment method. 

Our T-shirts, sweatshirts, and hats are true to size, but keep in mind they are based on a European fit, which tends to be smaller. If in doubt, round up one size for a loose fit.

You can offer the gift of choice to your loved ones by offering them an e-gift card: https://coralgardeners.org/products/gift-card

They will be able to choose how they want to support our mission to protect and restore coral reefs either by adopting a coral themselves, by wearing their commitment with our apparel, or by donating funds to our NGO. 

You can also adopt a coral for your loved ones by choosing a coral for them, adding a name on their adoption card and providing their email address so they could receive the card and the updates afterward about their coral. 

Thanks for reaching out. Keep following your passion, we need it to save the reef!

Yes, we do accept PayPal as well.

100% of the funds support our mission and will help us plant more corals, raise awareness locally and globally, and develop technology for the reef.

It will take a full, global effort to fight climate change and revitalize our oceans. We're providing actionable steps for each person, organization and group of people, from wherever they are to join our mission and help us save the reef. A few ways to help: For individuals – Adopt a Coral, Rope or Nursery, Donate directly to our mission, or Shop our merch, all on our website: coralgardeners.org. For organizations – Join our We The Reef program and donate a percentage of sales, or Become a Partner to help fund our mission. For our community – Share our mission to help us spread awareness to help us save the world's coral reefs before it's too late. If we do nothing, coral reefs will be virtually extinct by 2050. So take one of these steps of tangible action to join the fight and Coral Gardeners family

Thank you for your interest in Coral Gardeners - we're excited that you would like to work with us! Due to the high volume of applications we receive and to keep the playing field level for everyone, we only accept applications through our application portal. You can find our current job openings here with links to our application portal. Thank you for your understanding.

Thank you for being passionate and interested in restoring the coral reefs! The ocean needs more people and organizations to take part in securing a future for these magnificent ecosystems.

We’ve been at this since 2017 and are still learning something new each and every day. 

Here are some of our recommendations for starting a successful coral reef restoration project:

First, does the reef need restoration and how likely is it to succeed? Has there been a reef before where you plan to do your restoration project? Has the local source of degradation been addressed and mitigated? Only proceed with a project if you can answer yes to both of the above, otherwise you’re essentially growing and planting corals that will  die because they are likely to be overgrown by algae, dislodged by currents, or covered by sediments. Keep in mind that baby corals need to be cared for and without proper maintenance and monitoring, they likely won’t survive. 

Second, do you know which permits you need to collect, grow, and plant corals? Depending on the country/region/state you’re located in, different laws apply. Please make sure to secure the relevant permits before doing any work with corals. In many places, coral reefs are endangered, and we want to ensure small-scale efforts are not causing more harm than good.

Third, make sure you have enough financial resources and the right team in place. Restoring coral reefs is not cheap and requires a continuous inflow of funds. Do you have a plan in place for how you’ll get those funds year after year? You’ll also need an all-star team to pull this off. From marine biologists to boat captains to someone who’s handy with hardware to set up and fix nurseries. Plus they need to be  willing to work day in and day out in sometimes rough conditions.

Once you meet the above criteria, you can begin developing  a project. Below, we’ve compiled a list of public resources that outline best practices:

• Reef Resilience Network
• Restoration toolkit (a really good overview of the restoration process, methods, and things to keep in mind)
• Online trainings (including Coral Reef Restoration)
• Webinars (covers timely topics such as bleaching response)
• Article summaries (heavy on science - good to go deep on a specific topic)
• Case studies
• Coral Restoration Consortium (has resources on the following topics)
• Capacity Building
• Genetic and Population management
• Propagation and Outplanting
• Restoration Planning and Management
• Restoration Site Monitoring
• Spawning
• Species Fact Sheet
• Other relevant organizations
• International Coral Reef Initiative
• Initiative française pour les récifs coralliens
• Coral Reef Restoration: A guide to coral restoration method

Thank you for all you do to save coral reefs and we wish you the best of luck with your project!

If you find that your project does not yet meet the essential criteria for a successful project, there are still many ways to get involved in ocean conservation. For example, find a local NGO that relies on volunteer support or find a role in ocean conservation via ocean job boards such as WiseOceans, Schmidt Marine, Seven Seas Media, and Key Conservation.

So you have a project and are looking for a partner! We want to support as many organizations as we can. At the same time, we have a limited capacity and as we scale our work, we’re looking for specific elements in collaborations, including:

• A reef that needs restoration, where there used to be a thriving ecosystem
• A project which has necessary government permits and community support
• A team with the expertise to carry out science-based coral reef restoration
• A sustainable source of funding to last multiple years

If your project meets  the above criteria, please send us a message to info@coralgardeners.org with all the relevant information regarding your project, including any website. We will get back  to you if your project is aligned with our mission/vision and we have the capacity to support! 

While we’re not able to engage in collaborations that don’t meet the above criteria, we’re happy to know you are passionate regarding ocean conservation and that you desire to further the movement. We’ve compiled a list of public resources that outline best practices, which you’ll find in the answer to the question “I’d like to start a coral reef restoration project - how do I go about it?”