HARBOR BRANCH Reef Restoration Biologist Kevin Gaines, who hopes to re-seed the reef April 10th, said it is a “giant step” in a project with two main goals; to better learn how to conserve and restore coral reefs, and to learn how to culture soft coral in recirculating systems under controlled conditions, so that soft coral can be harvested for re-seeding projects such as this one, as well as for the aquarium industry.
This is the first time sea fans have been successfully cultured on this scale in artificial conditions, and if successful, will mark the first time this species of coral has been harvested, grown in tanks, then harvested again and re-seeded into a natural habitat.
There have been many challenges, Gaines said.
“First, before we ever collected our cuttings, our broodstock if you will, we had to build a closed recirculating system in which the sea fans could survive,” Gaines said. Such a system had to be able to perfectly control temperature and alkalinity, while providing just the right lighting and a steady supply of clean, fresh, and fast-moving seawater.
“Once we figured that out, we collected our cuttings, a total of 80 four-inch by four-inch samples of sea fans from near the damaged reef, and attached them successfully to an artificial substrate in our tanks made of calcium carbonate and cement,” Gaines said.
For two years, the sea fans were nurtured and fed, with the result that new sea fans grew, enough to allow Gaines to harvest 20 cuttings of second-generation coral, each three-inches by three-inches. It is these second-generation sea fans that are now being re-seeded onto the damaged reef.
The results are exciting, and could reduce the amount of time it takes the damaged reef to grow new sea-fan colonies by five to 10 years.
“We can shorten the recovery process substantially by putting this new, already-established and larger fragment of soft coral back on the reef,” Gaines said.
“The theory is, if you can re-seed a reef with larger sea fans as opposed to the smaller, individual animals that settle naturally, the quicker you have mature coral and sexual reproduction occurs, and new colonies are established,” Gaines added.
The $72,000, four-year project, which is being funded by HARBOR BRANCH and the Disney Conservation Fund, will involve monitoring the sea fans in their new home to see how well they do.
“We’re not done, and we’ll be going back within the month to see how they’re doing, but we think they’ll do great,” Gaines said.
To arrange coverage of the re-seeding event please call Geoff Oldfather, HARBOR BRANCH (www.hboi.edu) Director of Public Relations, at 561.465.2400, ext. 206, or on his cell phone at 561.216.
HARBOR BRANCH Oceanographic Institution, Inc., is one of the world’s leading nonprofit oceanographic research organizations dedicated to exploration of the earth’s oceans, estuaries and coastal regions for the benefit of mankind.