Boats 4 Corals

Boats 4 Corals

Part of the Whitsunday Reef Islands Initiative program

Project Lead: Australian Institute of Marine Science

Key project partners: Southern Cross University and tourism operators including Ocean Rafting, Red Cat Adventures, SV Whitehaven and Kiana Sail and Dive.

The Boats 4 Corals Program:

A promising approach to the restoration of reefs has been ‘coral IVF’, the collection and strategic relocation of coral larvae to re-seed damaged reefs. Using this methodology, coral spawn is collected, incubated in floating larval pools for 5-7 days and then deployed onto target reefs. Studies indicate that this improves the chance of coral spawn surviving to adulthood from approximately 1 in 1 million, to 1 in 10,000.

We acknowledge that researchers and scientists alone have limited ability to implement this approach at scale. The Boats4Corals project is sharing knowledge and developing the skills of local tourism operators and Traditional Owners to lead this restoration activity.