Coral Nurture Program Whitsundays
Part of the Whitsunday Reef Islands Initiative program
Project Lead: University of Technology Sydney
Key project partners: Tourism operators including Wavelength Cruises, Kiana Sail and Dive, Ocean Rafting and Red Cat Adventures.
The Coral Nurture Program:
Coral propagation and planting practices are rapidly becoming established worldwide by local communities in efforts to restore reefs. Recent advances in the scale and cost-effectiveness of these practices have been achieved through an innovative tourism-science partnership – the Coral Nurture Program – where tourism businesses in Cairns-Port Douglas have established coral propagation and planting as part of wider site stewardship activities.
The goal of the Whitsundays Coral Nurture Program is to evaluate how this partnership model can be adopted by tourism operations for Whitsundays reef environments. The program will identify low-cost coral restoration methods while also supporting tourism operator-led stewardship to improve reef health in the Whitsundays.
Three sites have been selected for coral restoration: Luncheon Bay, Blue Pearl Bay and western Black Island.
Get Involved
Go for a snorkel at our restoration sites and see if you can find the coral nurseries. If you pay close attention, you may be able to see corals which
have been outplanted with the innovative Coralclip® device.
