The Coral Gardeners of Moorea have been working to save their reefs, and in isolation have developed innovative methods to restore corals. The World Surfing League recently funded a trip by the C4C scientist to upgrade skills and methods. A new relationship was forged, and the goal now is to fund an advanced coral restoration workshop on Moorea, to include trainees from Tahiti and nearby islands, and to tap into the amazing power of these youth. Select interns will also be trained in Fiji.
The Coral Gardeners are an amazing youth movement on Moorea, based on service, volunteerism, and hard work. Much interest has been generated throughout the country. The focus thus far has been on rescuing damaged corals and on education. With the recent coral bleaching due to global warming, about half of the corals on Moorea died in 2019, including many corals in the nurseries, as they were not bleaching resistant corals.
C4C will educate the youth in coral reef ecology, to re-focus the coral work, helping them identify and propagate bleaching resistant corals, to create gene bank nurseries of rare and declining species. The "super corals" will serve as permanent "mother colonies", to be trimmed twice a year as they grow, to produce second generation fragments for replanting to damaged reefs. We will run a workshop on Moorea for trainees from around the country, and will select interns for training in Fiji.
These youth are being empowered to save the lives of thousands of rare corals, survivors resistant to warm water bleaching, protecting them from the onslaught of coral predators. Trimmed at one year, patches of heat-adapted corals will be planted to reefs, restoring reproduction in declining coral species, and helping the reefs adapt and survive. The youth will move to the forefront of positive action, and some will become professional Coral Gardeners at resorts, working throughout the islands.
