Emergency Response to Mass Coral Bleaching

by Corals for Conservation
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Emergency Response to Mass Coral Bleaching
Emergency Response to Mass Coral Bleaching
Emergency Response to Mass Coral Bleaching
Emergency Response to Mass Coral Bleaching
Emergency Response to Mass Coral Bleaching
Emergency Response to Mass Coral Bleaching
Emergency Response to Mass Coral Bleaching
Emergency Response to Mass Coral Bleaching
Emergency Response to Mass Coral Bleaching
Austin helping Coral Gardeners in French Polynesia
Austin helping Coral Gardeners in French Polynesia
Earth Day has just been celebrated, and more grassroots organizations are now established on our favorite planet than ever before.  It's taken all of us who believe that science and nature and community action can bring about positive change.  The oceans and their precious reefs have a chance at survival because from the indigenous fishermen to the committed government officials, people around the globe are bonding and devoting their lives and resources to spare coral reefs from extinction.  Anything less than a goal of restoring ecological diversity is unthinkable.  The consequences of dying coral reefs would be a human disaster on a scale unimaginable.
Here's where Corals for Conservation has been, and here's where Corals for Conservation is going.
 
I am working on a plan to upscale all the lessons learned regionally, with a plan to save the coral reefs of each nation.  Each plan will be tailored to the present conditions and challenges and threats, and look towards the future.  On this, Kiribati is the most challenging, as they need restoration of locally extinct coral species, atoll by atoll, as their reefs are the most impacted, but if we can succeed there, we can succeed everywhere! 
Tuvalu has the least impacted coral reefs, and so they need to focus on moving corals out of hot pocket reef areas into cooler reefs, as they are the only nation without any major coral bleaching thus far, so the pre-adapted corals still survive!   Samoa, Fiji, Vanuatu, and New Caledonia, all need to secure their now declining species by creating gene bank nurseries and patches of reproductive corals, as well as focusing on COTS (Crown of Thorns Starfish) removal. 
French Polynesia needs to focus on restoring locally endangered Acropora corals to reefs where they formerly dominated, and which are now dominated by two species of cauliflower corals- Pocillopora.  Parrotfish there eat up the Acropora corals, and so the pass areas with abundant sharks (which chase away the parrotfish), need to be the focus initially.  
 
Our role needs to be that of providing workable solutions and a unified vision-  a way out of the current inaction- to save coral reefs from the imminent death they face, with the horrific impacts to our region.  
I am reminded of the great impact we have already had on the region when  community-based no-fishing sites were established in Cuvu as a partnership with the Shangri-La resort back in 2000.  That project resulted in five no-take Tabu areas, which were the first to be started on reefs in 80-100 years. This caused a transformation in thinking, a new vision, which spread throughout the country, with over 300 locally managed areas in Fiji by 2020, when COVID hit.  The movement also spread to Samoa and Vanuatu and all over. 
Now we have coral-focused adaptation strategies which can add resilience and functionality to these same tabu areas, which otherwise face the death of their coral populations.  This will put the local communities in the forefront of saving the planet's coral reefs from climate change, with positive impacts on food security and marine biodiversity.  "Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth."
I'm heading back to Leleuvia today with the new camera (these German Rollei Go-pro clones are only $150. USD!)   This is to record the interesting preliminary results of experiments to use simple methods to get super algae into bleached corals!  
Vinaka with Warm Regards,
Austin
 

Hearty Fijian dish for divers
Hearty Fijian dish for divers
Divers beside palm in paradise
Divers beside palm in paradise
International Corals Workshop in 2019
International Corals Workshop in 2019
Austin descends to reef table
Austin descends to reef table

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Bleached corals of the lagoon reefs
Bleached corals of the lagoon reefs

Bula to the our "Reefs of Hope" supporters and donors around the world.  

Super Cyclone Kevin, condition 4, passed south of Fiji, and brought very windy and rainy weather, which cooled off the western waters of Fiji. Cyclone Judy also cooled the waters the week before. However, it was too little too late for eastern Fiji and Tonga as the bleaching is severe in those areas.  While we say a thank you: "vinaka vakalevu" to cyclones Kevin and Judy for cooling Fiji's waters, we are saddened about the badly damaged communities of Vanuatu.

Our main Malolo sites are now only at warning level, and will not likely bleach this year, thankfully buying us more time to complete the set up of experiments. In late December and early January, scattered  bleaching occurred, which was rather alarming, as it was only at the warning stage and not yet fully into tropical summer. Luckily, cooler and rainy weather moved in which enabled the corals to recover.

Minor bleaching stress like this has been shown to help corals acclimate and adapt to warmer waters over time.... adjusting their algae, and replacing them with stronger strains, as long as it is not so severe as to cause coral death. Our working hypothesis is that we can encourage the sharing of heat resistant algae from resistant to less resistant corals, by moving the heat adapted (hot pocket) corals out to cooler reef areas and planting them among the cooler adapted corals in secure nurseries.  For Malolo reefs, that proof of concept will have to wait another year or so. 

However, for our Moturiki sites in the east, the bleaching is quite severe, with 99% of all Acropora corals are now badly bleached.  This is our area of intensive focus for the next few weeks.  We are using the bleaching event to more clearly identify and collect bleaching resistant corals.  We have just returned from the badly impacted Leleuvia and Moturiki reefs in our new project boat, operated by our newly trained and certified Fijian captain!   We worked hard to collect samples from the very few unbleached corals from the bleached coral populations. We are working with the villages of Daku and Uluibau, and both villages have restored their no-fishing Tabu areas, with Fisheries providing marking buoys, and we at C4C providing the ropes and anchors. The last week of March we will return for another week of intense collecting and community training, with the goal of using the "super corals" for reinforcing the no-take areas and building resilience to future bleaching events.  The strategies we are using were published in a scientific publication by the project scientist in January, available online for those interested: https://www.mdpi.com/2673-1924/4/1/2/pdf

This ranks as Fiji's third worst stress event. Sadly, for the eastern reefs of the Lau group, this appears to be the worst bleaching there in recorded history, which will impact all of Fiji, as that area is where we get much of our coral larvae from during normal years. Fewer coral larvae will mean delayed coral reef recovery.  This makes what we do: identifying bleaching resistant corals of the most vulnerable species, and securing them within protected reef sites, all the more important! 

As Corals for Conservation's one-year UNEP grant comes to an end in May, GlobalGiving will once again become our only source of project funds.  There has been much rejoicing here that GlobalGiving's $10,000 bonus from our DIY matching campaign will be disbursed in April.

You responded to the appeal and made this happen!  Thanks for your continued support, especially now when parts of the coral ecosystem are tetering and need extra help from us and their communities to thrive again! 

Austin 

PS: The April 2023 Little by Little Campaign from April 3-7 is designed to help GlobalGiving partners around the world cultivate a robust network of small-dollar donors. All eligible donations up to $50 per unique donor per organization will be matched at 50% during the campaign, and funds will not run out!

Bleached staghorn corals of the hot lagoon
Bleached staghorn corals of the hot lagoon
Some are bleaching resistant super corals
Some are bleaching resistant super corals
Outer reef coral bleaching
Outer reef coral bleaching
Captain Wilson on left piloting our new boat
Captain Wilson on left piloting our new boat
Malolo Nursery in January during heat stress.
Malolo Nursery in January during heat stress.

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Fiji diver descends to giant clam
Fiji diver descends to giant clam
Workshop: A-frame Planting
Workshop: A-frame Planting
An Astounding Accomplishment:  69 people trained in Coral Reef Adaption at our International Workshops since April! 

This year we had a record number of volunteers with as many as nine at a time in the site from several countries! With all the extra hands we accomplished a lot of work in the coral nurseries.   Our volunteers were also instrumental in refining our training curriculum. Four major workshops were completed in the past quarter, plus the volunteer interns, we trained 90 people in total!   In May and June, one-week "coral champions" workshops were completed with a Fiji focus, training ten fisheries officers, NGO staff, and recent marine biology graduates.  In August, we carried out an international workshop that included 7 from Papua New Giuinea, 5 from Samoa many more from Fiji, and even some from Germany, USA, and Australia. Thanks to funds given by UNEP and DFAT, airfares into Fiji and workshop expenses were covered.  During this workshop we were able to establish a whole new site in the east of Fiji a hundred miles distant from the Malolo sites, at Leleuvia island, thanks to the additional funding!  In early November, a workshop focused on coral restoration for climate change adaptation and the tourism industry was held using funds from the US Embassy.  This workshop trained 8 Fijian participants already working in the tourism industry and 8 more marine science university graduates who are currently unemployed.  Attending the workshop gave these enthusiastic coral champions field experience and will boost their CV's.

An Amazing Number of Corals trimmed and planted in the Outer Barrier Reef Gene Bank:

At the workshops volunteers trimmed the amazing numbers of corals in the gene bank nurseries and used all of these excess corals to establish two new sites in the outer barrier reef.  The area is 14km long by several hundred km wide.  The entire backreef had been badly degraded by mass bleaching and cyclones in years past.  Larger corals and branches were densely planted onto A-frames to create instant fish habitat within "nucleation patches", rather than planting small corals over wider areas. The fish moving into the corals will help keep the corals free of algae, sand, and silt, and help the corals grow well.  The fish will hopefully also clean the areas surrounding the corals and cause the bare clean rocks to attract incoming coral larvae, so the coral patches will grow over time.   With two sites completed, we then moved to establish as many as we could before the hot coral bleaching season, which started in January. 

Outer Reef Sites Tested by Mother Nature's Big Waves:  Lessons Learned

The first of our new outer reef sites was established in an area where every month or two, some very big waves roll over the site.  This was done intentionally, in order to test our methods against cyclones, which will inevitably impact all of the outer reef.  The other sites are not nearly so high energy, and will only experience such big waves during cyclones, but we need to learn what methods are able to withstand cyclone waves and currents.   A few weeks after we put in the A-frames, fish house structures, and other methods, HUGE waves hit the site, and several A-frames flipped and several rope outplant trials were destroyed.   Fortunately, none of the cemented corals were impacted, neither were the A-frames anchored into the reef framework.  We have used these lessons to further harden the site and to learn methods that will resist cyclones in the other more protected areas of the restoration zone. 

Major Milestone with Bleaching-resistant Super Corals Sharing Resistant Super-Algae:

So this is a major milestone: our bleaching resistant super corals are finally being moved onto the cooler outer barrier reef!  This will allow them to share their resistant algae with other corals, and spread the resilience to incoming coral larvae, which come in without their symbiotic algae.  So now there is a source of resistant super-algae on the outer reef, which can be shared!  When the next marine heat wave arrives and mass bleaching hits, our corals and hopefully the juvenile corals that settle nearby, will not bleach!    

Much progress is being made with our cooler outer-reef stategies which can ultimately add decades to coral reef and species survival.  The richness of the entire marine ecosystem is vital--Corals for Conservation is proving that a mono-culture coral bed is not the answer.  Interest in our discoveries and practical low-cost/ high indigenous community involvement model is getting attention throughout the South Pacific.  The demand for the training sessions is very high.  While additional resources are now coming in, they are not sufficient for the increased workload and for giving stipends to marine biology graduates.
 
Announcing HOPE FOR CORALS:  Starting January 1st and ending March 31st, your gifts of any amount will receive an astounding 300% bonus.  An incentive fund of $10,000 has been made available to Corals for Conservation by GlobalGiving in part because our work answers an urgent need for mankind and the corals which bring life.  Without GlobalGiving and donors like you, we would not be able to continue! 

Vinaka Vakalevu!       Austin

Workshop: A-frame Planting

Workshop: A-frame Planting

Nursery: Purple digitate acropora ready for a trim

Nursery: Purple digitate acropora ready for a trim
Giant clam with opalescent colors
Giant clam with opalescent colors
Fiji diver with paddle beside palm
Fiji diver with paddle beside palm
Austin, Annelise and Wilson
Austin, Annelise and Wilson
Coral Workshop A-frame Planting
Coral Workshop A-frame Planting
Purple digitate acropora ready for trim
Purple digitate acropora ready for trim
Coral Workshop Shallow Water training
Coral Workshop Shallow Water training
Coral Group happy with new skills learned
Coral Group happy with new skills learned
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June Workshop Participants
June Workshop Participants

An Astounding Accomplishment:  90 people trained in Coral Reef Adaption at our International Workshops

We have been very busy.   With nine volunteers in the site from several countries, we accomplished a lot of work in the coral nurseries.   We also successfully carried out three major workshops in the past quarter for 90 people in total!  In May and June, we conducted one-week workshops with a Fiji focus, training "coral champions" training ten fisheries officers, NGO staff, and recent marine biology graduates.  In August we carried out an international workshop that included 7 from Papua New Giuinea and 5 from Samoa and others from Germany, USA, and Australia, and many more from Fiji.  We have refined the curriculum and improved the course.  Thanks to funds given by UNEP and DFAT, airfares into Fiji and workshop expenses were all covered.  We also were able to establish a whole new site in the east of Fiji a hundred miles distant from the Malolo sites, at Leleuvia island, thanks to the additional funding! 

An Amazing Number of Corals trimmed and planted in the Outer Barrier Reef Gene Bank:

At the workshops volunteers trimmed the amazing numbers of corals in the gene bank nurseries and used all of these excess corals to establish two new sites in the outer barrier reef.  The area is 14km long by several hundred km wide.  The entire backreef had been badly degraded by mass bleaching and cyclones in years past.  Larger corals and branches were densely planted onto A-frames to create instant fish habitat within "nucleation patches", rather than planting small corals over wider areas. The fish moving into the corals will help keep the corals free of algae, sand, and silt, and help the corals grow well.  The fish will hopefully also clean the areas surrounding the corals and cause the bare clean rocks to attract incoming coral larvae, so the coral patches will grow over time.   With two sites complete, we plan to establish as many as we can over the coming months, and well before the hot coral bleaching season, which starts in January. 

Outer Reef Sites Tested by Mother Nature's Big Waves:  Lessons Learned

The first of our new outer reef sites was established in an area where every month or two, some very big waves roll over the site.  This was done intentionally, in order to test our methods against cyclones, which will inevitably impact all of the outer reef.  The other sites are not nearly so high energy, and will only experience such big waves during cyclones, but we need to learn what methods are able to withstand cyclone waves and currents.   A few weeks after we put in the A-frames, fish house structures, and other methods, HUGE waves hit the site, and several A-frames flipped and several rope outplant trials were destroyed.   Fortunately, none of the cemented corals were impacted, neither were the A-frames anchored into the reef framework.  We have used these lessons to further harden the site and to learn methods that will resist cyclones in the other more protected areas of the restoration zone. 

Major Milestone with Bleaching-resistant Super Corals Sharing Resistant Super-Algae:

So this is a major milestone: our bleaching resistant super corals are finally being moved onto the cooler outer barrier reef!  This will allow them to share their resistant algae with other corals, and spread the resilience to incoming coral larvae, which come in without their symbiotic algae.  So now there is a source of resistant super-algae on the outer reef, which can be shared!  When the next marine heat wave arrives and mass bleaching hits, our corals and hopefully the juvenile corals that settle nearby, will not bleach!    

GlobalGiving Funds from Little by Little Matching, coupled with an existing source, made it possible for Corals for Conservation to order a locally made fiberglass boat:

In other news:  we ran into a serious problem with boats and access to the offshore sites in our main Malolo sites.  The Resort boat we have been allowed to use for the past 2+ years has a broken engine, and so we have had to rent boats -  $250. FJD for a half day.  Therefore, we began searching for a good boat with an engine, as we had gotten 8K in the UNEP budget, and we put that with GlobalGiving Funds. Last week we ordered a locally made fiberglass boat and 60HP engine, plus canopy to shade the corals!  We will still need to fundraise for fuel, as it is so expensive now, but we are on our way to more permanent solutions!  We invite our donors to consider becoming recurring donors, and your gift will be matched after 3 months of loyalty.  As the key winter fundraising months approach, you'll already be on board!  How great is that!

Implementation of our Coral Adaptive Strategies are Yielding Valuable Data with World-wide Significance:

Much progress is being made with our cooler outer-reef stategies which can ultimately add decades to coral reef and species survival.  The richness of the entire marine ecosystem is vital--Corals for Conservation is proving that a mono-culture coral bed is not the answer.  Interest in our discoveries and practical low-cost/ high indigenous community involvement model is getting attention throughout the South Pacific.  The demand for the training sessions is very high.  While additional resources are now coming in, they are not sufficient for the increased workload and for giving stipends to marine biology graduates. Without GlobalGiving and donors like you, we would not be able to continue! 

Vinaka Vakalevu! 

Making ropes for a new nursery
Making ropes for a new nursery
August International Workshop
August International Workshop
A-frame outer reef out-planting experiments
A-frame outer reef out-planting experiments
Super coral A-frames planted to the outer reef
Super coral A-frames planted to the outer reef
The Genebank SO MUCH is ready for trimming
The Genebank SO MUCH is ready for trimming
Learning together!
Learning together!
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Two of our Fijian Coral Gardening Mermaids!
Two of our Fijian Coral Gardening Mermaids!

Mermaids and Mermen Helping our Coral Reefs:

43 Mermaids and Mermen, many indigenous South Pacific islanders, converged in Fiji for an intensive workshop led by marine scientist, Austin Bowden-Kerby, Phd and Mergeezer! 

In all seriousness, we succeeded in carrying out a coral restoration for climate change adaptation intensive workshop for 20 students on 22-28 May. Due to immense interest and requests, another is scheduled from 5-11th June for the next wave of 23 eager participants!  

It summary the total students were:  10 from the Ministry of Fisheries, one from Ministry of Youth, five youth leaders, one outer island police officer, five from local NGOs (Vatuvara Foundation, GVI, and Pacific Blue Foundation),  five from US NGOs and two from a Caribbean NGO,  four indigenous staff from resorts, two German interns, one Kiribati intern, and nine indigenous marine studies university graduates = 43 in total.

Instruction Held on Land and Sea:

The intense study took place in the classroom and on the coral reefs both, with a major achievement during the workshop being the initiation of our first coral outplanting site on the outer barrier reef system of Malolo District- the Great Sea Reef of Fiji (Cakau Levu in Fijian).  The 14 km long section of the outer reef that we are planning to begin restoration strategies on is located in clean clear, cooler waters, but it is surprisingly mostly dead, due to repeated bleaching events and the increasing numbers of cyclones. The original corals there were too heat sensitive to survive, so we are now using heat adapted bleaching resistant corals to establish restoration patchers on it.

Tabulate Coral Emergency Rescue Necessary because of Damage from Unsupervised Tourists:

Another activity on the glorious Nuku Reef, surveyed the impact of snorkel tourism businesses, which have recently begun coming to the site, after two years being closed due to the pandemic.  We surveyed a third of the reef and found 31 impacted sites, where tourists had stood on the reef and smashed the fragile table or tabulate corals. The workshop trainees collected 110 big fragments, using them to fill in outplanting frames for the new great sea reef site.  Our highly respected indigenous liaison will be part of the team compiling and sharing a report on the tragedy for the government, community, and businesses responsible.  Then discussions will be held with the community and government on setting aside this spectacular reef, with bleaching resistant corals as a no-take reserve with restrictions on unsupervised snorkeling. 

Kind regards to all our GlobalGiving supporters--loyal monthly donors, plus wonderful  browsers with giftcards, and so many others of you who recognize the difference of Corals for Conservations hands-on approach for educating native stewards. You are a vital component for both our financial planning and also our ability to respond quickly.,

 BIG thank yous go out to Plantation Island Resort for the site support, and to UNEP for helping with the funding.

German and Kiribati Interns Participate!
German and Kiribati Interns Participate!
First out-planted restoration patch on Cakau Levu.
First out-planted restoration patch on Cakau Levu.
Tabulate corals on Nuku Reef!
Tabulate corals on Nuku Reef!
Broken table corals rescued and planted to A-frame
Broken table corals rescued and planted to A-frame
Coral Gene bank Nursery
Coral Gene bank Nursery
Planting corals on the boat!
Planting corals on the boat!
Some of the group!
Some of the group!
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Organization Information

Corals for Conservation

Location: Samabula - Fiji
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Project Leader:
Austin Bowden-Kerby
Samabula , Fiji
$108,782 raised of $150,000 goal
 
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$41,218 to go
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