CORAL FARMING | METHOD | BUY A CORAL SAVE A REEF

METHOD

Mother corals are first established in the coral farms, by trimming sections off of wild corals. Where possible, entire colonies are selected from populations of jeopardized corals, such as where the corals are growing so close together that competition for space amongst the corals is resulting in corals dying, or where corals are exposed out of the water at low tide. Another source of mother corals comes from corals broken by fishing activities, anchors, and storm waves.

After growing the mother corals for about two years, the corals reach the size of a large dinner plate. At that point, the mother corals are trimmed to produce numerous 1-2 inch (2-5cm) “seed corals”, which are in turn planted onto 4cm concrete disks or “coral cookies”, each shaped like a button, with two small holes for threading fishing line. These cookies are woven into heavy metal frames with heavy line and placed on underwater tables made of iron bars. The corals are left to grow in the coral farms for 6 to 14 months. These second-generation corals are either replanted into restoration sites, onto coral castles, or harvested, bleached and coloured with acrylic paints to re-establish a more realistic coral colour.