Reef Renewal Foundation Bonaire (RRFB) has announced it is to expand its network of coral nurseries and restoration sites around Bonaire and its satellite, Klein Bonaire, thanks to funding from the Dutch Ministry and Bonaire municipal government.
After piloting a new nursery design in 2023, the Foundation has established several new nursery sites up and down the west coast of the southern Caribbean island, with more planned throughout 2024.
Coral generated in the new nurseries will join the 55,000 and more corals already planted by RRFB on Bonaire’s reefs.
In the initial months of the project, RRFB has already increased its nursery coral capacity by over 20 per cent, using corals from genetic strains that have shown resilience towards stony coral tissue loss disease (SCTLD) and recent bleaching events – part of a wider strategy to boost the genetic diversity of Bonaire’s coral populations and, in doing so, strengthen the reef.
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‘The process of expanding our nurseries will involve both branching and non-branching corals for a total of 10 species,’ said Francesca Virdis, Managing Director of RRFB ‘We’re focused on propagating species that are particularly affected by SCTLD, whose populations have become a high priority for our restoration efforts.’
Part of the expansion programme involves the installation of vertical ropes, a new type of coral nursery structure. Rope nurseries, made up of over 70 corals threaded through a single rope, are less prone to algae overgrowth and other types of biofouling.
Parent corals are never removed from the ropes, allowing for faster restocking after fragments are outplanted. RRFB has already installed rope nurseries at Oil Slick Leap, Lighthouse Point, and Angel City, and plans to establish more locations in 2024. Multiple tray nurseries have also been installed, which hold several species of boulder coral impacted by SCTLD.
Selective Breeding and Genetic Diversity Nurseries will hold ten different species of branching and non-branching corals comprised of the genotypes that have shown the highest performance and resilience to bleaching events and SCTLD after being outplanted onto the reef.
RRFB will continue to monitor the health of the new genetic strains of coral to aid further selective breeding efforts, part of the Foundation’s focus on enhancing the genetic diversity and resilience of Bonaire’s coral reefs.
For more information, or to get involved or lend support, visit www.reefrenewalbonaire.org
