Coralpalooza2023

A team of Great Adventures Reef Biosearch marine biologists joined the global Coralpalooza? event celebrating World Oceans Day by outplanting hundreds of coral fragments at a Green Island dive site. Coralpalooza? is the biggest international day of collaborative action for coral reefs and building resilience to climate change. For the first time, Australia has participated in the event, partnered by The Great Barrier Reef Foundation and Coral Nurture Program with the aim to assist recovery and research at high-value reef locations. Over 45 divers from tourism operators on the Great Barrier Reef in Cairns, Port Douglas and the Whitsundays participated to plant more than 6,700 coral fragments on the day. Phil Coulthard Great Adventures Reef Biosearch Manager said, "It was a very satisfying day to take part in something so important with a global impact. As Coral Nurture Program partners, we planted around 330 coral fragments at our Green Island "New York" dive site. "On a healthy reef, it's normal to have some broken coral so these "fragments of opportunity" were first collected and then attached to coral colonies using an innovative CoralClip® that allows them to be planted quickly and with good survival rates." This work is part of CNP's aim to plant more than 100,000 corals by 2024 and work with local Reef communities to develop the tools to help coral reefs adapt to climate change. Long-term monitoring is critical to the success and researchers will continue to monitor the sites to better understand the impact coral planting has on reefs and their marine life. This will help determine where and how to target efforts to assist recovery at high-value reef locations in the future.