eco
Coral Restoration Foundation Announces New Curaçao Nursery
The new coral nursery taking shape in Jan Thiel Bay (Photo: CRFC)
The Coral Restoration Foundation Curaçao (CRFC) has announced the latest coral nursery to be installed on the island.
The non-profit CRFC was set up in 2015 to restore the shallow-water coral reef systems in Curaçao and provide education within the local community education as to the importance of coral reefs in the world's oceans. The new nursery, which consists of six coral trees, has been installed at Dive Center Scuba Do's house reef, located in Jan Thiel Bay.
The new nursery will hold 360 coral fragments in optimum conditions for the polyps to grow and mature. The dive centre staff, together with members of the CRFC will maintain the fragments as they grow, before transplanting them back into the main reefs surrounding the nursery. To date, CRFC has 'out-planted' over 7300 corals in seven different locations, with the help of more than 150 volunteers.
One of the CRFC team members fixing a coral fragment to one of the nursery frames (Photo: CRFC)
'We are really excited that Dive Center Scuba Do has embraced coral restoration and is now investing in the valuable work we’re doing,' said Katie Leeper, CRFC Coordinator. 'Not only are we able to increase the amount of corals that are being restored back to the reef, but we are also able to educate more tourists and members of the public about the benefit of healthy coral reef systems.'
'As a responsible dive operator here on Curaçao, I believe it is critical that we re-invest in our natural resources to ensure a sustainable outcome for future generations,' said Jan Geerings, Managing Director of Dive Center Scuba Do. 'We are incredibly grateful to have access to such unbelievable biodiversity today here on Curaçao, but to assume that without care and attention that our environment can sustain itself would be naïve. We must do our very best every day to restore what we as humans have damaged or even destroyed over the years.'
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