Raising Awareness And Helping The Coral

(via Bangkok Post, November 18, 2007) Corals are now like plants: cuttings can be grown in a nursery, then transplanted elsewhere. Transplanting coral is exactly what conservation-minded people will be doing at Phi Phi Lae on December 3 as part of the celebrations to mark the 80th birthday of His Majesty the King. Organized by the Phuket Marine Biological Center, the celebrations also include an exhibition on marine conservation, reef cleanup and rubbish collecting on the beach at Phi Phi Don, the only populated island in the Phi Phi group, off Krabi.

‘Coral reefs at Phi Phi Lae were among the worst hit by tsunami in 2004,’ Dr Nalinee Thongtham, who heads PNBC’s coral reef rehabilation programmes, said. ‘We grew tiny coral fragments in floating nurseries off Phi Phi Lae and now they are big enough to be transplanted. Volunteer divers from local diving companies will help us transplant them on December 3.

‘The advantage of growing coral fragments in nurseries and transplanting them on natural substrate is that you don’t introduce a lot of foreign matter to the sea floor. What’s more, taking small fragments causes little effect on donor colonies.’

Phi Phi Lae is a small, uninhabited island, popular with tourists because of its clear blue waters and coral reefs. ‘It’s not the first time that we are planting coral in the area to replace that destroyed by the tsunami,’ Nalinee said. ‘In October last year we transplanted 1200 fragments at Phi Phi Lae, again with help from local diving companies as well as volunteer divers from Bangkok and elsewhere.

‘Growing coral fragments in floating nurseries is part of a research programme we started two years ago. The transplanted coral that was part of that research programme is now thriving. Organizing the activities at Phi Phi Lae and Phi Phi Do n on December 3 is one way of getting the public involved in coral and reef conservation, and increasing environmental awareness.’

The PNBC will also transplant coral grown in nurseries at Panwa Bay at a later date. ‘It will be a pioneer project using a coral species that can better tolerate turbid waters and sediments,’ Nalinee said.