fulhadhoo coral relocation and RESTORATION PROJECTS
The passive and active coral restoration project in Baa Fulhadhoo began in 2020, thanks to Maldives Coral Institute (MCI) for initiating the project together with MARS Global, The island council, and the Island luxury hotel including the island community.
The aim was to develop a community-based project to initiate and implement the coral restoration activities on the Island.
Goifulhafehendhoo is an atoll geographically secluded with few islands and Baa Fulhadhoo is one of them. The size of the corals around the Island indicates that the reef has survived multiple bleaching events and repetitive exposure to the sun during the low tides. This points out that these corals have adapted and have a high resilience to thermal stress. Due to climate change and human impact, coral reefs are severely threatened by loss and degradation.
We believe that the corals at Fulhadhoo can act as a seed source to repopulate the degraded reefs around Maldives.
During the initial surveys, before the harbour construction, we noticed a high diversity of corals with more than a hundred species within the island's lagoon. When the harbour construction started, the reef was engulfed with sediment. A combination of sediment and an increase in temperature due to the disruption of the water flow caused direct destruction and coral loss.
First, we gathered the island community to explain the impacts of harbour construction on the reef if proper mitigation measures are not taken. Then we showed them which measures can be taken to minimize the damage, which are the coral-friendly coastal development methods and what we can do to save the corals.
Together with the island community, we managed to make a 100m long silt screen to protect the corals from sedimentation and we moved more than 5000 corals from the harbour construction zone to a safer area. Until the Covid-19 lockdown, we kept monitoring and relocating corals, during the lockdown, the silt screen broke and many corals died in the area.
Even if lots of corals got damaged during the harbour construction, together with the Maldives Coral Institute and Mars Sustainable Solution we implemented the coral restoration project. The methodology adopted is called the “Mars-assisted restoration system (MARS)” - a low-technology, community-based restoration system that is capable of rapidly rebuilding reefs in a relatively short period.
We have successfully attached corals on a 300 sqm area in two phases. The trained team members of MCI will be monitoring the corals at Baa Fulhadhoo. The studies that we are carrying out are about: coral resilience and growth, coral identification and fish abundance and biodiversity. Also, we placed microphones to record the reef sounds and Hobos to monitor the water temperature and light intensity.
