Over 50,000 corals raised in nurseries after 10 years of work by Nature Seychelles

(Seychelles News Agency) - After 10 years of coral restoration, Nature Seychelles has raised over 50,000 corals in its underwater nurseries.

 

New corals have been planted on more than 5,000 square metres of degraded reef within the marine reserve of Cousin Island Special Reserve.

 

The chief executive of Nature Seychelles, Nirmal Shah, said it was "extremely challenging at the beginning, this being the first wide-scale project of its kind in the world."

 

He said that there was a lack of local capacity specifically for reef restoration and some equipment required for the project couldn't be sourced locally, a costly and time-consuming endeavour.

 

In recent decades, global warming has had very significant detrimental impacts on coral reefs due to rising sea temperatures. This has left coral colonies bleached and subsequently vulnerable to a range of diseases and death.