Happy 20th Anniversary to MCSS and ... Coral growing tanks opening!

The 26th September was the celebration of MCSS' 20 years of work from whale sharks, sea turtles, beach erosion, marine mammals, wetlands and terrapins to coral reefs ! David and the five current project leaders (Inga Petelski, Savinien Leblond, Alessia Bacchi, Vanessa Didon and Chloé Pozas-Schacre)  gave a talk remembering all the various projects undertaken by the NGO since and presenting the on-going work. This anniversary was celebrated at Le Méridien Fisherman's cove as this special day was also the opening of the first ex-situ coral nurseries in Seychelles. 

David going through 20 years of work by MCSS














Inauguration of the coral growing tanks in the presence of the Minister of the Environment, Energy and Climate change

All the MCSS current project leaders, interns and volunteers














Two coral growing tanks have been set-up next to the snorkeling kiosk. They are filled with filtered seawater and will support about 200 coral fragments in total. The water will recirculate in the system for a week to then be change. The corals have been fixed to plugs, made of equal parts of cement, fine sand and coarse sand, with epoxy putty. 

Coral fragments set-up on their plug with epoxy putty in their tank


The coral growing tanks
Ex-situ nurseries present very significant benefits. As the farming conditions can be monitored and controlled, the survivorship and growth of corals can be optimize. Water temperature is a key parameter to closely monitor as the thermal threshold of corals is around 31°, temperature at which a coral bleaching can happen. However, stress-hardening the corals by exposing them to warm temperature is a way to make corals acclimate and adapt to those temperatures, and hence increasing their resilience to climate change. 
The tanks represent very sheltered environment for corals, and to increase the number of colonies produced for outplanting very small fragments can be initially grown. 
Moreover, the corals will be presented  very closely to guests and visitors therefore we are hoping it will help us to improve the education and awareness about coral reefs preservation.  

The Microfragmentation/Fusion method to grow corals will be tested here. It's a new method pioneered by the Mote Laboratory in Florida, where they have been enable to show that by having small fragments (1-3 cm²) spaced closely (1cm) that those fagments tended to grow in 2D rather than in 3D. They
would actually spread tissue rapidly to fuse with the neighbouring fragments.
This method will be especilly usefull to obtain fragments of slow-growing massive corals faster! 

Our corals will be monitored for survivorship and self-attachment for example, and their growth will be studied with the buoyant weight.

We also launch a Coral Adoption program to allow anyone to support and sponsor our restoration efforts. An adoption costs 400RS and includes  a certificate, growth updates and the GPS location of the corals once outplanted on the reef!

A great work has been done by all the MCSS team and the maintenance crew of Le Méridien! A huge thanks to everyone!

Long life to corals and to the Coral Cove project!


Many thanks to Carolyn for the video

Comments

  1. Tanvi10 October 2017 at 06:17

    Hi Le Meridien Fisherman's Cove Project Team,

    My name is Anuj Agarwal. I'm Founder of Feedspot.

    I would like to personally congratulate you as your blog Le Meridien Fisherman's Cove Project has been selected by our panelist as one of the Top 25 Seychelles Blogs on the web.

    https://blog.feedspot.com/seychelles_blogs/

    I personally give you a high-five and want to thank you for your contribution to this world. This is the most comprehensive list of Top 25 Seychelles Blogs on the internet and I’m honored to have you as part of this!

    Also, you have the honor of displaying the badge on your blog.

    Best,
    Anuj

    ReplyDelete
  2. MCSS26 October 2017 at 03:02

    Hi Anuj,
    Thank you very much for this award and for following our work in Seychelles! The coral reefs need us!
    Best regards
    Chloé, Project Leader

    ReplyDelete

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