The Coastal Community Saving Their Coral Reefs

We know fantastic community work is going on all across the globe in various shapes and sizes, from beach cleans to plastic free towns to volunteer marine wildlife rescue operations. Yet small communities in Kenya are now taking this to the next level as they actively recreate the rainbow of coral reefs which fringe their paradise white sand beaches. By growing small underwater gardens of coral, coastal communities hope to minimise the adverse effects a loss of coral would have on both their livelihoods and future generations.

Did you know that coral reefs are the most threatened ecosystem on the planet? We so often hear about the loss of ice sheets and tropical rainforests but forget what is just under the surface of the waves. In Kenya, the reef is hard to forget as it provides families with fish for supper, income from tourism and fishing and these delicate branches even protect coastal towns from the ferocious waves which accompany the tropical cyclones which sweep into the area. For many families, living at one with the ocean has been a way of life for centuries, yet these traditional maritime ties are being threatened by climate change, overfishing and pollution. Several decades ago, local fishermen used only simple traditional fishing gear and avoided reefs which were considered ‘tengefu’ or set aside which meant they were automatically protected. However, as populations grew, dynamite fishing became popular and fish stocks dwindled, corals have been opened up to fishermen as they provide a rich and diverse bounty. Yet the reefs are struggling even without a loss of species. In 2015 due to unusually high temperatures, Kenyan reefs experienced a large scale coral bleaching event which completely destroyed massive patches of the reef as corals became ghostly white and fell ill from a lack of nutrients. Without the corals providing food and shelter, fish populations declined even further. Corals can naturally recover from bleaching, with the average bleaching event occurring every 27 years. However, in today’s world filled with greenhouse gas emissions, bleaching is occurring on average every six years and our reefs simply cannot recover fast enough.

Scientists have come to the conclusion that human intervention is essential if we want to save the coral reefs, a slightly ironic decision considering it was our actions that got us into this mess. Nevertheless, as corals unselfishly provide storm protection, food, potential medicines and a natural wonder almost all of us wish to explore, it seems vital that we try to reverse our negative actions. In Kenya, this decision to protect the reefs started in 2012 where the local marine and fisheries institute started working with local people to rehabilitate the struggling seabed. On Wasini Island, local fishermen, shell collectors, boatbuilders and hotel managers took the time to get involved in the coral restoration programme in order to protect their homes, food sources and incomes.

These restoration programmes essentially involve underwater gardening, a very relaxing sounding pastime I’m sure many of us wish we could take up. Stray branches of coral are collected from the seafloor and often these pieces have been knocked from the reef by boats, large trawling nets or feisty waves. These corals are then either fixed onto a metal mesh platform or hung from washing line type structures to grow in their own underwater nursery. Often these areas of ocean are free from pollution, strong waves and boat traffic to give corals the best chance of survival. Once the corals have grown, local Kenyans transplant them onto large rock boulders and transfer them to the original reef. These transplanted corals have a 75% chance of surviving back in the open ocean and in Wasini Island, the results have been particularly astonishing. Since the project began, over 3,000 corals have been grown with large species such as grouper, lobster and octopus returning to reside in the area as reefs have taken off at an extraordinarily fast rate, growing over four centimetres a year. All their hard work has been rewarded with a bustling reef in the marine protected area which is seeing eco-tourists queue up with snorkels in hand whilst the renewed abundance of fish is spilling over into the surrounding ocean making fishing a viable livelihood once more. To see the colourful handplanted reef, tourists are charged only £3.80 and this goes back into the restoration scheme. So on your next holiday, instead of grumbling about the tourist taxes, be grateful that local communities are working so hard to protect the ecosystems we dream of exploring.

Locals haven’t stopped at corals either as they now plant small bags of seedlings in the seabed to help expand the seagrass forest. This lush green jungle was quickly destroyed by hungry sea urchins after fishermen overexploited trigger fish, the urchins’ predator. This extra step has really boosted the success of the new reef as the seagrass provides safe shelter for young fish to grow until they are mature enough to move onto the increasingly crowded reef.

This is not the only area focussing on coral restoration with some countries even growing harvested corals in laboratories to speed up the process. The farming occurring in labs is also more calculated and scientific with heat resistant corals from the Red Sea often being cultivated to produce resilient corals which can survive warming sea temperatures. Under climate change, the level of carbon dioxide in the ocean will also rise and so scientists are now venturing to the ocean’s hidden volcanic vents where the local reefs are frequently blasted with a high hit of carbon dioxide. It is hoped that by cross breeding these tough corals which are resistant to both heat and carbon dioxide, we will be able to find species which can survive all that humans have to throw at them. A few decades ago, researchers never expected to find corals surviving in such extreme conditions and this can give us hope for the future as we continue to discover plucky little gnarled branches living in the places we least expect them to. It seems the more we explore the ocean, the more hidden wonders and mysteries we unveil, giving us all the more reason to protect our blue planet.

Yet with so many unknowns surrounding the ocean, it also means we cannot just sit back and hope that everything will be alright. The ocean and all the life it holds could be on the verge of an irreversible tipping point and so more positive actions, such as those in Kenya, are needed. If you are lucky enough to live near a coastline jewelled with corals, then recreational divers can quite easily gain the skills needed to help grow the corals of the future. Any divers on a future holiday may be able to get involved with a charity and help collect stray branches or fix newly grown corals onto millennia old reefs in a vacation to remember. Even those of us who simply enjoy a quiet walk on the sand can get involved in community projects which target anything from plastic pollution to nesting turtles. All these challenges impacting our ocean link together to influence the sea’s future health, so any action, of any size, is a positive one. With community projects forming a major part of the solution to the environment’s woes, why not sign yourself up with a group or rally the troops to form your very own local ocean rescue team.

By Neve McCracken-Heywood