It Takes A Village

West Hawai'i Joins Forces to Rescue and Reattach Hundreds of Coral Colonies

For over a decade, coral larvae found themselves recruiting and growing on a kanpachi fish pen ring, located within an aquaculture production area of Blue Ocean Mariculture just outside of Makako Bay. In November, a DAR-led coral rescue project brought together all Hawai'i Island coral restoration partners (Division of Aquatic Resources, Arizona State University, and The Nature Conservancy) in Honokōhau Harbor with a massive task at hand, to rescue and reattach these colonies onto our reefs.

Over the course of this operation, the teams worked together on one of the largest mature colony collections ever seen in Hawai’i. Thousands of colonies were found, primarily Pocillopora meandrina (cauliflower coral), Pocillopora grandis (antler coral), and Porites lobata (lobe coral). These colonies had been growing since 2013, making this an extremely valuable opportunity to witness the result of 11 years of natural coral growth from larval settlement. About 300 large, healthy colonies were relocated to the ‘Āko’ako’a Coral Nursery Facility at NELHA where they will be utilized for future research and propagation led by the ‘Āko’ako’a team on site. This includes stress testing using state-of-the-art technology, coral larvae reproduction, and fragmentation to promote new growth.

The teams used chisels and hammers to chip corals off of the metal fish pen ring at their bases. They were then placed on the seafloor below the pen before being loaded into baskets and brought on board the research vessel. On board, they were safely packaged to be transported to the nursery about 8 miles north of the harbor or to an offshore reef “cache site” in preparation for outplanting on the reef. “Individuals from all three organizations put an immense amount of effort into the rescue, recovery, and transport of these corals. Everyone was able to work on the fly and change methods based on their observations.” said Zachary Craig, Division of Aquatic Resources coral restoration coordinator for Hawai‘i Island.

Two weeks later, the restoration teams used a cement mixture and a marine epoxy to reattach the coral colonies to an area of reef close to where the fish pens were kept. “Joint efforts like this one allow us to refine our methods based on what we have learned in the field and to have a much larger impact than any one restoration group alone.” said ‘Āko‘ako‘a restoration scientist, Dr. Grace Klinges. These corals will quickly grow new tissue over the attachment cement to make the attachment even stronger. The area of reef selected has high flow, which will stimulate growth in these branching coral species that prefer areas with high wave energy. “Rescue and reattachment efforts such as this one are so important- not only would these corals die if left on the structure, but also large colonies like the ones we rescued are able to produce the next generations of corals.” said Klinges.