[Coral-List] coral replanting?

[Rhyne, Andrew]

We published a paper on this topic a few years ago. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1755-263X.2012.00265.x/abstract

Dr. Liz Wood also published a paper looking at the trade and changes in the trade. http://www.icrs2012.com/proceedings/manuscripts/ICRS2012_19C_1.pdf


Some quick background.

Indonesia has large scale commercial coral farms that are operating around the country. Most of them are in ports that have easy access to airports and major hubs.  I have visited several of these sites and there are upwards of 50,000 corals on a farm.  The production is true mariculture operations, where parental stock is used to make colonies and colonies are exported.  Many of the operations maintain specific lines of corals that are multigenerational. I know of some larger operations as well, on the order of 100,000s or more at one site.  The coral farmers are required to ‘out plant’ 10% of their annual production, Indonesian law.  They have an auditing system.  Comments from commercial operations I have visited and during the two NOAA funded coral mariculture workshops in Bali that I attended, was a concern from the farmers with regard to out planting and making sure they were not just wasting the corals.


Regarding the coral farms impact, they are large operations that are far larger than anything I have seen in other countries. It is industrial scale production.   Indonesia is pushing to have a 100% of their coral exports be from mariculture sources. This will take time but many species are already at that level or close.

The restoration efforts are not something I can comment on, I don’t have enough background. I do know that if a country wanted to, the fragmentation technology is there to plant as many coral colonies as one wished to plant..  Indonesia could easily plant millions of colonies a year if they wished to do so. My guess is the real work is really on the after out planting part.


I have spoken to several of the farm workers, many of them were ex-cyanide or bomb fisherman.  The owners of these coral farms have invested heavily into this type of production and are quite proud of their efforts.  I’m sure they would be willing to speak to you in detail.



Andrew L. Rhyne, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Department of Biology and Marine Biology
Roger Williams University
One Old Ferry Road
Bristol, RI 02809
arhyne at rwu.edu<mailto:arhyne at rwu.edu>

Research Scientist
Prescott Marine Research Lab
New England Aquarium
One Central Wharf
Boston, MA 02110

On Aug 21, 2015, at 12:22 PM, Michael Tlusty <mtlusty at neaq.org<mailto:mtlusty at neaq.org>> wrote:

Date: Fri, 21 Aug 2015 10:19:46 +0100
From: johnny langenheim <johnnylangenheim at gmail.com<mailto:johnnylangenheim at gmail.com>>
Subject: [Coral-List] Help For Indonesia Marine Policies Guardian
                article - coral planting campaign
To: coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov<mailto:coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov>
Message-ID:
                <CAGOxCSKioF5F0YFCiRV7LOh7HZJDWX7u0uhUzCYGTo_z1cnG9g at mail.gmail.com<mailto:CAGOxCSKioF5F0YFCiRV7LOh7HZJDWX7u0uhUzCYGTo_z1cnG9g at mail.gmail.com>>
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Dear listers,

I'm a journalist and producer currently managing the Coral Triangle <http://thecoraltriangle.com/>website and writing a Coral Triangle themed blog for the Guardian <http://www.theguardian.com/environment/the-coral-triangle>
...

I'm writing about Indonesia's marine policies - enforcement, coral planting etc. for a new article - and wondered if anyone could comment on the recent 'Save Our Littoral Life' campaign which involves the Indonesian navy and other participants planting, I quote 'one million coral reefs.'

I have a few questions about the campaign and its efficacy. Where are these corals being sourced? How effective is coral planting in regenerating damaged reefs and depleted fisheries?

Minister Susi Pudjiastuti has been making some big moves and many that are very positive - but I'd like to get an expert view on how this impacts ecosystems and livelihoods.

Hope you guys can help!


Johnny