Above: the newest coral nursery in Bonaire
By the Caribbean Journal staff
The threats facing coral reefs in the Caribbean are not new — neither is the reality of their dwindling numbers.
But one island is doing something to save them: by growing new coral.
Through its Coral Restoration Foundation, Bonaire has been growing new reefs by planting more than 3,000 corals in five different restoration sites across the island.
And last month, the foundation installed a fifth coral nursery, with five new coral trees placed at shallow depths in front of the Harbour Village resort.
The new nursery has the capacity of producing approximately 500 Staghorn and Elkhorn corals on a yearly basis.
Newly harvest corals from the nursery will then be transplanted to the degraded parts of the reefs on Bonaire.
It’s a small but strong step toward what could become a far larger movement in the Caribbean.