Coral Reef Conservation

Another main focus of the TIC team is coral reef conservation.  Although coral reefs cover less than 0.1% of the ocean floor, they support 25% of marine life.  Corals are the building blocks of coral reefs, and provide nurseries, shelter, and habitats for an abundant number of species. Unfortunately, corals themselves are currently facing a variety of threats, such as global warming, water pollution, overfishing, mass tourism, invasive species and much more. 

The coral reefs surrounding Palau Tengah are beautiful and lively, and the more information the team has on the health and abundance of the reefs, the more prepared we are to protect them. We will be trained in the TIC team’s coral reef conservation program, which involves coral reef monitoring, coral nursery management and restoration.  The coral reef monitoring will involve conducting various scuba diving activities including fish surveys, invertebrate surveys, substrate surveys, underwater cleanups and reef mapping. 

Alberto teaching Rachael and me how to fill our own scuba tanks.

In order to conduct these surveys we must study and be able to identify 37 different genus of hard coral, 11 invertebrates and 55 species of fish.  For the past week we have been diving everyday twice a day to practice our coral, invertebrate and fish identification.  Each dive, typically ranging from 50-70 minutes in length, consists of us swimming around the reefs while our instructors point at different species at which point we  use our slates to point to the correct species. The survey only focuses on species of fish that will greatly impact the ecosystem if their abundance fluctuates, and so there are many species that we observe but don't count during our surveys. 

Along with learning all these species, we will also be learning how to participate in the underwater coral nursery from data collection to building PVC tables and coral biscuits for the fragment coral.  We will also learn how to transplant the corals, as well as cement them into the coral biscuits. Lastly, we will participate in many underwater cleanups, removing ghost fishing gear and other forms of pollution that negatively affect the coral reefs.