Reefscapers During September

Reefscapers

During the month of September, a total of 23 new frames were transplanted and deployed in the waters around the island of Kuda Huraa.
At Landaa Giraavaru, 30 new frames were deployed into the lagoon, bringing the total number of frames around the island to an impressive 2,307. 370 frames were also monitored this month – cleaned, maintained and photographed. The older frames on the west side of Landaa Estate are well grown, and they are blending very well with the natural reef. More recent frames on the east side are growing very rapidly.

Frédéric Ducarme (our visiting researcher) was keen to investigate the growth of coral biomass over time, and we have been analysing his data from a total of 158 small-sized frames. Interestingly, we can see that coral biomass increases quickly and exponentially, with the average frame carrying 5kg of corals after 2 years, 10kg after 3 years and 15kg after 4 years.

School Visit – Maalhos

On 20 September, we were pleased to welcome students from the island of Maalhos (Baa Atoll) as part of our environmental awareness programme.

The day started with a marine life presentation, highlighting the importance of the environment and why some species become endangered. We then continued to talk about pollution, waste management and sustainable fishing practices. The students then had a fun activity, transplanting coral fragments onto a large coral frame, accompanied by discussions about the importance of the natural coral reefs.

A tour of the Fish Lab proved very popular, giving the students chance to marvel at our large marine aquarium, and take a look down the microscope at the live Artemia shrimps that we use as fish food for our baby ‘Nemo’ clownfish. Finally, we showed the students around our Turtle Rehabilitation Centre, to learn about the dangers the turtles are facing out in the wild, in particular from drifting ghost fishing nets and ingesting floating plastic garbage.

World Tourism Day 2014

During a previous visit to a nearby sand bank, we had discovered a huge fishing net that had washed up onto the shore and become buried under the sand. As part of the World Tourism Day 2014 events, we gathered a team of nine courageous volunteers (our work colleagues from different resort departments) and armed ourselves with a variety of shovels and knives.

Unfortunately, the net turned out to be absolutely enormous, and much larger than we had estimated – it was only the tip of the iceberg that was poking out of the sand. But we have not given up, and will start recruiting for a return visit … watch this space!