After all the festive excitement last month, New Year started with a bang, quite literally! A beautiful display of midnight fireworks to celebrate putting 2021 to bed and to hopefully welcome in a COVID-free year. It was a wonderful evening.
Understandably, the next day started a little slowly, but we worked hard taking care of our resident juvenile green turtles and took guests on a New Year’s Day dolphin cruise that went very successfully as we sighted lots of dolphins out to play. The festive period was rather crazy, and now things are starting to quieten down we are refocusing on our marine projects.
Happy New Year 2022, everyone! 🥳🎉
This month, we tackled our much anticipated and much needed coral frame relocation project. Many of our coral frames that sat under the Water Villa boardwalk, attracting beautiful fish, were at risk of being submerged by shifting sands, potentially killing the corals. And so we needed a speedy plan… relocation to the house reef.
Everyone rallied together: boat captains, Resort volunteers, and Aku our colleague from Landaa. Over the course of three days, we managed to successfully relocate 250 well-established (and HEAVY!) coral frames. A few grumpy fish complained about the move, but their new home is now much safer, away from the incoming sand. A few frames were left behind to maintain biodiversity, but these will be diligently monitored. Fingers crossed!
Our coral frames attract many fish species, and become home to a wide variety of marine life
The next few days left us with very little R&R as we prepared to release our juvenile green turtles; Taz and Speedy were finally ready to enter the big wide ocean and start their new life as wild sea turtles. The day was met with very mixed emotions, and I’m not embarrassed to admit that I did shed a tear or two. They were going to their natural home, and yet they were leaving our care and attention. They would no longer make me smile each morning, with their silly baby turtle antics and their beautiful faces breaching the surface to take a breath.
Taz and Speedy are safely wrapped up and ready to go!
The turtle release day was a success, with many people coming to wish them a bon voyage, and the two turtles swam away into the metaphorical sunset (it was actually mid-morning).
The days have continued with regular dolphin cruises, guest presentations, and snorkel safaris. The monitoring of our Reefscapers coral frames has resumed, and things are going back to normal again after the busy peak season period.
Following the successful rescue of our vulnerable coral frames from the Water Villas site, we knew the project work was not yet complete. After relocating the frames to a better site near the House Reef, we then needed to rearrange, repair and map them at their new locations.
Over several trips, we took out the kayaks and paddled to the House Reef. With 249 frames to organise, we attempted to create some form of order by arranging them in rows (to easily see their ID tags and monitor the coral health). As a result, we’ve created a new guest snorkelling feature, an underwater pathway through coral gardens, to inspire people to sponsor their very own coral frame to help protect the coral reefs.
See you in Chapter 3
Laura 💙
Coral reef rescue! We are loading the ‘at risk’ coral frames onto our ‘whaler’ boat. In the background is the encroaching sand that moves around the island with the seasonal ocean currents. More details & photos in our Reefscapers Diary for January 2022.
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