Fight against dying

Vietnam: tourists “plant” corals themselves

Tourists in Vietnam can actively do something about coral extinction themselves.(Bild: APA/AFP/Lillian SUWANRUMPHA)

The warming of the oceans, their acidification and pollution are now threatening the existence of coral reefs in more than 60 countries around the world. In some places, the number of tourists has to be restricted so that the small cnidarians can recover a little. But now tourists can actively contribute to saving the marine animals. In Vietnam, vacationers can "plant" corals themselves.

Normally, it is visitors from all over the world who contribute to the destruction of the sensitive flowering animals by kicking them with their diving fins or touching them in other careless ways. The Villa Le Corail Gran Meliá hotel in the popular vacation resort of Nha Trang in the south of Vietnam, however, has joined forces with the expert company Avatar to launch an initiative that seeks to combine environmentally conscious tourism and constructive marine conservation. 

In Nha Trang, a typhoon in 2017 as well as pollution, overfishing and the crown-of-thorns starfish, which feeds on stony corals, have severely damaged the reefs. Avatar uses two methods to grow corals: Racks that tourists can "plant" themselves and then place in the sea under the guidance of divers, or an underwater rearing station with strings on which fragments of particularly resistant and fast-growing coral species can thrive.

In addition to the resistant Acropora muricata, the company also works with stony coral species such as Porites rus with its many thin branches. If the fragments are strong enough, they are "transplanted" onto artificial reefs made of concrete. Snorkelers can already see the fruits of their labor just one year after the start of the project.

Off the coast of Vietnam, diving to the coral reefs has already been banned in some places.(Bild: APA/AFP/Quang DUC)

Other revitalization projects
But there are also revitalization projects elsewhere, such as in Vietnam. In the Caribbean and Pacific, for example, Briton Jason deCaires Taylor has been placing hundreds of sculptures made from environmentally friendly materials on the seabed since 2006, which will develop into artificial coral reefs over time.

Crossbreeding in Californian museum
At the Natural History Museum in San Francisco, corals are made to spawn simultaneously in an aquarium facility. Employees then mix eggs and sperm from different colonies in order to crossbreed them. In the Bahamas, the Coral Vita coral farm uses microfragmentation technology to grow corals particularly quickly - up to 50 times faster than in nature.