Pillar Coral Restoration with The Perry Institute for Marine Science

DISCOVERY Yacht Awatea
Exumas, Bahamas
September 15-22, 2024

Program Overview

From September 15-22, 2024, SeaKeepers assisted The Perry Institute for Marine Science (PIMS) on a pillar coral expedition in the Exumas, Bahamas. Onboard DISCOVERY Yacht Awatea, the PIMS team sampled corals from over a dozen reefs, with samples spanning over 80 genotypes. These coral fragments were epoxied to tiles and then transferred to nurseries in the Bahamas.

Application

The coral fragments transferred to the nursery will be allowed to grow for several years. The stony calcium carbonate coral skeletons will adhere to the epoxy and over time, will grow along with the soft tissues of the coral. The corals in these nurseries offer a unique opportunity to catalogue and preserve the genetic diversity of Bahamian corals and restore local reefs when the fragments are large enough to be outplanted.

Expedition Summary

This expedition was extremely successful in its goal. Genetically-diverse coral fragments from a large distribution of reefs in the Exumas were transferred to nurseries at 55 feet of depth near Nassau.