Coral planting

Today we planted coral fragments that had been growing in the nursery for the past year.  These are the fragments that last year's class prepared for the nursery. 

The first order of business was to take our underwater class photo.  I just snapped a quick picture as we were staging the group.  The official final photo was taken by Andrew with his high-end photo gear.

After the class photo, the students planted coral fragments into a dead staghorn coral reef.  Much of this reef is still very stable, although dead. By cable-tying the new fragments onto dead staghorn coral, we are able to give the reef the opportunity to become re-established.

Here is Dom attaching a fragment to a piece of dead staghorn.

It is critical that students have good buoyancy skills because they must stay off the reef when planting. Maria's excellent technique keeps her from touching the reef with her body or fins. We have been honing our buoyancy skills with a series of dives leading up to today.

Here is a newly attached piece of live staghorn coral.  We saw fragments that last year's class planted in this same reef and they're growing an doing very well.

I just can't resist taking photos of anemonefish (=clownfish) in the anemones.  They're so photogenic.