As much as I love the ocean, this was actually my first time volunteering for anything to help our oceans and I was super stoked!
My friend asked me one day: ‘Hey do you wanna go volunteer with Coral Restoration Foundation and replant corals for a weekend in Key Largo, Florida?’
Me: What?! Replanting corals? Like you would replant trees in a forest?
Friend: ‘Yes! Exactly like that, except we will be around 30ft under water and in our scuba gear of course.’ I thought to myself, sounds interesting enough. I had never done anything like it before so why not? I signed up for the event, known as Coralpalooza, before the end of the day. Boy was I in for treat…

There are various ‘sister’ projects happening in the Caribbean in Bonaire, St. Croix and Dominican Republic. Coralpallooza is the big annual event that happens every year on World Oceans Day; when hundreds of volunteers are brought together to help with the out planting and/or cleaning of the underwater nurseries. This is all organized by the incredible team at Coral Restoration Foundation.

We arrived Friday afternoon, checked into our hotel, the Key Largo Bay Marriot Beach Resort (thank God my friend gets Marriott discounts and was able to book us a room ’cause ALL the Airbnb’s in the area were kind of shitty and still pricey) We dropped our bags in the room and headed straight to our orientation and training session a few minutes down the road at the Murray Nelson Culture Center.

We watched a brief presentation and were given some alarming statistics. Did you know if we don’t intervene now, 90%, yes NINETY, of coral reefs world wide will die out by 2050. Why is this a big deal? Because coral reefs are incredibly important underwater ecosystems where a plethora of fish species live; many species spawn; and it can be a safe haven for juvenile fish while they grow mature enough to mate. If our coral reefs are gone it will directly impact various fish populations, including the bigger ones that feed off the little guys. Including us, because fish is a huge part of many coastal cultures’ diet and sometimes the only source of protein for a people.

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Ok, so the good news is, The Coral Restoration Foundation has a 75%-80% success rate with all of the corals they plant, which is a fantastic number! It means at least 75% of the little coral fragments replanted actually continue to grow and replenish the reef. HOPE!

After the presentation, we were given a demo on how to replant. You pick up a coral fragment and the goal is to glue it down by attaching 3 points (ends of the coral) on the reef. We knead pieces of a synthetic proxy (looks like chewed gum) that adheres the coral piece to the reef. We were taught how to chisel away at the reef first just enough to get the ‘white’ part, aka limestone exposed, before adhering the coral plant. Before we move on to the next one we do a quick hand waving motion to make sure the coral is firmly stuck to the reef and won’t swim away with the sea current. Seemed easy enough.

Different story when you’re actually 30ft under water and the waves are crashing right above you; making you sway back and forth with the water motion even 30ft under it. That’s the power of the ocean for you. Yeah, try chiseling away at a reef to get to the limestone while swaying back and forth 1 -2 Ft sideways with the oceans movement. Not as easy. You’re also trying to stay put and hold your self in place by barely touching the reef with one finger so not to cause harm to the reef. And then you end up brushing up against some firecoral! Oh you don’t know what that is? Let me tell you. It’s like the poison ivy of the underwater world. Like being stung by a fucking jelly fish but all you did was lightly brush up against some pretty coral on the ocean floor. Yup. My hand stung and burned for a good 15 minutes while under water. And I barely touched it! So if you’re ever scuba diving or just snorkeling, don’t ever touch the pretty corals and sponges. Fire coral looks pretty similar to regular ones.

Stag horn and Alhorn corals are the hard substrate that form and become coral reefs, where sponges and other species grow. The coral fragments we used for planting are harvested in underwater nurseries in Key Largo Florida and these nurseries are 4 acres in size! Some of the volunteers had the task of cleaning the nurseries. A ‘tree skeleton’ is built from PVC pipe and from the branches, little tiny coral fragments are hung by filament. Once they grow to a certain length they can be harvested and taken out for planting onto the reefs. This is the largest ocean restoration project in the world and I’m lucky and blessed that it’s happening right here in my backyard.

At the end of the days dives, CRF throws a big thank you dinner to all the volunteers, and it’s a great time to share stories and spread the joy of conservation!

CORALPALOOZA Project In Numbers:

With help from our International partners in Bonaire, St. Croix and Dominican Republic and everyone here in Florida the final results were:

480 divers and 15 dive operators
1,079: out planted corals back onto reefs! Now these fragments will help kick-start the natural processes of recovery.
136: Coral tree structures cleaned.
1,383: vital data collected on established out plants.
3,594 hours overall

Organization: CRF- Coral Restoration Foundation
Dive site: Dry Rocks, Key Largo (where we were) But other groups were in Key West and Mote Marine Lab & Rescue a Reef.

These numbers are incredible right?! Successful underwater mission calls for celebratory drinks on land!

DID YOU KNOW?
You don’t have to wait for the next Coralpalooza in June. You can come down to the Florida Keys and volunteer all year round to help the Coral Restoration Foundation actively restore our coral reefs. Visit: www.coralrestoration.org

Hope to see you in June 2019!