March 2010

Coral Mass Spawning Expedition to Madoogali

In March 2010 a small group of researchers from the NGO Reef Protection Maldives e.V launched an experiment on coral regeneration in the North-Ari Atoll on the island of Madoogali. Their objective was to demonstrate that coral regeneration could be supported efficiently by inoculating planulae on damaged reefs. The experiment was scheduled to take place during the mass-spawning period in order to benefit from the high gametes production combined with the use of non-invasive inoculation techniques. Gametes were collected during mass spawning and kept in facilities in-situ until free-swimming planulae had developed. Following which they were reintroduced onto the reef on marked test sites. A long term monitoring should take place to confirm the success rate of the inoculation methodology and stepwise enable its implementation on a larger scale.

read the full report here.