Monitoring of the Reforestation

28.01.2023

The detailed monitoring of coral reforestation has proven difficult. Showin nice overall growth for the initial 2-3 years you can easily be documented but capturing changes of a particular reef component turned out to be an almost impossible task.

Beautiful growth on the house reef after five and a half years

Although we mounted two fixed camera vantage points at each of 10 reforestation sites early on, after four years most were stolen (rebar is valuable), accidentally moved by careless workers, or sunk into the sand. Furthermore, the camera that originally used for monitoring broke down and little attention was paid to the different optics when purchasing a replacement. Therefore, it is difficult to make precise before and after comparisons.

Move the bar and see the change on the left of the small table

After 4-5 years, natural coral growth also becomes noticeable. The borders become blurred. This is of course desired, but especially when fast growing soft corals are present, a particular reef spot quickly becomes unrecognizable. The lesson learnt is to pay more attention to this important part of our work!

Changed camera position and optics. Note the coral marked in red at the bottom right.

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