Page 12 - aruba-today-20220628

A12 SCIENCE
Tuesday 28 June 2022

To combat coral bleaching, Kenya

turns to reef nurseries

well as ripple effects from
the war in Ukraine. In early
March, the Intergovern-
mental Panel on Climate
Change issued a dire warn-
ing on the threats faced by
African coastal and island
nations and a complete
collapse of corals in the
western Indian Ocean.
The Wasini Island coral ini-
tiative is one among many
dotted across the Africa's
western shores, after a se-
ries of severe coral bleach-
Coral reef restoration ranger Yatin Patel measures an artificial ing bouts due to warming
reef structure in the Indian Ocean near Shimoni, Kenya on Mon- ocean waters. After a par-
day, June 13, 2022. ticularly devastating year
Associated Press in 1998, due in large part to
the natural weather phe-
WASINI, Kenya (AP) — Min- structures in the channel in nomenon El Nino, huge
utes away from the Kenyan a bid to restore Wasini's cor- stretches of the Indian
mainland, the densely for- al gardens. But the project Ocean's corals — from So-
ested island of Wasini is one is threatened by growing malia to the South Africa —
of several starting lines for costs and a planned fishing were badly affected.
coral reef restoration ef- port in Shimoni, a mere 3 Coral bleaching occurs
forts in the western Indian kilometers (1.9 miles) away when extreme tempera-
Ocean. On a rare calm day on Kenya's coast. tures and sun glare simul-
during the normally turbu- The United Nation's Ocean taneously trigger corals to
lent monsoon season, four Conference, which begins flush out algae, causing
divers, carrying measur- Monday in Lisbon, Portu- them to turn white. Cor-
ing equipment, shoes and gal, is set to put protec- als can survive bleach-
toothbrushes descended tion and restoration efforts ing events, but are under
in turns to the sea-bed reef for coral reefs back on the greater stress and can't
restoration site on the Shi- agenda. Small island states effectively support marine
moni channel. and coastal African na- life, threatening the popu-
"We use coral fragments tions will be following up lations that depend on
collected from wild pop- on access to "blue financ- them. Tim McClanahan, a
ulations to establish the ing" mechanisms, includ- senior conservation zoolo-
nurseries," said diver Yatin ing a $625 billion coral reef gist at the Wildlife Conser-
Patel, before slipping into funding scheme aimed at vation Society said that
the turquoise waters. "Af- protection and restoration 1998 wasn't the first such
ter growing, they're taken efforts as well as cushioning event — there was one
to the coral garden." Patel communities who rely on in 1983, and since then
and his team, who are part oceans for their livelihoods. there have been three in
of the REEFolution founda- Previous commitments to the past two decades, in
tion, clean the coral nurser- reef restoration by the Eu- 2005, 2010 and 2016. The
ies and measure the sizes of ropean Union and coral prevalence of mass coral
the growing corals, which reef insurance will also be bleaching along the west-
are supported by plastic discussed. ern Indian Ocean has wor-
pipes and pyramid struc- The threat of waning fish ried scientists for decades
tured steel nets. populations due to dying and intensive studies to
The marine area, jointly corals adds to the woes understand and map out
managed by the founda- of east African communi- interventions to curb the
tion and the island's com- ties, millions of whom are phenomena are ongoing.
munity, has been planting already facing a worsen- Many of these bleaching
over 8,000 corals a year ing food crisis because of events are directly linked to
since 2012 and placed a prolonged drought in the climate change, McClana-
about 800 artificial reef east and Horn of Africa, as han said. The Wasini coral
restoration project followed
in the footsteps of Nature
Seychelles, a conservation
non-governmental organi-
zation in the Seychelles ar-
chipelago which initiated
the western Indian Ocean's
first coral replanting exer-
cise in the same year and is
still ongoing over a decade
later.q