The performance of coral nursery with rope tree techniques in the moderate sea current environment: Morotai pilot project

Abstract

Abstract Acknowledged as the famous destination for shark diving tourism, Morotai waters poses increasing coral reef degradation risk in recent years. Coral restoration program is needed to battle the decreasing coral cover in this waters. Instead of garnering the fragment directly from healthy coral reef habitat, which is potentially damaging the healthy coral reef, a coral nursery can be proposed as an alternative method to maintain the pristine environment of coral reef habitat in Morotai waters with future coral restoration programs. Coral rope tree nursery has proven to be effective at achieving growth speed compared to other coral nursery methods as well as high performance to withstand moderate current risk. Performance of a pilot project of coral tree rope nursery in Morotai waters has been studied for more than five months and it shows as promising method for future massive nursery.