Can Coral Nurseries Bring Reefs Back from the Brink? [Slide Show]
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PATCH OF ORANGE IN A SEA OF BLUE: A researcher checks on a coral nursery in Zanzibar. Shai Shafir
TENDING THE NURSERY: Miguel Angel-Garcia from the Veracruz Aquarium takes photos of the corals in the aquarium. Later, he can run them through a special program that will analyze their health. Erik Vance
FLOURISHING CLONES: If not removed quickly enough, corals can quickly colonize an entire nursery. Because they are clones of one another, that means they can even fuse into one colony. Oceanus
BACK TO THE WILD: "Replanting" corals involves drilling into rock or dead reef. Whereas most have flourished, at least one of the replaced corals was later stolen by black market collectors. Oceanus
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REGROWTH: Nava shows off a growing colony of elkhorn coral, while Miguel Angel-Garcia from the Veracruz Aquarium looks on. Erik Vance
DEDICATED LOCALS: Nava and Miguel Roman Vives [foreground] founded Oceanus, which created Mexico's first coral nursery in 2007. Many say that buy-in from local communities for coral nurseries is crucial to their ongoing success. Erik Vance
LONELY PIONEER: A solitary Acropora colony stands with Veracruz in the background. Pollution and development are the main factors driving the rapid disappearance of reefs in the region. Erik Vance
CORAL WASTELAND Dead coral surrounding a beacon meant to warn ships off of the reef in Veracruz. Erik Vance:
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TIED TO THE NURSERY: Gaby Nava of the NGO Oceanus describes how the coral fragments are placed in a plastic socket on the nursery to grow. The group has also experimented with reused soda bottles. Erik Vance
REEFS HIT HARD: The city of Veracruz as seen from a hulking shipwreck from the 1990s. Neither the U.S. nor Mexico has any laws requiring negligent shipping companies to replace reefs destroyed by ship strikes. Erik Vance
ROCK CANDY: Baruch Rinkevich and many other aquaculturists have begun favoring "rope nurseries" that grow quickly without interference from sediment or ground-based pests and can easily be pulled out. Gideon Levy
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