Singapore launches most extensive coral restoration effort with planting of 100,000 corals this year

 

 

  

The plan was first announced by the Minister for National Development and Minister-in-charge of Social Services Integration Desmond Lee during the 5th Asia-Pacific Coral Reef Symposium last year.

As part of the initiative, a new coral culture facility will also be established at the Marine Park Outreach and Education Centre on St John's Island, NParks said in a media release on Tuesday. 

NParks then said that this will scale up existing coral restoration efforts to substantially improve the resilience of coral communities and reefs. 

It is targeted to be fully operational and open to the public in the second quarter of 2025.

At the facility, corals will first be cultivated by coral restoration experts and researchers from the National University of Singapore at the St John’s Island National Marine Laboratory.

They will then be transplanted into the marine environment to restore degraded reefs or establish new communities.

 

The coral species cultivated at the new facility include those under NParks' Species Recovery Programme such as the Staghorn and Plate Acropora corals. 

The nubbins will be attached to a specially designed frame that maximises the number of corals that can be cultivated in the tanks and grown under controlled conditions.  

The recovery programme, which was introduced in 2015 as part of NParks' Nature Conservation Masterplan, aims to conserve native flora and fauna by targeting rare or threatened species. 

Serving as an "ex-situ coral nursery", the facility houses six tanks that can rear up to 600 coral nubbins - small fragments produced from adult colonies - each at any one time. 

Once the nubbins have grown large enough, they will then be transplanted to damaged reefs for restoration purposes or inserted into other areas to establish new communities. 

 

Other sources of transplant include "corals-of-opportunity", which are naturally fragmented corals lying free on the floor that may not survive without external intervention, said NParks. 

"Altogether, this will aid species recovery efforts for rarer coral species and increase coral cover and diversity in Singapore, complementing efforts under NParks' Marine Conservation Action Plan to protect the natural heritage of our City in Nature," it added. 

The action plan, launched in 2015, sets out strategies to protect, restore and enhance Singapore's coastal and marine habitats.The six tanks in the facility will also be installed with a smart coral culture aquaculture system set up by Delta Electronics. This is part of a two-year research programme between NParks and Delta established to kickstart the 100k Corals Initiative. 

The system monitors water conditions using various instruments and transmits data to researchers, which enables remote monitoring and timely intervention. 

For example, if the temperature of the tanks is too high, the automated system will send an alert, allowing for a quicker response that can minimise adverse impact such as coral bleaching, said NParks. 

 

 

 

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