Coral aquaculture, also known as coral farming or coral gardening, is the cultivation of corals for commercial purposes or coral reef restoration. Aquaculture is showing promise as a tool for restoring coral reefs, which are dying off around the world.[1][2][3] The process protects young corals while they are most at risk of dying. Small corals are propagated in nurseries and then replanted on the reef.[4]
Coral is also farmed by scientists for research, by businesses for the live and ornamental coral trade, and by private reef aquarium hobbyists.
Coral reef farming involves extracting a part of a coral colony or free-floating larvae from a reef, and growing them in a nursery until outplanting[5] would be successful. It is commonly referred to as the "gardening method" and has been compared to silviculture as a management practice that mimics natural ecosystems.[3][6]
Adult corals can be transplanted onto a reef, usually in a damaged area.[3][7] Coral is farmed for conservation reasons in the Philippines, Israel, Solomon Islands, Palau, Fiji, Marshall Islands, and Japan. Land-based coral farming occurs in public aquariums in North America and Europe.[8]
- ^ Horoszowski-Fridman, YB, Izhaki, I & Rinkevich, B (2011) "Engineering of coral reef larval supply through transplantation of nursery-farmed gravid colonies" Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology, 399(2): 162–166.
- ^ Pomeroy, RS, Parks, JE and Balboa, CM (2006) "Farming the reef: is aquaculture a solution for reducing fishing pressure on coral reefs?" Marine Policy, 30(2): 111–130.
- ^ a b c Rinkevich, B (2008) "Management of coral reefs: We have gone wrong when neglecting active reef restoration" Archived 2013-05-23 at the Wayback Machine Marine pollution bulletin, 56(11): 1821–1824.
- ^ Ferse, SCA 2010, "Poor Performance of Corals Transplanted onto Substrates of Short Durability" Restoration Ecology, vol. 18, no. 4, pp. 399–407.
- ^ "Outplanting | Reef Resilience".
- ^ Levy, G, Shaish, L, Haim, A & Rinkevich, B (2010) "Mid-water rope nursery--Testing design and performance of a novel reef restoration instrument" Ecological Engineering, 36(4): 560–569.
- ^ Bellwood DR et al. (2004) Confronting the coral reef crisis Nature, Review, 429(6994): 827–833
- ^ Delbeek, JC (2001) Coral farming: past, present and future trends" Aquarium Sciences and Conservation, 3(1): 171–81.