Cyprus pioneers coral conservation project in the Mediterranean July 18, 2024

Marine biologists install floating coral nurseries off the east coast of Cyprus (Emily IRVING-SWIFT)

By AFP - Agence France Presse

Cyprus pioneers coral conservation project in the Mediterranean

Anouk Riondet

It's a Thursday morning in the tourist center of Ayia Napa, on the southeast coast of Cyprus, and three divers in wetsuits are gluing coral fragments onto numbered pins.

They are preparing to enter the crystal-clear waters and attach the samples to a floating nursery, in a pioneering effort in the Mediterranean to help restore a coral population hit by climate change and unsustainable human activity.

The small coral fragments have been kept for several weeks at the station of the Department of Fisheries and Marine Research on the eastern Mediterranean island.

Now, they are about to be attached to a net in the underwater nursery about five meters deep, near Cape Greco.

Louis Hadjioannou, the senior research associate at the Cyprus Marine and Maritime Institute, is responsible for researching the "Cladocora caespitosa".

This species, also known as coral-cushion, has been declining in the Mediterranean Sea for several years, mainly because of climate change, he said.

And now, he wants to revive it.

The 41-year-old told AFP that, to do so, the first step is to try to grow the coral in a different underwater habitat "so we can test whether it's working".

He said that an Israeli expert came up with the idea of using floating nurseries to keep the corals away from possible threats, such as predators.

Cladocora caespitosa is found in shallow waters in Cyprus, usually in rocky areas at a depth of up to four meters "where tourists can step on them," Hadjioannou said.

- 'Good results'.

By keeping them afloat, you can rule out certain stress factors, including predators and extreme weather conditions.

"It's a pilot study, so we'll continue to monitor them systematically," he said.

"And in a year we'll know whether the corals are doing well in the nurseries or not."

This type of floating structure was first created in 2000 at the northern tip of the Red Sea, near Israel's border with Jordan, said Buki Rinkevich, the Israeli expert behind the idea.

It has been tested all over the world, including in Singapore, Thailand, the Philippines, Mauritius, the Seychelles, Zanzibar, Colombia and Jamaica.

The floating nurseries have produced "good results" with around 100 different species of coral, said Rinkevich, from the National Institute of Oceanography in Haifa.

Hadjioannou said that two floating nurseries have been set up in separate marine protected areas off Cyprus, near Cape Greco and Ayia Napa.

The blocks to which they are moored are at depths of 11 and 17 meters respectively.

At the end of June, 10 coral fragments were installed in each floating nursery and are being analyzed every one or two months to check their condition.

"The plan is to install at least a hundred coral fragments in each floating nursery for this case study," said Hadjioannou.

- EU-funded project -

If the samples are doing well after a year, "we'll collect the coral fragments and transplant them onto natural reefs".

Manos Moraitis, 36, a biologist and associate researcher at the Cyprus Marine and Maritime Institute, said that the operation is part of the EFFECTIVE project, funded by the European Union, to advance marine monitoring, restoration, and observation efforts.

Coral reefs are among the richest and most diverse ecosystems on the planet and are home to countless aquatic species.

They provide balance and support biodiversity, allowing many species to coexist, but they are also very sensitive to changes in the environment.

Cypriot marine ecosystems are as threatened by climate change as they are by mass tourism, coastal development, and agricultural pollution.

Hadjioannou said that after a heatwave in 2015, up to 40% of the corals they were studying were affected by mortality.

"As the climate crisis increases... the prediction is that an even higher percentage of living coral tissue will die," he said.

"If we are successful, the ultimate goal is to scale up, try to replicate these coral nurseries in other regions" of the Mediterranean and deploy more in Cyprus.

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