Emergency Response to Mass Coral Bleaching

Dear donors and supporters,

This is a short report to let you know that I leave on Wednesday for the much anticipated coral work on Chirstmas Island (Kiritimati).  The island is South of Hawaii and is part of the island nation of Kiribati (pronounced Ki-ri-bas.  This part of the Pacifc has suffered the worst bleaching in recorded history, with over 90% of the corals now dead, and thus the entire cosystem is severely damaged.   

But on the bright side, a few corals have survived and it will be our job to find them and collect bits for inclusion into a nursery of hot-water adapted bleaching-resistant super corals!  I pray that the weather remains calm and that we can find these rare gems efficiently. 

You can find Christmas Island Kiribati on Google Earth, to get an idea of how big it is!   The nursery sites will probally be located right inside the West Lagoon near one of the passes, with good access, good water cirulation, but protection from storm waves.

A local hotel is providing free accomodation for the one week stay, and I am donating my time to the work. 

I will send out an update in July, hopefully with lots of photos. 

Here in Fiji we must wait out the active death and recovery phase the corals are going through on Moturiki now, removing coral predators but leaving the corals untrimmed  so that we don't add any more stress.  When the water cools off in August (we are in the southern hemisphere), then it will be time to create the nurseries in partnership with GVI and the Motutriki community. 

Regards to you all,

Austin