Save Corals in Fiji by Moving to Cooler Outer Reef

The Tuvalu Reef Rescue Plan:  Why the Urgency 

The tipping-point in mean ocean temperatures has begun. The spike showed itself in March and continued through July, https://climatereanalyzer.org/clim/sst_daily/ signaling the end of the era of coral restoration and beginning of the era of rescuing coral genotypes and preventing coral species extinction.  Just like we stop planting trees and carrying out reforestation during severe droughts, we must now change strategies with coral reefs. 

I discuss this in my recent paper: https://www.mdpi.com/2673-1924/4/1/2/pdf  

Only one island nation in our region -- Tuvalu -- has escaped these many level 1 and 2 bleaching events.  Tuvalu has the most amazing branching Acropora coral populations remaining (that I know of ) on Funafuti, the main Atoll.  This includes km after km of diverse 3-meter high staghorn thickets, huge 3-5 meter wide single colonies of Acropora florida and A. grandis, and other thick branched coral species (which in other areas are under 1m wide).  Heat adapted populations of these corals are located in warm shallow lagoons.  There are also very large colonies of erect plate-like and knobby Heliopora, the blue corals, and very large tabulate, digitate, and corymbose  species.  Tuvalu has perhaps the most intact example of an Acropora climax community.  Located on the fringe of cyclone activity, Tuvalu receives the cooling effects of cyclones without the damage, and this structures the resulting community.  Massive coral species, for example, are not as common, having been overtaken by the faster growing Acroporids.  As the Atoll has clean oceanic waters, COTS (Crown-of-Thorns Starfish) are exceptionally rare.

But sadly, after many lifetimes of stability, these reefs may be in their last few weeks of life.  The massive heat wave now in Kiribati is heading their way, with severe condition 2 bleaching predicted to hit by December.  This is particularly sad as these reefs have not been well studied!

We are planning an intervention for Tuvalu, in partnership with a local NGO and Fisheries.  The shallow south Funafala lagoon has the most interesting and largest coral colonies in <2m of water, which already experience uncomfortable temperatures in summer, and with almost no coral bleaching or mortality recorded.  We are operating on the assumption that these hot pocket reefs could reach temperature extremes of >36C in the coming months, potentially 38C, like we saw for nearshore Florida waters in recent months.  So we plan to sample as much of this biodiversity as possible, and to move it out to a much cooler nursery site, in a well-sheltered sandy area, located behind a small island situated between two deep reef passes on the windward side of the atoll.  We are raising funds for this emergency effort, and we also plan to film the coral rescue for presentation at COP28, in partnership with the Coral Restoration Consortium group.  After Tuvalu is secure, then we will move to Vanuatu and Fiji with these same strategies.

I am mobilizing action in Tuvalu, and will fly there in November with my filming expert so I can help our local partner organization, Fuligafou, a youth-based NGO dedicated to the environment.  Relocating genotypes to protective cooler waters needs to happen before the heat wave hits.  Hot pocket coral samples will be moved from the Funafala lagoon in Funafuti Atoll's south, the largest hot pocket in the nation.

GlobalGiving is adding a bonus to every donation on Giving Tuesday November 28.  I invite all of you who love the diversity of the coral reef and wish to help the effort in Tuvalu to participate during this 24- hour window, Washington D. C. timezone.

With much gratitude, Austin