Saving the World's Coral Reefs

Coral Reef Alliance partners with PangeaSeed Foundation and Wooden Wave artists to create a mural in Maui of our Clean Water for Reefs initiative

West Maui, Hawaii– The Coral Reef Alliance (CORAL) is excited to share the news of the completion of a mural in Maui that shows a creative interpretation of our Clean Water for Reefs initiative. CORAL partnered with PangeaSeed Foundation and Wooden Wave artists, Matt and Roxy Ortiz, to produce a mural that inspires environmental change. The mural also shows how Hawaiian residents can enjoy and protect the landscape of West Maui so that it provides clean water for the coral reefs that we’re working to save.

Photo by Tre Packard

PangeaSeed Foundation and teams of artists created eight murals in Wailuku, Maui, with the help of partners including CORAL, Maui County, SMALL TOWN * BIG ART, Lush Natural Cosmetics, Bow Seat Ocean Awareness Programs, Patagonia, Pacific Whale Foundation, Volcom Hawaii, Sustainable Coastlines Hawaii, the Johnson Ohana Foundation, Montana Cans and Behr Paint.

CORAL advised Wooden Wave on the creation of the large-scale mural, located at 1760 Mill Street in Wailuku, Maui so that it conveyed a creative depiction of the midslope region where CORAL is ensuring clean water for coral reefs.

CORAL’s Clean Water for Reefs initiative in Maui focuses on reducing land-based sources of pollution in the Wahikuli and Honokowai watersheds, which were identified by researchers from the United States Geological Survey (USGS) as the biggest sediment polluters in West Maui. CORAL is implementing innovative planting practices that reduce land-based sources of pollution like sediment and soil that gets washed downstream, where it settles on coral reefs and causes coral disease and death.

Addressing land-based pollution not only helps corals stay healthy, but it also helps them be more resistant to the rising temperatures of climate change, and scientists from The Nature Conservancy recently found that coral reefs in West Hawaii were stabilizing and poised to recover from the worst bleaching event in the state’s history four years ago.

CORAL is ensuring clean water for reefs Maui and is identifying best practices of planting techniques so that these approaches can be used by international partners to provide clean water for coral reefs around the world. To learn more, please visit coral.org/maui.