a bow tie for corals
Coral reefs are threatened by climate change and in particular by rising water temperatures. In order to counter this disappearance announced by the end of this century, many initiatives are emerging: the World Coral Conservatory is one of them!
A consortium of scientists, aquarium curators and NGOs working on the ground for reef restoration are committing to a proposal by the Oceanographic Institute and Scientific Centre of Monaco, supported by the Prince Albert II Foundation, to build a “Noah’s Ark” for reef-building corals that will serve as a reservoir for coral reef conservation, research and restoration purposes
The project is to create a global reference centre that will house, in a network of public and private aquaria, a unique global collection of the majority of scleractinian (reef-building) coral species and strains described to date, in the form of living colonies .
The public aquaria will be reservoirs for conservation, restoration and research, but also laboratories for the implementation of stress resistant breeding operations.
The aim is to preserve as many species as possible and to establish a global platform for the sharing of biological material and for the exchange and production of knowledge.
This conservancy will help protect coral reef biodiversity using solution-based approaches that combine science, conservation and reef management.
It will increase the ability of reef organisms to tolerate stress and facilitate recovery from disturbance, using the “evolutionary-assisted approach” to improve the resilience of coral reefs.
A communication and education component will disseminate the latest research results.
An article published on September 14, 2020, in the scientific journal PLOS Biology, summarizes this program .
A joint work of the technical and scientific committee established to guide and advise the Conservatory, this article is signed by several experts in coral biology and by the directors and curators of major public aquariums.
coral, essential for the marine balance
Discover in the video opposite all the usefulness of the coral.
