Coral Nursery

In partnership with Keppel Group

S$250,000 to finance a coral nursery research project. Keppel Group’s employees also volunteered their time on dives to maintain the coral nursery.

About the Project

Development and industrialisation have impacted on coral reefs in Singapore over the years. Even though it has been reported that 60% of the local original reefs have been lost, Singapore still boasts high biological diversity with almost 200 species of reef-forming hard corals. This accounts for about 25% of the global total species.

NParks’ and National University of Singapore have embarked on a marine conservation project with sponsorship from Keppel Group and support from the National Environment Agency.

The aim of this proactive marine conservation initiative is to ensure the survival of existing marine habitats in Singapore.

In order to enhance and restore the current coral cover in Singapore, a coral nursery was established off Pulau Semakau in 2007. Unlike commercial methods of harvesting corals, which breaks up healthy coral colonies for planting, the Pulau Semakau nursery is the first coral nursery in the region to use the “coral of opportunity” (that is, coral fragments that lie free on the reef having been fragmented by some force) as seed corals for growth and transplantation.

The method is akin to a horticultural nursery providing seedlings to be planted in forest sites that need to be reforested. The coral nursery enabled efforts to proactively enhance existing marine habitats by maximising the survival of naturally occurring corals.

Coral fragments that have been successfully grown in the coral nursery are transplanted onto the degraded reef sites off the southern coast of Singapore.

Read more here.