This is coral restoration, so it must be at a coral reef location that has been damaged. Sometimes the reef has been completely destroyed, but more commonly the reef has been getting smaller due to damaged areas. With this, a new nursery in the middle of a new rubble area could be a starting place to rebuilding the gap. You do not however want to place it too close to the living reef as to cause stress in either new or old, nor so that any possible disease would transfer between them. The rubble also creates the best substrate for a reef to recover the quickest.

Once a fair amount geopolitical issues have been addressed and local support is gained for the project, the best feasible location(s) needs to be found. Accounting for the typical current and surge the nursery should be set in line with the direction of movement, as you won’t have success if you try making a wall to slow down the ocean. Go with the flow and abide by nature. It’s also best to start one and wait to see what happens over the course (or after the end) of monsoon/rainy/cyclone season.

The water quality has to be within the range that the corals can survive, otherwise they have not made it in this location for a reason. If there is sewage from land or runoff from human activity it’ll frequently add to many harmful nutrients that coral can’t handle but their common foe, algae, thrive on. Also what are the effects of fresh water runoff during different times of the year? Maybe planting a mangrove forest would be better, or a helpful barrier? Coral reefs are often in great health when located with mangroves. If there is oil from boats, or…? Watch the site for some time to know the environmental factors effecting it. Maybe there are other things that need resolved before a coral restoration project could succeed. Don’t rush the process and expect amazing results. You could start a small project and then begin monitoring, there should be countless lessons, just monitor as many variables as possible!

So let’s assume now that, we have local support and governmental permission to begin a project. Is it going to be maintained by you or other locals? Maybe you have a boat and divers, but for them there’s no way. An offshore site in water more than a few meters deep will probably get abandoned. But something that you easily swim to from shore and is not deep will most likely be easily maintained by a local population with little to no financial requirement!

Is there tourism? Do snorkelers have the ability to walk or fin your nursery? Might they find your pile of rocks an easy place to get rocks and spell a message for a picture? Yes we’ve seen this happen, with the rocks placed as they needed, many substrate placed with the coral fragments down into the sand to face death. If it’s a constantly monitored site, you can fix this sometimes. But we are not trying to grow coral to die of the same fate as their ancestors.

Learn about the start of the nursery construction in building the nursery.