While the world has been in lockdown in the past few months, we have seen some incredibly positive environmental results. For the first time in 30 years, residents in North-west India are able to see the Himalayan Mountain Range because of a decrease in air pollution. Seismometers across the globe have recorded a sharp decline in the vibrations produced by human activity. And in the coral reefs around French Polynesia there has been a noticeably larger population of bigger fish due to a decrease in human presence in the water.
Even though there are plenty of success stories, it is still unfortunately evident that the coral reefs of the world are at great danger of dying out. Researchers have estimated that if we don’t do anything about it, there will be no more corals on Earth by 2050. The world’s coral reefs produce one third of the Earth’s oxygen and houses about 25 percent of the world’s marine life. Furthermore, a recent study found that there has been such a decline in shark population that 20 percent of the world’s reefs have no sharks at all. The evidence speaks for itself; we need to do something – and there’s one thing we can do, even from home.
Adopting coral in Tahiti might just be the best excuse ever to book a holiday to paradise once we’re able to travel again – and the Coral Gardeners, a group of young ocean lovers based on the French Polynesian island of Moorea, are making this possible.
The Coral Gardeners could see the damage done to the reefs in the waters they call home, and decided to something about it. The founder Titouan and his team of surfers, free divers, and fishermen are actively working to restore the corals through a program of regeneration, and they are inviting eco-warriors from across the globe to get involved, from home.
Via the Coral Gardeners’ website, you can adopt and name your own piece of coral, which will be cultivated then planted in a reef in The Islands of Tahiti. Once the borders are open again, the Coral Gardeners will happily take visitors to see with their own eyes where adopted baby corals have built their habitat on the reef.
