SECORE International

Spawning in Curaçao 🪸✨

Under the cover of night, Curaçao's reefs came alive in June. On the first night of spawning, gametes from 18 colonies of grooved brain coral (Diploria labyrinthiformis) were collected across three reef sites—an incredible effort. The gametes were brought ashore and our team fertilized them in the lab. Half of the larvae were settled onto SECORE stars lining the bottom of Coral Seeding Tents. ⭐ The other half settled in the lab onto Australian Institute of Marine Science's two-part Coral Seeding device, a variation of the Seeding Units designed by SECORE and a tool being tested for the Global Coral Tech Transfer Project.

We’re grateful to everyone who provided support during this spawning period: REACT Curaçao, Reef Renewal Curaçao and all the incredible volunteers. 👏
Come back on Friday to hear more about the coral babies.

Photos by: Lars ter Horst, our Curaçao-based Research & Restoration Technician

It’s summer in the northern hemisphere which means…BEACH season! 🏖☀️🌊

If you see this blue floating device while in the water, don’t be mistaken, it’s not a floaty or a toy, it’s a coral nursery. This blue device floats right in the ocean and provides a safe space for settling and growing baby corals.🪸 It is called the Coral Rearing In-Situ Basin, or CRIB—a floating coral nursery developed by SECORE. The CRIB makes coral restoration more efficient and accessible by replacing the need for labour intensive land-based facilities.

When you see this device, there is active restoration occurring under its canopy. Coral babies are very fragile and touching or climbing on the nursery could harm them. Treat the CRIB with respect. In doing so you are helping us in rearing more resilient coral offspring to bring back to depleted reefs.

📸💙 All photos are by Paul Selvaggio. The first photo was taken in Mauritius and is the July photo for our SECORE calendar. Yes, it’s a beautiful photograph but it’s so much more. It’s a milestone. The first fully operational CRIB in the Indian Ocean! Here’s to giving coral reefs across the WORLD a future!
Have you seen one of our CRIB’s while at the beach? Let us know where in the comments! 👇

We are now over a year into the Indian Ocean Coral Seeding Initiative, have established a strong network of partners, are operating from facilities on land and most importantly: our first baby corals are growing in the ocean! 🧪🌊

This work is about more than just one reef—it's about building a regional hub for coral restoration that can scale across the Western Indian Ocean.

Watch the full video on YouTube to see how we're turning spawn into hope 👇
🔗 https://youtu.be/gb_5uwPj6jg

Breeding Corals on Mauritius | The Indian Ocean Coral Seeding Initiative A year and a half ago, SECORE laid the groundwork for the Coral See...