So why couldn't we?

[Areeflover]

So I live in Florida. And I was thinking human beings are killing reefs all over the world. Why couldn't we build some with all the frags we have in the hobby?

 

[Ben little79]

Nah they are safer in my tank

 

[Bongo Shrimp]

You mean like, out planting corals from hobbyist captive care? Well, first of all, its a gigantic ecological disaster waiting to happen. There are many species we mix from different areas of the world, containing different diseases and parasites from different parts of the world and we would be potentially (likely) introducing a whole host of things to the environment that should never ever be there. Even something as seemingly benign as a majano anemone or a vermetid snail, unknowingly introduced to the wrong area from a different area, could totally destroy the local habitat.

When public aquariums and research facilities participate in projects where corals are held to be reintroduced to the wild, there are strict, standardized, quarantine and biosecurity measures in place to ensure nothing from other systems can be cross contaminated into the holding system.

 

[Ben little79]

So I live in Florida. And I was thinking human beings are killing reefs all over the world. Why couldn't we build some with all the frags we have in the hobby?

What part of Florida are you in.. Im in fl. also.. This heat is getting out of hand huh.. Lol.. Sorry off topic..

 

[lbiminiblue]

UM has a coral rescue tema which is doing something along those lines. They are preserving different strains that are more resistant and working on restoring reefs with those.

 

[Ben little79]

Also ran across this last night randomly..

 

[fish farmer]

So I live in Florida. And I was thinking human beings are killing reefs all over the world. Why couldn't we build some with all the frags we have in the hobby?

First minimized the destruction of habitat. Then monitor the reefs to see how they recover on their own. Then possibly reintroduce species of concern following the best guidelines with regard to species, diseases present, potential invasives that may impact the reintroduction, etc, etc.

 

[TheGreatWave]

Ultimately it's most effective and cost effective to work on preserving what is there. As mentioned, it's not just frags, but the whole ecosystem. Some reefs just won't be able to be "replaced" as they evolved there a long time ago when conditions were favorable. It may not be possible for things to grab a foothold in the same ratio as it where before.

Add to this that we generally only keep a small colorful subset of species.

The education of participating in this hobby does add a lot of value. At least some information can be learned from our isolated tanks without destroying wild coral. For the ones that can be cultured at home at least. It can't hurt to plant a few native coral where appropriate on damaged but not dead reefs perhaps.

 

[Biokabe]

There are quite a few NGOs that work on doing exactly that, but as mentioned above, they follow much stricter guidelines to ensure that there aren't unintended consequences from said reintroduction.

Simply picking up a Micromussa lordhowensis from your tank and dropping it into the Caribbean, for example, would not be a terribly wise idea. For an idea of what that can do, read up on lionfish in the Caribbean sometime. Regardless of whether they got there from hobbyists releasing them (possible) or by hitching a ride in the ballast of cargo ships (even more possible), they're absolutely devastating native life in their introduced ranges. Introducing non-native coral species might not be as devastating, but honestly it could be even worse.

 

[maroun.c]

Too much risk returning our corals tot he sea. but still might be a good idea to frag corals from the sea and repopulate areas which lost their corals for specific reasons like bleaching events... and IMHO not areas without corals as corals aren't there for some specific reason which most likely will kill any coral transplanted there.
Also coral labs with water and corals from the sea, spawning corals and settling them on plugs and growing to return to the sea are more common now but these are controlled environments where no cross contamination is likely to happen from disease or peses our fish and corals carry which corals in other regions are not immune against or don't have predators against

 

[redfishbluefish]

Coral restoration is already occurring in Florida....the largest contributor being The Coral Restoration Foundation out of Key Largo. Our club has had the president, Ken Nedimyer, give talks at our meetings twice....with a considerable donation made to the foundation. Check them out HERE. We've also had club members go down there and help out.

The one thing I found extremely fascinating from the talks was that they originally were attaching frags to bottom rocks, but discovered that if they suspend them off of tree like structures, the frags grow much faster. You'll see a picture on their home page of these suspended grow-trees. Once large enough, they are transplanted to were they are needed.

 

[mtraylor]

Follow the link below. If I lived in florida, I would definitely try to take some frags to the ocean. Would be awesome!

http://reefcrawl.com/event/schedule/dive-with-the-coral-restoration-foundation-and-keys-diver/

 

[Ulee]

Well...it's starts local..Florida sees a lot of poaching for Ricordia and sea fans, etc.