Intro to the Reef Restoration Foundation

All Posts

Intro to the Reef Restoration Foundation

You may or may not know (although I am sure you could guess based on my hair colour!), I absolutely love the oceans! I am a scuba diver and have spent many many hours under the surface of the water observing the beautiful and magical cities under the sea. I have been so honoured to have witnessed so many things and so its always been a passion of mine to do what I can to help save the oceans and its inhabitants. Prior to starting Greener Beauty this was by being a volunteer for Sea Shepherd, but as a business owner I just don’t have the time to do this anymore.

So I have been thinking for some time on how I can do something alongside our tree planting to save the oceans. You may realise that we only sell Reef Safe Sunscreens (of course!) but in addition to this from today, we will be donating 10% of profits on all sunscreen sales to the Reef Restoration Foundation.

I had a meeting with Ryan, the founder of this amazing charity and he shared with me some of the amazing work him and his team are doing on the Great Barrier Reef but also his plan to train people all over the world in this technique so that reefs can be saved on a global scale.

So it gives me great pleasure to introduce this blog by Ryan, CEO of the Reef Restoration Foundation.

Enjoy! And if you have any feedback or comments please don’t hesitate to contact us.

Vic x

In 2016, the northern third of Australia’s Great Barrier Reef turned white. A great blob of warm water, detected by satellite, moved toward the east coast of Australia and brought mass coral bleaching the likes of which had never been seen.

Reef Restoration Foundation formed as an urgent response from a concerned community that the places we loved were under threat. At that time, reef restoration was not permitted in the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park. However, a second mass bleaching event in 2017 in the middle third of the Great Barrier Reef saw the rules change and we secured the first permit and installed the first ocean-based coral nursery on the Great Barrier Reef in December of that same year.

We grow coral fragments in ‘tree frame’ nurseries that are suspended in the water column. Here the coral pieces are free from parasites and predators. They have greater access to sunlight for photosynthesis and our research tells us that they grow three times faster than they do on the reef itself.

Guided by science, our aim is to accelerate the natural process of recovery after disturbance. We grow fragments of demonstrably resistant corals in our nurseries then plant them back to the reef where we care for them until they reach sexual maturity so they can spawn and play their natural role in regenerating the reef with resistant offspring.

Importantly, reef restoration, or assisted reef recovery, buys time while the world moves to a low carbon future. It is not an alternative to action on climate change.
Reef Restoration Foundation receives no government funding, and we are operated, primarily, by volunteer divers from all compass points of our community. And we are resourced by donations from businesses and individuals from all over the world.

So why do we do what we do? Coral reefs are some of the most diverse ecosystems in the world. Covering less than one percent of the ocean floor, about 25 percent of all known marine species rely on coral reefs for food, shelter, and breeding. They also play very important roles in feeding communities and protecting shorelines from erosion, but we are mostly concerned with the biological richness of the ecosystem.

Biodiversity gives an ecosystem it’s functionality. Every species, irrespective of where it sits in the food chain or whether it is habitat or inhabitant, has evolved to occupy a niche and to play a functional ecological role. Coral reefs are biodiversity hotspots that not only sustain themselves but the species that move in and out of them through various stages of their lives, such as pelagic fish species and highly mobile apex predators. They form a critical part of the conveyor belt of life around the globe.

As the frequency of disturbance events on coral reefs increases due to climate change, the ability for reefs to fully recover between events becomes diminished. Species’ life history strategies vary. Some are fast growing, short lived and highly fecund. At the other end of the spectrum, other species grow slowly, reproduce only through sexual reproduction, and perform specialist functions. The prospect of losing these slow growing specialist species due to reduced recovery time for the entire ecosystem is akin to losing big trees in a forest that have lived for centuries.

The threats to coral reefs have compounding global, regional, and local dimensions, all of which have direct connection to humanity and require humanity to turn around what is an ominous trajectory.

Globally, the pathway to accumulation of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere began with the adoption of new technologies to drive production efficiencies in the Industrial Revolution. It prompted a pathway to prosperity and resulted in exponential human population growth and ever-increasing need for natural resources to sustain it.

Back in the 18th century, this new technology led to enormous efficiency gains to production and transportation that improved quality of life. It set us on a path for a high carbon future. Essentially, we are now in a new Industrial Revolution where the adoption of new technologies will shape the future and set us on a path to a low carbon future. The difference is that now, adoption will be much faster in a connected world.

There is a certain degree of ‘locked-in’ changes to our environment from climate change.