It’s like what JNF does with trees in the earth, but instead it’s coral underwater. On a recent mission to Israel with JNF, a few lucky participants found themselves on a boat off of Eilat, engaged in a fun and fascinating project. A JNF mission participant dives deep into the Red Sea to plant a coral nursery.
After a brief lesson from marine biologists about the loss of coral reefs around the world, they super-glued little pieces of coral onto objects that resembled golf tees, loaded them onto a grid and floated them down into the Red Sea, where they were left to grow. The underwater equivalent of planting saplings in a forest, no drip irrigation required.
“It is a simple but brilliant answer to a problem that has surfaced around the world,” said Ralph Rotman, one of the JNF guests on the boat that day. “Of all the countries in the world who are suffering damage to their reefs, Israel is the smallest and has the smallest reef. But leave it to some smart Israeli to devise a potential solution that could positively affect the entire world.”
The NIO’s strategy of “gardening coral reefs,” is a twostep process. First, instead of direct transplantation, large pools of farmed corals and spats are constructed within specially designed underwater coral nurseries. “These nurseries are not attached to the bottom of the festoration sea,” explained Dr. Shafir, “because then they would be exposed to the same dangers that the reefs are falling victim to. Instead, a buoy is attached to the frame that houses the nursery and floats it at a depth that we choose, often depending on the season. We like to keep them shallow enough so they can get sunlight but in the stormy season we can lower them to protect them from sustaining damage.”
Eilat’s small farm can grow between 6,000-10,000 corals; it takes about a year for them to mature enough to transplant.
Over the past 20-30 years, coral reefs throughout the world have been degrading at an alarming rate. Enter the National Institute of Oceanography (NIO) in Haifa, Israel and the research of Dr. Baruch Rinkevich and Dr. Shai Shafir, to be funded in part by JNF. With the idea of actively restoring reefs as opposed to just conserving them, they built the first mid-water floating coral nursery in the world and are sharing the concept with other countries.
Jewish National Fund is the caretaker of the land of Israel, on behalf of its owners- Jewish people everywhere.
Name of Organization:JNF - Coral Reef Restoration
Number of Paid Staff:150
Number of Volunteers:1000+
Total Organizational Expenses:$36,961,113
% of Organizational Overhead Expenses:17%
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“Basically, what we’ve done here is copy the forestry concept,” said Dr. Shai Shafir of the National Institute of Oceanography (NIO) in Haifa, Israel. “And the idea is really taking hold around the world because you can use it almost anywhere. What we told ourselves is that if a reef can be destroyed it can also be rebuilt. It’s not just about conservation, but also about active restoration.”
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