Shoreline Spotlight - How Seychelles is Growing Back Its Reefs
Shoreline Spotlight: How Seychelles Is Growing Back Its Reefs
Coral Reef Restoration • Marine Conservation • Climate Adaptation
The 1998 bleaching event killed more than half the coral reefs around Cousin Island in the Seychelles. Scientists waited for recovery, but most corals never came back. Dive operators started hearing the same line from disappointed tourists: "If only you could have seen it before."
In 2010, Nature Seychelles stopped waiting and started rebuilding. Their Reef Rescuers program targets corals that survived the bleaching—the genetic survivors that can tolerate higher temperatures. Scientists collect small fragments from these heat-resistant colonies, grow them in underwater nurseries for 6-12 months, then transplant mature colonies onto degraded reefs.
The results: The program has cultivated over 24,000 coral fragments and restored over half a hectare of reef around Cousin Island
Why This Works
The strategy works because not all corals die during bleaching events. The ones that survive carry genetic traits that help them withstand heat stress, and those traits pass to the fragments they produce. By selectively propagating these resilient corals, Reef Rescuers is essentially breeding reefs that can handle the warmer ocean conditions we're already locked into.
Traditional coral restoration fails 70% of the time, usually because teams plant the wrong species in the wrong locations. Reef Rescuers focuses on heat-tolerant corals like Acropora and Pocillopora that survived past bleaching events.
They grow fragments in floating rope nurseries for 6-12 months, then transplant mature colonies using metal frames or marine cement. The restored reefs show higher coral cover and fish density than degraded sites.
The transplanted corals survived the 2024 global bleaching event better than wild populations, proving that selective propagation can build climate-resilient reefs.
Africa's First Coral Lab
Ocean nurseries are vulnerable to storms and predators, so Nature Seychelles built the Assisted Recovery of Corals facility—Africa's first land-based coral aquaculture lab using micro-fragmentation.
Micro-fragmentation cuts corals into tiny pieces to accelerate growth, producing transplant-ready corals way faster than traditional coral regeneration processes. The $9.1 million facility will supply corals across the Western Indian Ocean and train practitioners from Madagascar, Mauritius, and Rodrigues.
The biggest win from this is the ability to transplant-ready corals in months instead of years, and scale the efforts across the globe.
"Restoration is a marathon, not a sprint." — Dr. Nirmal Jivan Shah, CEO of Nature Seychelles
The Bottom Line
Seychelles' reefs generate $160 million annually from tourism. They protect 90% of the coastline from storm surge, shielding 44,280 people living in low-lying coastal areas.
When reefs die, coastlines erode faster, fish populations crash, and storm damage costs spike. Coral restoration won't stop climate change, but it buys time, maintains biodiversity, and keeps ecosystems functional while the world tackles emissions.
Seychelles now has a national coral action plan with standardized monitoring protocols and legal protections for critical coral species.
Why This Matters
At Clean Coastal, we spotlight the the cool people and communities proving coastal restoration works. Understanding how coral nurseries rebuild reef ecosystems changes how you see your oceans.
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