I went back to the Dominican Republic in October to do some coral restoration! The main goal of our coral nurseries is to create a sustainable source of healthy corals for use in restoration activities. The nursery in the DR has massive amounts of tissue, so it was time to take some of it and put it back out on the reef!
Here's one of the new frames that we installed. It's made of coated wire mesh and these frames will last about 3 years before they rust out and have to be replaced.
This is an example of a rope frame nursery- you can untwist the rope and wedge the coral fragments right into the rope. The fragments grow very well and very fast hanging upside down!
We hired an intern to go down there and get things started- her name was Katie and she was fantastic!!
Here's Ben and Ian- two very enthusiastic and helpful volunteers!! Ben works for the Ecological Foundation and Ian works at the coral nursery in Sosua.
Here's the castle hotel in Cap Cana. We got to drive by it everyday on our way to the outplanting sites.
Ben installing nails at one outplant site. We hammer 4 inch masonry nails into the reef and then cable tie coral fragments to the nails to stabilize them. The tissue will overgrow the cable ties and nails and then skirt onto the reef!
This is a trial outplanting- they set up small plots back in July to see which sites supported the best growth.
My lovely room at the resort. Not too shabby!
However, there are some unwanted guests at the hotel. This guy was on the wall of our hotel....holy crap!!
We visited the village at the resort for dinner one night. Mexican food and mango margaritas...yummy
Sometimes the corals get too heavy for the frames, so we had to clean off this rope nursery and then used the tissue for one of our outplanting sites.
Here's our FACT- Floating Apparatus for Coral Transport. Unfortunately, it was too big to pull behind our boat, so we didn't get to use it, but the idea was clever.
A beautiful Acropora palmata (elkhorn coral) at one of our outplant sites.
This is Outplant Site 1- a great spur and groove reef with lots of complexity.
Katie and Diego setting up nails.
This is an example of an outplanted colony. We use the first nail as the anchor and then place additional nails around to attach outer branches to so that the colony remains secure. You can also wrap cable ties to projections in the reef or through little holes.
Here's one of the nails.
A big colony that was outplanted at Outplant Site 4.
A damselfish has already created it's territory in one of the outplanted colonies.
More corals!!
Here's me doing my best to stay in one place in 4 foot surge- it's like a washing machine down there!!
Colonies outplanted near the actual coral nursery. It's a no take zone, so there are lots of fish.
While we were in the DR, there was tons of dead seaweed (Sargassum) washing up on the beaches. It smelled so bad and guys had to rake it up each day to keep the smell down and keep the beaches nice for resort guests. It was a never ending battle!!
Tools of the trade: a plastic milk crate for transporting corals and a bag with hammers and nails.
This is one of my pride and joys....it's attached only with cable ties threaded through natural holes in the reef!! No nails included!
The dive office at Puntacana Resort.
I was doing my best to learn a new spanish word each day in preparation for my trip to Peru. Even though I already knew the word for bathroom, I thought it was funny to see los banos labeled!
We visited the freshwater springs at the resort. Such a cool place. Britt and I went last time, but didn't get to swim in them.
There are about 8 little springs at the Reserve with crystal clear water.
Four of the springs have little decks that you can swim from.
Pictures don't do it justice!!
Lots of fish who aren't afraid of you in the water!!
This is the largest pool with a deck about 15 ft up- great for jumping!
Katie doing some free diving in the springs.
This log was cool and scary all at once.....
...there were little shrimp that would come and clean your feet for you! It totally freaked me out- it didn't hurt but tickled!
We also visited the saltwater caves at Cap Cana. We think they are actually dissolution holes with remnant saltwater left in them.
They were pretty cool though....
...this one has lots of dead Acropora in the walls. Must have been part of an old reef with lots of coral rubble cemented in it.
An up close shot of the dead coral rubble.
We drove up to the top of the mountains there for a beautiful shot looking over Cap Cana to the ocean.
This view looks over Puntacana.
A view from the top. The saltwater pools are located on land that's available for purchase, so they have little towers built so you can see what the view would be like from your house!!
The Coral Restoration Team- Victor, Daniel, me, Katie and Diego.
I want one of these for my apartment....a hanging bean bag chair.....AWESOME!!
A lone palm tree.
Afterwards, we stopped at the beach for a drink. This is Victor, Suzanne and Daniel who work at the Ecological Foundation and Katie.
Our flight left around 1 pm on our last day, so we met everyone at the dock to say goodbye before they headed out to do some more outplanting. Ben really played it up for the camera!
More palm trees.
Katie and I took advantage of the beautiful weather and the hammocks. We sat there for about 3 hours reading and relaxing!!
Katie- the super intern!!
Overall, it was a very good trip and it was very productive. It was great to see the project go from start to finish and makes me excited to do some outplanting from the nurseries here in Florida!!