Coral Propagation

Inspecting the health of baby corals

The Great Barrier Reef is close to the heart of all North Queenslanders, and our desire is always to protect and nurture it. When professional researchers need to bring corals onto land for their work or for educational purposes, the question arises: how can we best get to know corals without affecting the Reef?

At Reef HQ, the environmentally friendly solution is to grow corals in captivity. Dr Kirsten Michalek-Wagner, Reef HQ’s Coral Reef Systems Biologist, has been developing a coral propagation program which embraces the natural ability of some coral colonies to regrow if broken under stress in the wild, such as in a storm or cyclone.

Based on the same principle of propagation that is frequently used in domestic gardens to start new plants from mature ones, coral fragments are broken off from donor colonies to start new colonies. Unlike domestic plants which can be stuck directly into soil, coral fragments require a little more attention to detail in finding a suitable hard substrate to attach to. Since the propagation program began in 2000 a variety of attachment methods have been trialled, from concreting hard corals into flowerpots to using superglue, string, wire and kebab skewers…the corals can be fussy!

Nursery for coral propagates

The most successful attachment method for hard corals: a rose stem vial from the florist. The corals are given time to establish themselves in the vials in a ‘nursery’, the vial is then anchored into a reef where the coral can continue to bloom.

This development is proving to be a very successful means of supplying coral colonies for exhibits that are easily accessible to the general public without impacting on the wild stock of the Great Barrier Reef.