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Vabbinfaru Lotus
Preliminary
Wolf Hilbertz, Tom Goreau, & Azeez
Hakeem The Vabbinfaru Lotus coral nursery was placed under power on November 15, 2001. It is shaped like a large bowl, with 16 major petals, 12 meters in diameter, made from about half a ton of welded steel construction bars, and located on the western outer reef slope. The shallowest part is about 3 meters deep and the deepest about 10 meters. About 600 watts of power are provided from transformers on the jetty via four cables, each 225 meters long. Coral transplantation began as soon as the Lotus was put in place. All corals transplanted onto it are naturally broken coral fragments found on the Vabbinfaru reef flat and outer reef slope. As the transplants are largely pieces of coral that have been naturally broken by waves, or corals that have settled on loose rocks made up of dead corals, and since these were almost entirely rescued from the outer reef slope, where they had fallen off the reef and were gradually rolling into deep water, most of these fragments had already suffered severe damage from rolling or burial in sand. In some cases these rocks have small colonies of several different species of corals attached, sometimes up to half a dozen. Due to lack of time, only roughly a hundred corals have been placed on it so far. Coral transplantation will continue for several months, led by Azeez, Anees, and Anwar. As coral transplantation will be ongoing for some time, it is too soon to characterize the community of corals that will be established, but the plan is to include all local coral species that can be found in the immediate vicinity. Coral identification of species in most cases requires microscopic examination of the dead skeleton. As we have taken no samples for identification we identify the different corals by visual inspection only to genus. Most genera only have one or a handful of species, but some genera have many different species, up to hundreds in the case of Acropora. As our purpose is only to grow as many types of corals as fast as possible, detailed identification to species level will have to wait until the project matures. On the next page we give a list of the genera that have so far been transplanted. These include 33 of the roughly 50 genera known from the Maldives according to Veron, 2000, Corals of the World. The actual total may be higher because many of the pieces transplanted have small colonies or encrusting colonies hidden in cracks that were not noted or which could not be identified. The listing notes whether one, several, or many different species of each genus have been transplanted. Since almost all Acropora colonies found are young corals that have not yet assumed their adult forms, it is virtually impossible to identify them yet. GENERA OF CORALS TRANSPLANTED ONTO VABBINFARU LOTUS Montipora (several species) Acropora(many species) Astreopora(several) Pocillopora(several) Physogyra Galaxea Psammocora Coscinarea Pavona Coeloseris Gardinoseris Fungia(several species) Halomitra Pectinia Hydnophora(several species) Merulina Turbinaria Lobophyllia Symphyllia Favia(several species) Favites(several species) Goniastrea(several species) Platygyra Oulophyllia Leptoria Montastrea Diploastrea Echinopora Porites(many species) Goniopora(several species) Distichopora Heliopora Tubastrea |
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