We had a dream

In 2018 Ankla Azul started its operation in Bahía Solano with the vision of showing people the wonders that lie underneath the mysterious waters of the Eastern Tropical Pacific ETP: a world dominated by sea fans, colorful fishes, challenging currents, and scattered but healthy colonies of cauliflower corals. However, over the years we have witnessed a decline in coral coverage: colonies being dislodged by ghost fishing lines, healthy fragments of coral slowly dying rolling on the sandy bottoms. These sad images awoke our desire to actively participate in coral conservation, and at this point, our dream began.

During the past years, we have been removing ghost fishing lines and nets tangled in coral colonies and we have been relocating broken fragments into holes and cracks we find on the rocks, hoping they will reattach to the substrate and thrive again. We also realized that some of our diving stops are more affected than others. For example one of our most visited site, known as El Bajo, has very few broken colonies, medium live coral coverage, and a lot of suitable substrate for corals to grow. This place is rarely affected by ghost lines and is sheltered from other impacts such as anchorage and overfishing. 

After careful consideration and a lot of thinking, we realized that the best way to protect the corals and promote ecosystem recovery was to start a coral nursery and engage in a small-scale coral restoration project, the first in Bahía Solano, and one of the few lead by a dive center. The year 2022 came and our dream was close to becoming a reality. New members, interested in the idea of starting a coral nursery joined the Ankla Azul team, including passionate naturalists, experienced dive instructors, and marine biologists, and we started sharing and combining our thoughts and ideas. 

By placing coral fragments in a nursery we can enhance their growth by eliminating competition for space, reducing predation, and maximizing light exposure. Our little fragments need to reach a minimum size of 15 cm width/height before being transplanted back to the reef, and hopefully, this will happened in the next 4 to 6 months. For now, our duty is to maintain the nursery clean to avoid the excessive growth of algae that can affect our corals, and also get rid of all the extra weight (biofouling) on the nursery structure to avoid structural damage.