RSS An early start to the 2015 caribbean coral spawn

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Corals are known for their synchronistic spawning, typically a week after the last full moon in August. This year with a late blue moon in July the spawning happened earlier than normal.

Teams from the Georgia and Florida aquarium were on hand along with the Coral Reef Restoration foundation to collect gametes on August 4th and 5th in the Florida Keys. Once collected the crew wasted no time mixing the gametes to start cultivating baby corals. Some of the corals in the Coral Reef Restoration site have been growing since 2003, and the foundation made history in 2009 with the first documented nursery-raised coral spawn.

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Teams from the Georgia and Florida collect and prepare coral gamete to grow into baby corals


Talk about synchronized, in Belize, the Fragments of Hope coral nursery also got to witness this yearly event on August 6th. Photographer Annelise Hagan was able to capture some great close up shots of the event. Fragments of Hope says this years spawning was a huge success. “All three nursery-grown acroporid species spawned Aug 5th”. The coral fragments were planted 5 years ago at Laughing Bird Caye National Park.

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