Coral reef restoration an experience from Gulf of Mannar, Southeastern India

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Coral reef restoration an experience from Gulf
of Mannar, Southeastern India

• J.K. Patterson Edward , Jamila Patterson, Dan
  Wilhelmsson, Jerker Tamelander and Olof Linden
• Suganthi Devadason Marine Research Institute
• 44-Beach Road, Tuticorin 628 001, Tamil Nadu,
  India

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Gulf of Mannar
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• Problems / Challenges
• Issue I Traditional fisher folk
• Fishing is for livelihood
• Total dependence on fishery resources
• Steady increase of population crowded fishing
• ground decline of catch and so livelihood and
  
• food security
• Low literacy rate
• Lack of awareness of environmental issues
• Low income and poor
• 
  lead

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• Illegal, destructive and unsustainable fishing
  practices
• Shore seine
• Push net
• Dynamite fishing
• Cyanide fishing
• Coral mining
• 
  

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• Problems / Challenges
• Issue II Trawlers
• Trawler owners are comparatively well off the
• activity is mainly for commercial purpose
• Bottom trawling by big mechanized boats
• Use banned gears (roller madi and paired trawler
• madi)
• 
  lead

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• Damage to critical habitats such as coral
• reefs and seagrasses
• Complete sweep of seafloor
• 
  

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• Problems / Challenges
• Others
• Seaweed collection
• Trap fishing
• Sewage disposal
• Coastal development (Industries, salt pans etc)

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• Present status of live coral cover 35-40
• Several coral species disappeared / threatened /
• endangered
• Two islands have already submerged
• Erosion in other several islands

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What was done Aim Restoration of degraded
coral areas in Gulf of Mannar
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• Coral restoration by transplantation
• Awareness creation
• 2001 Male 29 Female 3.1
• 2004 Male 80 Female 20
• Post tsunami 100 (Role in coastal
  protection)
• Introduction of viable livelihood schemes
• Vermicomposting
• Crab / Lobster fattening
• Development of value added products from
• under utilized marine resources

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Coral Restoration - Substrates

• Artificial substrates (Concrete frames, cement
  slabs and local man-made fish houses)

Concrete Frames
Fish houses
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• The ferro cement frames and fish houses were
  deployed at various depths in the sandy bottom
  area, as well degraded area.
• About 25-30 fragments of 8-11 cm are tightly
  fixed on each cement frame and 3-5 small branches
  of over 11 cm were tied tightly on fish houses.

Vertically Fixed 5 months cultured Acropora
nobilis
3 months cultured Acropora nobilis shows
formation of basal disc
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• Coral species
• Acropora
• Acropora intermedia
• Acropora cytherea
• Acropora nobilis
• Acropora humilis
• Acropora formosa
• Montipora divaricata
• Montipora foliosa
• Montipora hispida
• Montipora jonesii
• Non-Acropora
• Turbinaria mesenterina
• Favia palida
• Porites lutea

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Schematic diagram for monitoring frequency
Survival and growth (once in a month)
Water and sediment Analysis (once in a month)
Benthos and plankton (once in a month)
Coral restoration sampling map
Visual censes (once in a month)
Sedimentation study (once in a month)
Recruitment study (once in a month)
Epifauna (once in a month)
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• The fragments are completely fused to the
  substrate after 3 weeks

8 months cultured Acropora cytherea showing
basal disc formation 6 m depth
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Different growth stages of transplanted corals
substrate using Cement slabs
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Different growth stages of transplanted corals
substrate using Fish Houses
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• Results
• Over 1 sq.km degraded area was restored.
• The said methods are cost effective and suitable
  for large-scale restoration. 
• There was an increase of 9.5 fin fishes, 3.1
  crustaceans, 3.2 echinoderms and 11.5 mollusks
  at transplanted sites when compared to control
  sites.
• The total biomass at the Transplanted sites was
  30 higher than at control sites.
• Coral restoration will not only help to enhance
  the coral cover and biomass, but also provide
  long term benefit to coast and people.

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• Survival and annual growth rates of the
  transplanted corals
• The overall survival rate of all species is
  (85-90).
• Acropora
• Acropora intermedia - 12.1 cm
• Acropora cytherea - 9.9 cm
• Acropora nobilis - 4.8 cm
• Acropora humilis - 2.7 cm
• Acropora formosa - 9.6 cm
• Montipora divaricata - 4.5 cm
• Montipora foliosa - 5.8 cm
• Montipora hispida - 2.7 cm
• Montipora jonesii - 1.5 cm
• Non-Acropora
• Turbinaria mesenterina - 1.9 cm
• Favia palida - 1.5 cm
• Porites lutea - 1.8 cm

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• Lessons Learned
• Required 3 years to create awareness among
  fisher folk.
• Fisher folk voluntarily stopped mining after
  2004
• tsunami
• Restoration, alternative livelihood and
  awareness
• schemes should proceed in parallel.
• Enforcement will help to check the illegal
  destructive
• practices.
• Building capacity among fisher folk in viable
  alternative
• livelihood options based on available coastal
  resources
• and facilities will reduce fishing pressure.
• 
  

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• Difficulties
• Difficult to convince Government to scale up
  pilot
• restoration
• Natural barrier concept was accepted after
  tsunami and
• now reef restoration is one of the priority
  areas for ecosystem rehabilitation.
• Addressing all conservation related issues at
  the same
• time is a difficult task.
• Lack of sufficient funding and trained manpower
• 
  

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• Next step to be considered
• Coral restoration, alternative livelihood and
  awareness
• creation in other degraded parts of the
  archipelago.
• Capacity building of Government stakeholders,
  students
• and local communities in SCUBA diving and basic
  reef
• information.
• Capacity building in SCUBA diving would help to
• enhance the possibilities of community based
  ecotourism
• for livelihood, awareness creation
  conservation.
• Introduction of more viable sea based
  alternative
• livelihood projects
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Thank you