Rescuing Tuvalu's Corals: A Race Against Time

In 2024, a devastating marine heat wave decimated Tuvalu's coral reefs and killed 99.9% of all corals. Yet hope remains. Our team has located rare survivors hidden in remote locations—small colony branches and a few entire colonies clinging to life despite predation from parrotfish and isolation from potential spawning partners.

Our Three-Part Strategy:

We've established a gene bank nursery in an ideal reef site, preserving precious coral samples and entire small colonies. In the field, we're also strategically relocating corals close together to restore their ability to reproduce. Most importantly, we're harnessing nature's own recovery mechanism: larval recruitment. Remarkably, dozens of coral larvae have drifted in from some unknown source in the ocean with tidal currents, setting around surviving corals, clearly attracted to living corals, verus most parts of the reef, where no corals are found.

This ground-breaking approach has global significance—understanding how to accelerate natural coral recovery could transform reef restoration worldwide.

The Challenge:

Working with our local NGO partner, we fund a dedicated Tuvaluan PhD student and conduct monitoring missions every six months. However, our UNDP funding for field operations ends in September. While salaries are covered through other grants, we urgently need resources to continue fieldwork and bring our scientist back to guide this critical restoration effort.

The window to save these corals is narrow. Your support directly funds the boots on the ground doing the impossible work of reef recovery.