Photography provided by Brilliant Studios

Reef RESCQ - Adopt-A-Coral

Coral reefs around the world are under siege from development, climate change, ocean acidification and rising sea temperatures.  As more and more visitors come to the Turks & Caicos Islands, there is more pressure on the health of our lovely reefs.  You can now do something to help preserve and protect these reefs.  Join our Adopt-A-Coral program, part of our Reef RESCQ (Restoration of Ecosystem Services and Coral Reef Quality) effort, and help us restore healthy coral to damaged reef areas.  See the details below and then click our PayPal button and we'll send you a certificate documenting the coral you have adopted.

Project RESCQ (Restoration of Ecosystem Services and Coral Reef Quality) is a EU-funded research project being undertaken by TCRF under the guidance and direction of the Wangeningen Research Institue in the Netherlands.  The project is a collaboration between Wangeningen and four Caribbean islands (TCI, Saba, Sint Maarten, and St. Eustatius.  It is focused on restoring two critically endangered coral species - Staghorn (Acropora cervicornis) and Elkhorn (Acropora palmata) - which were the primary reef building corals throughout the Caribbean until a coral disease (White Band Disease) nearly wiped out both species.  

Although some colonies of both species survived, their numbers remain limited.  The goal of this project is to harvest fragments of both species from wild colonies, grow them up on coral "ladders" and ultimately transplant them back to reef sites in an effort to restore healthy populations of both species.  Adoption of corals growing in the nursery will help fund the work and keep the nurseries going.