Inside a facility at Sand Island, state Department of Land and Natural Resources workers are nurturing all kinds of marine life from sea urchins to coral colonies to help restore and enhance our reefs.
HPR got an opportunity to visit a coral nursery at the Division of Aquatic Resources to see what goes into growing coral. The Conversation talked with Christina Jayne, coral curator at the facility, about the work underway and a series of meetings that kicks off this week.
“Our whole goal is to take small corals, grow them up bigger and faster than they would grow naturally, and then plant these individual coral colonies out onto reefs that have been damaged or degraded,” she said.
Stepping into the laboratory, it looks like a bakery. Glass shelves display what look like pyramid-shaped desserts, decorated with toasted miniature marshmallows — only they are coral structures that will soon be outplanted on the south and east side of Oʻahu.
“The coral pyramids that we have here, the final product, for example of our 16-inch corals, naturally in the wild would be 20 to 25 years old, and we are growing them in one to two years,” Jayne said. “So we're drastically speeding up the growth rate so that we can plant these corals out on the reef and contribute to the habitat and contribute to the restoration of our coral reef ecosystems.”
DAR is asking the public to weigh in on the selection of two sites out of four to target. One set of options is in Waikīkī at Turtle Canyon, or behind the Waikīkī Aquarium in the marine conservation district. The other choice is between Kewalo or Maunalua Bay.
The first meeting is at the Waikīkī Aquarium classroom on March 27 at 5:30 p.m., and two others will be held in April. Work is expected to begin later this summer and take a year to complete.
Click here for more information on the project.
This interview aired on The Conversation on March 26, 2025. The Conversation airs weekdays at 11 a.m.
