Pledge to Protect: ONE°15 Marina Coral Garden Updates

Aug 10, 2021

With more than 27% of the world’s coral reefs being destroyed, ONE°15 Marina is on a mission to go green and safeguard our beautiful marine biodiversity through the launch of the ONE°15 Marina – Seakeepers Asia Coral Garden project.

In conjunction with the Tropical Marine Science Institute (TMSI) of NUS and sponsors The International SeaKeepers Society Asia, Audi Singapore and SC Global Developments, this project aims to protect the marine-eco-system in our marina and provide a natural habitat for existing sea life so that we may nurture an aquatic treasure trove for all to explore.

In this post, we would like to document and share the exciting updates and project developments through our restorative efforts.

Updates

July 2023

As of 23 July 2023, 106 coral transplants (overall surviorship of 44.3%) remained, contributing to 2.42m² of live coral area. Most coral transplants appeared healthy with visible growth of new tissue. As some of corals merged, growth rates of the transplants will not be reported as it may not accurately reflect the actual growth rates of individual colonies.

As of July 2023, 45 live coral fragments remained on the nursery frames. Most of the surviving coral fragments were healthy. The team has also retrieved COPs from detached Echinopora horrida, Pavona frondifera, Pectinia paeonia, Platygyra spp. and Turbinaria mesenterina colonies at the coral garden to rear on the nursery frames.

Turbinaria mesenterina colonies on the nursery frame

Reef fauna such as false clown anemonefish (Amphiprion ocellaris), cuttlefish (Sepia spp.), yellow striped scads (Selaroides leptolepis) and cheesecake nudibranch (Doriprismatica atromarginata) have also been documented at the coral garden. These observations highlighted the potential of the structures to function as novel habits for marine organisms.

13 November 2022

As of 13 November 2022, 110 coral transplants remained, which contributed 2.00m² of live coral area. Most coral transplants appeared healthy with visible growth of new tissue and Some Goniastrea aspera, Pavona frondifera, Podabacia crustacea and Turbinaria mesenterina coral transplants have merged into large colonies.

21 July 2021

Coral transplants on the seawall
In total, 239 hard coral fragments have been transplanted to the seawall. As of 21 June 2021, 130 coral transplants remained, contributing to 1.48 m² of live coral area. Most coral transplants appeared healthy with visible growth of new tissue. Some coral transplants also started to merge.

Coral fragments on nursery frames
Since August 2019, 106 coral fragments from 14 genera have been transferred to the new frames. As of June 2021, 63 live coral fragments remained on the nursery frames. Most of the surviving coral fragments were healthy, and some coral colonies such as Cyphastrea and Porites had encrusted on the frames. Reef fauna such as feather duster worms, juvenile carpet eel blennies and Haddon’s carpet anemones have also been documented on the nursery frames, highlighting the potential of the structures to function as novel habitats for marine organisms.

All surviving transplants increased in live tissue area, ranging from 1.1 to 61.7 times. Turbinaria mesenterina transplants had the fastest mean areal growth (7.3 ± 3.4 cm²/month) amongst the species.

Take a look at our seabed that’s now populated with corals!

18 August 2020

Fishes are spotted in the seas, making our coral garden their home!

Our coral garden is also spotted growing well and looking healthy after the transplant. Just take a look at the before (top) & after (bottom) photos of our coral garden! As of 15 January 2020, 174 live coral transplants remained on the seawall with an overall survivorship of 72.8% and a total area of 7301.33 cm².

Take a dive under the waters and check out how the researchers from the Tropical Marine Science Institute (TMSI) of NUS conduct the coral garden transplantation!

Six new nursery frames were installed along the pontoons at Area P on 28th August 2019. As of January 2020, 95 live coral fragments remained on the nursery frames. Most coral fragments had recovered from the fragmentation process and appeared healthy.

On 31st July 2019, the team were requested by management to assist in the deployment of a “coral aggregating structure”. As of January 2020, only sediment and turf algae were observed on the structure. Below is an image of the structure at the start and six months after deployment.

8 September 2019

ONE°15 Marina is extremely honored to have our event sponsor, Marina Technology & Construction Pte Ltd (MTC) as a part of the PACT (Plant-A-Coral-Today) Project on our 12th Anniversary. A group of divers from NUS Tropical Marine Science Institute played their part by planting corals at the Marina, in an effort to build a thriving Marine biodiversity within the waters of ONE°15 Marina Sentosa Cove.

29 August 2019

Check out the growth of the coral fragments over a period of 3 months, what progress!

The team has also installed 6 new nursery frames along the pontoons and transferred corals of opportunity (COPs) onto the new frames to improve the health and survivorship of the coral fragments. The old frames will be repurposed as nursery tables by overturning and anchoring them to the seabed to rear more corals.

12 June 2019

Here are some before and after photos of our coral garden, as well as a sneak peek of the coral monitoring process.

15 April 2019

Over the past few months, the TMSI team transferred over 70 coral fragments onto the new seawall, monitoring their growth and health. The overall transplant survivorship was 91.1% – most coral transplant recovered from the transplantation process and appeared healthy with visible growth, growing up to twice their initial area.

These statistics show that using marine epoxy was viable in assisting the transplation of corals at ONE°15 Marina, and that certain species such as Tubrinaria mesenterina and Goniastrea aspera are suitable for larger-scale marina transplantation.

Juvenile marine fishes such as the black eeltail catfish, kite butterflyfish, and longfin spadefish were seen seeking shelter and food at the nursery frames.

8 January 2019

The TMSI team are currently working on the following recommendations to enhance the coral gardens:

Convert two wells from Boaters’ Bar and all six floating nursery frames into nursery tables.
Reinforce and replace new metal mesh on all 3 old floating nursery frames.
Install additional new six floating nursery frames based on the old metal frame structures.
Diving to transfer some corals from the floating frames to temporary holding frames to assess the integrity of the old frames.

24 December 2018

We are proud to report that there has been an overall coral transplant survivor-ship of 93.2%. Most of the coral transplants have recovered from the transplantation process and appeared healthy with visible growth. The transplants increased in size by an average of 0.97 – 1.59 times.

30 November 2018

We transferred 36 coral fragments from the nursery to the seawell. In total, 80 hard coral fragments have been transplanted to the seawell area. 77 live coral transplants remained on the seawall. The total area of coral transplants was 1503.4cm².

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Pledge to Protect: ONE°15 Marina Coral Garden Updates