SW F Fishing News June 2000 College of American Somoa, plus the pioneering work of Dr. Austin Kirby
Bowden, Coralations, G.A.R.F. and thousands of marine aquarium hobbyists, Reef Ball is now
introducing Reef Ball molds in Bay Ball and larger sizes with modifications to accept standardized
asexual coral propagation plugs. Training is available from several organizations on the creation and
farming of these plugs . . . usually from second or third generation mother corals to insure no damage to
natural reefs. Some organizations, such as Applied Marine Technologies, even offer pre-fanned plugs in
aquacultured conditions.
Although special permits are usually required to undertake this type of work, it is simple enough for
classrooms, dive clubs, local governmental staffs or others to accomplish with high degrees of success.
And the technology is not expensive! In fact, with volunteers doing the work, it is practically free!
This technology is superior to past governmental "restoration" works where coral heads were
essentially transplanted whole which resulted in high mortality rates because the corals were not
properly adapted to the new location in terms of lighting, currents and other conditions. Additionally,
this newer method does not require harming the existing coral heads in the wild. With asexual
propagation techniques, coral reef revitalization can be sped up tremendously. However, the Reef Balls
must be designed to allow additional natural settlement of new corals to make sure that species diversity
of the natural reefs is ultimately achieved
Expect this work to be the standard of excellence for areas where slow-growing hard corals have
discouraged the use of designed artificial reefs due to the longer time horizons required to achieve a
natural balance.
Existing Reef Ball reefs can be retrofitted with this technology, but the propagation techniques are
more time consuming than with the newly developed standardized plug receptacles. However, it is
simple to adapt your existing Reef Ball molds to the new technology so that future Reef Balls made with
your molds can accept the standardized propagation plugs.....
