Wilder Reefs

Back in December we launched a small trial of coral reef restoration in the Nusa Penida Marine Protected Area (MPA).

The long term aim of the project is to restore just under one hectare of reef within the MPA. Being able to trial our methods before scaling up operations has been incredibly valuable. It provides the chance to iron out the logistical teething issues around underwater deployment and monitoring. This particular patch of reef is scarred by a history of dynamite fishing, which fragments the reef and leaves patches of coral rubble that are unable to regenerate on their own.

Stages of the trial

The first step in our trial was to secure the coral rubble so it can’t damage developing coral polyps (the tiny anemone-like animals that make up coral and their reefs). Our trial used 7 hexagonal metal structures, each around 50 cm diameter, that tessellate together to form something akin to a very large net.

Once the structures were secured to the seabed using stakes, we were able to collect coral fragments from the neighbouring patches of healthy reef. These fragments are naturally occurring due to environmental conditions, such as strong currents as well as the action of corallivores, like turtles and parrotfish. We then securely attached the coral fragments to the steel structures to give the reef a head start in regenerating its coral cover.

What we're checking for

Not all of the coral fragments will survive the move onto these structures so monthly monitoring is required to see how the transplanted corals are surviving. After a quick clean to remove any algae that may be starting to smother the coral fragments, each fragment is visually inspected to check for calcium carbonate deposition. Stressed corals will deposit little calcium carbonate, whereas thriving corals will be actively expanding their corallite skeleton.

The initial inspection

Our latest monitoring visit shows only a couple of stressed individuals with the majority exhibiting good calcium carbonate deposition to anchor themselves onto our reef structures. We’ll be checking on them next month, but in the meantime we’re working to get everything ready for a much larger scale deployment.

Keep your eyes peeled for a more detailed breakdown of our monitoring in the next field report and the full launch of the project coming soon!

We’re officially launching our project to restore damaged coral reefs in Indonesia! If you've been following our field report updates, you'll have seen the preparation we've been doing to get this project off the ground. Now the bureaucratic part is complete, we're excited to start showing you more of our work! As our first coral reef restoration project, we’re aiming to improve reef resilience by stabilising and restoring damaged areas of coral rubble and improving connectivity across 1 hectare of reef within the Nusa Penida Marine Protected Area.

Coral reefs support a dazzling array of diversity with about 25% of the ocean’s fish dependent on healthy coral reefs for shelter, food and to rear their young in the many nooks and crannies formed by corals.

However, it is estimated that we have lost 50% of our reefs in the last 30 years. Our project area has historically struggled from dynamite fishing, where explosives are thrown into the water to stun the fish, causing them to float to the surface for easy collection. Thankfully, this practice is now illegal but the coral rubble remains with the reef unable to heal on its own.

These rubble areas will be the target of our project as we take a two step approach to restoring the reef.

1. Secure the coral rubble and create a stable substrate suitable for coral polyps and new coral growth.

2. Translocate coral fragments to form starter populations and kickstart recovery.

So far, we have carried out baseline surveys for the area and submitted our restoration proposal to the marine ministry. We are pleased to say we have just received the licence to restore our chosen area of reef and have carried out a small trial to test and refine our proposed method for restoration with promising initial results.

If you want to see our recent deployments and be immersed in the underwater world of coral reefs then check out our latest vlog below. Diving into these reefs is an incredible experience as we drifted from awe inspiring healthy reef towards our rubble area. Watching the transitions between rubble and reef is really quite eye opening and a real motivator to create more healthy reef.

If you want to explore the project more, here are a few ways:

• Project Page: outlining the project’s scope and context.
• Project Discussion: hear how this project has evolved and an in-depth description of the restoration process.
• Transparency Dashboard: browse through the amazing array of marine life around the reefs.

Finally, look out for a video on YouTube in the coming months!

This month has been incredibly productive for our coral restoration project. We’ve managed to cover more than half of the first project area, transplanting over 12,000 coral fragments. The new growth is thriving beautifully, and we’re thrilled to see an increase in the fish population around the site, including species like Parrotfish, Trumpetfish, which are now frequent visitors and some resident Damselfish.

Stay tuned as we dive deeper into the details, share some exciting underwater footage, and introduce you to the amazing marine life that’s making a comeback! 🐠💙

If you want to support the project further, then check out our new Fund Extra campaign to purchase more reef structures.

We're excited to share some positive updates on our coral restoration project.

Firstly, we're pleased to report we're making significant progress on our second rubble area! The new site is showing great potential, and we're optimistic about the results we're seeing so far.

Secondly, we’ve been comparing three different materials for coral attachment: plastic zip ties, hemp rope, and cotton twine. Each has its own pros and cons, and we're carefully monitoring how they perform in terms of durability and coral growth. Our initial observations suggest that while hemp rope and cotton twine are more sustainable, they have shown lower attachment rates compared to zip ties over the same period. The experiment is still in progress, and we're eager to see the final results.

Finally, onto a major change: we're now trying stainless steel zip ties to connect the structures. This decision is driven by our commitment to reducing plastic waste. By using stainless steel zip ties, we would cut down our plastic use by 25%. Not only are these ties strong and durable, but they also seem to work great for securing our structures together. We'll be closely monitoring their durability over time to ensure they hold up in the marine environment. In our initial try-out, however, it hasn't been as easy to apply the stainless steal ties to the coral fragments so we will continue testing this material for coral attachment going forward.

Thank you all for your continued support! Hope you enjoy checking out our newest update in this vlog! If you have any questions, please let me know in the comments below.

This monthly Field Notes vlog from Indonesia is full of updates! Here's a short summary of what's packed in:

Scoping out a new project site

Yudi went to assess a potential restoration site for a new project off the east coast of Lombok! Follow his trip as he talks to the local diving community to learn about the conditions of coral on the reef, whether blast fishing is still happening in the area, and to gather a baseline scenario on fish abundance.

New colonies of fish

Restoration of the first rubble area is really starting to take shape with the team observing groups of fish occupying certain coral fragments on our structures. Yudi is particularly pleased to show you the group of Cloudy dascyllus and a Lemon damsel they found!

Threatened Blue coral growing on our structures!

This vulnerable coral is one of the species we've been using to attach to our structures, and with great success so far!

Unwelcome visitors found on site

Our divers have spotted a handful of coral-eating snails making their way onto a few structures so the team have moved them on and out of harms way.

This is a vlog you won't want to miss if you've been enjoying our behind the scenes footage lately.

Remember if you want to help supercharge this work, you can purchase extra restoration structures in the Fund Extra tab (and receive a photo of each structure on the reef!).

This monthly Field Notes vlog from Indonesia is full of updates! Here's a short summary of what's in this episode.

We're thrilled to say we've completed deployments covering the second rubble area with our restoration structures! This milestone marks another significant step in our coral project to transform barren underwater landscapes into thriving marine habitats.

We're also beginning a new experiment collaborating with Blue Corner Marine Research to capture acoustic data from four different sites. We hope analysing these sound recordings will help us to understand the unique soundscapes of each environment and evaluate the success of our restoration efforts. 🌊

Our restoration efforts are advancing to the third site, which is the largest rubble area we've tackled so far. Considering the challenges we faced at our first site, particularly the growth competition among coral fragments, our marine biologist, Chansa, has proposed an innovative new structure model. This design aims to mitigate these challenges and promote the healthy growth of slow-growing coral species.

In this vlog, I'll also explain the process we used to create a 3D map of our first site. This 3D map not only helps showcase our efforts but also serves as a valuable tool for monitoring progress and making informed decisions for future restoration projects.

Life on our reef has been given a shake up during the recent monsoon season. Here's a summary of the latest field notes vlog at our Wilder Reefs project!

🌊 Monsoon season brought strong waves that caused a stir on the reef, damaging coral and shifting rubble and other species around. Amidst the turbulence, we’ve discovered some new challenges facing our coral.

🧹 Maintenance work continues to stop the spread of algae and coral-killing species from smothering our young coral fragments.

🔦 Night dive - We found some interesting species not spotted during the day around our coral structures. It was cool to see the perspective underwater at night and to find out that one of these night creatures is helping to protect our coral!

If you’re keen to dive deeper into our work restoring reefs and other projects, these vlogs will give you a regular behind the scenes look at what’s been happening. Check out the channel playlists to follow your favourites!

Things are moving fast with our Wilder Reefs project, and we’ve got some exciting updates! Area 3 is officially deployed with our restoration structures, adding another section for coral fragments to grow on the reef.

We also kicked off a new experiment—testing attaching coral fragments with aluminum wire to see if it helps them settle better, and hopefully able to replace the use of plastic zip ties. So far, things are looking pretty solid, and this could be a great method for future restoration work. And we started use more dome structures to create structural diversity in our restoration site.

And the best part yet, natural coral recruits have started showing up! That means the ecosystem is responding well, and corals are naturally settling into the area. Seeing new coral life pop up on its own is a huge win!

We’ll dive into all the details in the vlog, check out the progress and see the experiment in action! 🎥🐠

Hey everyone! 🌊 Here's what we’ve been up to lately:

We completed our first annual monitoring survey across six project areas—three restored, three still rubble fields. The data collected included:

📸 Coral coverage via Underwater Photo Transects (UPT), using a custom-built tripod for consistent imaging.

🐠 Fish abundance through Underwater Visual Census (UVC)—recording both roaming and resident fish communities.

🦀 Benthic diversity—from sea cucumbers to coral predators like Drupella, we record the marine life roaming on the sea floor at our project areas.

🌱 And in older restoration zones, we searched for natural coral recruits—and found four promising new growths!

Right now, we’re expanding to Area 4—a smaller rubble field—where we’re mixing in some dome structures, and even microfragmented a broken chunk of table coral to create a coral cluster. We're so excited to see how it thrives!

Thanks for your support! If you want help us produce more reef structures, go to the Fund Extra tab where you can buy extras!

Thanks as always for tuning in. 💙

We’ve discovered a little species at our coral restoration site that’s doing a big job!

Hidden within the arms of a young Acropora colony, we found a carapace-wide crab no bigger than a grain of rice. These Acropora Coral crabs (Tetralia glaberrima) scuttle through narrow corridors between branchlets, arriving only once their coral host reaches roughly 1.5–2.2 cm across (about eight months post‐settlement). In that snug, branchy labyrinth, these tiny crabs don’t just find shelter; they are an obligate coral symbionts, meaning they have a close, mutually beneficial relationship with certain coral species, primarily Acropora.

From the moment they take up residence, Tetralia glaberrima embark on two critical tasks:

1. Sediment Clearing: They use their tiny claws to whisk away debris and silt so the coral polyps don’t get smothered.
2. Active Defence: They fend off tiny coral predators—drupella snails, juvenile crown-of-thorns starfis, and other nibblers—driving them away with sharp pinches.

The presence of Tetralia crabs, can significantly increase the survival rate of coral fragments. Once settled, those tiny crustaceans boost juvenile coral health during its most vulnerable phase. On the rough, wave-battered parts of the reef, these crabs keep the coral squeaky-clean so it can grow faster, and in the chill lagoons they’re basically on constant pest patrol.

In the vast worlds of coral reefs ecosystem, Tetralia glaberrima are proof that sometimes the smallest players can wield the greatest power. Check out the video below of these tiny guardians whose unseen labours are helping our branching corals establish.

We hope you enjoy this bit of news and that you see by supporting this project, you’re helping these incredible interactions take place!