The KAUST Coral Restoration Initiative team took action for World Ocean Day: 31 divers, 3 days, 2 Red Sea islands.
The KCRI team headed out to the Red Sea to join Coralpalooza — the Coral Restoration Foundation’s annual global campaign that brings reef restorers together from around the world to support global activation of awareness for reef restoration, to plant corals, protect reefs, and share their work with each other and with the wider public.
Over 3 days, 31 KCRI divers explored 2 islands and 10 reef sites, contributing 15 surveys to the Great Reef Census — a global citizen-science dataset that helps track reef health worldwide. The team also removed 801 Drupella snails, 13 Aquilonastra sea stars, and 1 Crown of Thorns starfish — all coral predators — to protect the living reef across the sites they visited.
Coralpalooza unites divers, scientists, and volunteers across more than 13 countries with a single mantra: plant a coral, restore a reef. For KCRI, it was a chance to put that idea into practice alongside the wider community working on reef restoration around the world.
KCRI’s Coralpalooza in numbers
- 2 islands explored
- 10 reef sites visited
- 31 divers involved
- 10 Nationalities
- 15 Great Reef Census surveys contributed
- 801 Drupella snails removed
- 13 Aquilonastra sea stars removed
- 1 Crown of Thorns starfish removed
Huge well done to everyone who took part!
