Burgers' Ocean helps build Noah's Ark
Monday, 22 April 2024
On Monday morning, 22 April 2024, divers from Royal Burgers' Zoo set out the first corals from the World Coral Conservatory project in Burgers’ Ocean. Since November 2022, the Arnhem zoo has been participating in an international pilot project with the Oceanographic Museum of Monaco, Nausicaa in Boulogne-sur-Mer and Oceanopolis in Brest to build a reserve population of endangered coral reefs in aquaria worldwide. Initiated and funded by Monaco, the project aims to conserve and, where possible, restore coral reefs with the help of this joint Noah’s Ark.
Tropical coral reefs are seriously endangered
Coral reefs are under pressure worldwide, primarily due to global warming but also because of pollution and various other harmful practices, such as blast fishing. A number of public aquaria worldwide have extensive knowledge and expertise regarding maintaining and breeding corals; these aquaria have been working together intensively for years and regularly exchange corals bred in-house.
A Monaco initiative to turn the tide
The World Coral Conservatory (WCC) was founded in November 2022 at the initiative of the Monaco Scientific Centre (Centre Scientifique de Monaco) and the Oceanographic Institute of Monaco. The aim is to harness the knowledge and expertise of collaborating public and private aquaria, universities and other scientific institutions to build a reserve population of corals to preserve and, where possible, restore coral reefs.
Putting it to the test
In November 2022, four public aquaria (Monaco, Boulogne-sur-Mer, Brest and Arnhem) launched a pilot project involving corals from Aldabra, whose exact location, depth and conditions are known. Because the origin is known, these corals have the potential to be released back into the wild in the future. These corals have been chipped and meticulously recorded in an international database (ZIMS) and are now the pioneers of a future, global Noah’s Ark. The four aquaria regularly discuss the corals’ condition and exchange knowledge and experiences. The corals have been kept behind the scenes and have developed very well in a year and a half. The placement of the first corals in the public display aquarium marks an important milestone for the project.
Hopeful plans
Based on the successful pilot project, the four participating public aquaria are now working out various protocols to establish a basis for many more corals to be sent to many more participating public aquaria. Corals whose origin is known have the potential to be returned to the wild in the future. By building up an ex-situ population of these corals, participating public aquaria can make an important contribution to the long-term conservation of corals that are disappearing in nature.
An increasingly important role in conservation
The current coral collection in Arnhem consists of more than 120 species of reef-building corals and thousands of individual colonies. However, the precise origin of most of these corals is unknown, as they have been sourced from other public aquaria or seizures of illegally imported corals. The potential to return them to the wild is limited, as there is a high risk of introducing an invasive species. Through the World Coral Conservatory project, Burgers’ Ocean can play a very important role in conservation in the near future by contributing directly to the conservation of coral reefs around the world.
