A major bottleneck to planting efficiency has been (re-)attaching corals to the reef. For tourism industries, physical attachment approaches are generally favoured over chemical approaches (e.g. glues), leading to John Edmondson’s conception of Coralclip®. The device consists of a stainless-steel spring clip that clamps the coral or fragment to the reef for long enough to begin growing onto the substrate securely. The device is overgrown by the coral or corroded (for example, after several months the metal feels very thin and brittle). Through the first phases of Coral Nurture Program, we demonstrated that these low-cost clips could be deployed typically in 15 seconds, with up to several hundred corals planted per shallow dive. Its small, unobtrusive design means it blends into the seascape and so useful for retaining the aesthetics of tourism reef sites.
John Edmondson’s Coralclip® is now routinely deployed at sites across the Great Barrier Reef, and has been trialled overseas at other reef sites spanning the Caribbean and Indo-Pacific. If you are interested in trialling small batches or purchasing larger batches, please contact us on email info@coralnurtureprogram.org Materials and labour result in each Coralclip® typically costing less than AUD$0.40 (the exact price depends on the order size, materials costs at the time of purchase and whether you wish the nails to be supplied and integrated).
Coral Nurture Program does not make a profit from Coralclip® but we do ask that you cover postage costs if possible. We are also keen to collaborate following any supply, by comparing our data on Coralclip® success with that collected across other reef sites and operations.
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