Thomas Le Berre moving coral frames made of rebar coated in resin and sand that have been placed in the shallows surrounding Kuda Huraa Island on North Malé Atoll. Almost all of the shallow coral in the Maldives (90% above 15 meters depth) was killed in an El Niño event in 1998 due to high water temperatures. Small pieces of coral are attached to the frame with plastic cable ties so that they can get established and grow. The coral is making a strong comeback and can grow from 1-30cm./year depending on the specie.
Tourists visiting the two Four Seasons resorts can sponsor a coral frame, and many of them bear the names of past visitors, and every six months they can download a picture of their frame to see how much the coral has grown. There are approx. one million foreign visitors to the Maldives each year. Thomas and his team have installed over 2,600 frames in the waters surrounding the two Four Seasons resorts.
This photograph is part of a project that examines the global impact of rising sea levels, and the ways different countries and communities are engineering solutions to this growing problem.
- Filename
- STNMTZ_20130311_15009.tif
- Copyright
- ©2013 George Steinmetz
- Image Size
- 5616x3744 / 60.2MB
- Contained in galleries
- Rising Seas
