The majority of my fourth day on the BVI was spent on the Seadragon, and I have the sunburns to prove it. We had our breakfast at the marina again, and we headed out to Long Bay for coral transplants and harvesting. We began our venture with a lengthy snorkel to the shore from our boat. We looked for examples of damage to coral reefs such as anchor damage and temperature damage so that we knew what condition of coral to look for when actually transplanting. After a tiring snorkel back to the boat, and a few close encounters with fire coral and sting rays, we were briefed by Casey and Jeff for successfully transplanting coral. We would break the coral gently with a hammer five inches above the diseased or damaged area with a hammer. The ideal coral for transplanting is healthy, at least 5 cm long, and doesn’t have more than two points.
My transplanting team included Tanner, Joe, Drew, Casey, and Myself. We collected 11 fragments of stag horn coral that was in need of rescue. We ended our first dive, had lunch, and went back down for a second dive. During this dive, we transplanted the coral by either using an epoxy, an underwater glue, or a zip tie. I was in charge of handing zip ties to Casey, who tied the coral to rocks that were relatively smooth and sturdy. We concluded that zip ties work better than the messy epoxy for attaching stag horn coral because the shaft of the coral does not have a large surface area unlike that of elkhorn coral, which has a larger surface area and therefore it sticks better to the rock surface. Our last scuba dive of the trip was an interesting and satisfying one, and I am certainly looking forward to some really cool snorkels in the days to come.
