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Singapore launches most extensive coral restoration effort with planting of 100,000 corals
A new facility will also be set up at St John’s Island to cultivate corals to restore degraded reefs.
Natasha Ganesan Channel NewsAsia 10 Dec 2024.
SINGAPORE: The National Parks Board (NParks) on Tuesday (Dec 10) launched an initiative, dubbed as Singapore’s "most extensive coral restoration effort", to plant 100,000 corals.
Known as the 100k Corals Initiative, the aim is to plant the corals in Singapore's waters over the next 10 years and beyond.
The plan was first announced by Minister for National Development and Minister-in-charge of Social Services Integration Desmond Lee during the 5th Asia-Pacific Coral Reef Symposium last year.
NParks then said that this will scale up existing coral restoration efforts to substantially improve the resilience of coral communities and reefs.
As part of the initiative, a new coral culture facility will also be established at the Marine Park Outreach and Education Centre on St John's Island, NParks said in a media release on Tuesday.
It is targeted to be fully operational and open to the public in the second quarter of 2025.
At the facility, corals will first be cultivated by coral restoration experts and researchers from the National University of Singapore at the St John’s Island National Marine Laboratory.
They will then be transplanted into the marine environment to restore degraded reefs or establish new communities.
Launching the initiative at St John's Island on Tuesday, Mr Lee said that climate change and human action pose a significant threat to Singapore's coral reefs.
Coral bleaching is also happening "a lot more frequently", he said, pointing to the fourth global coral bleaching event, which is the second in the last decade.
The minister said that Singapore has taken steps to conserve its coral reefs such as monitoring them for signs of coral bleaching.
He also pointed to the enhanced Sisters’ Islands Marine Park, which has a coral habitat and research site, as well as reef enhancement units to promote coral growth.
"While much has been done to monitor and restore our corals, we can do much more to ensure the long-term survival of our reefs," he added.
Also in attendance at the launch was English zoologist Jane Goodall, who is known for her long-term research on chimpanzees. Dr Goodall shared on marine conservation during the event.
FROM LAB TO WATERS
The coral species cultivated at the new facility include those under NParks' Species Recovery Programme such as the Staghorn and Plate Acropora corals.
The recovery programme, which was introduced in 2015 as part of NParks' Nature Conservation Masterplan, aims to conserve native flora and fauna by targeting rare or threatened species.
Serving as an "ex-situ coral nursery", the facility houses six tanks that can rear up to 600 coral nubbins - small fragments produced from adult colonies - each at any one time.
The nubbins will be attached to a specially designed frame that maximises the number of corals that can be cultivated in the tanks and grown under controlled conditions.
Once the nubbins have grown large enough, they will then be transplanted to damaged reefs for restoration purposes or inserted into other areas to establish new communities.
Other sources of transplant include "corals-of-opportunity", which are naturally fragmented corals lying free on the floor that may not survive without external intervention, said NParks.
"Altogether, this will aid species recovery efforts for rarer coral species and increase coral cover and diversity in Singapore, complementing efforts under NParks' Marine Conservation Action Plan to protect the natural heritage of our City in Nature," it added.
The action plan, launched in 2015, sets out strategies to protect, restore and enhance Singapore's coastal and marine habitats.
The six tanks in the facility will also be installed with a smart coral culture aquaculture system set up by Delta Electronics. This is part of a two-year research programme between NParks and Delta established to kickstart the 100k Corals Initiative.
The system monitors water conditions using various instruments and transmits data to researchers, which enables remote monitoring and timely intervention.
For example, if the temperature of the tanks is too high, the automated system will send an alert, allowing for a quicker response that can minimise adverse impact such as coral bleaching, said NParks.
As part of the research programme, NParks will also work with experts to develop a nationwide coral
Volunteers will be trained to assist with coral husbandry - a practice of raising corals in a controlled environment to help them reproduce and grow - as well as underwater monitoring requirements.
The 100k Corals Initiative has received more than S$2 million (US$1.4 million) in support of the Garden City Fund, NParks' registered charity and Institution of a Public Character (IPC), and from donors such as Delta Electronics, GSK-EDB Trust Fund, Deutsche Bank, Takashimaya Singapore and KPI OceanConnect.
Thanking the donors, Mr Lee said Singapore will continue to press on with its coral conservation and research efforts.
"And together, let's conserve our precious marine and coral ecosystems for current and future generations to come," he added.
Singapore’s drive to restore 100,000 corals begins with growing coral fragments in HDB-style tanks
Shabana Begum Straits Times 10 Dec 2024
SINGAPORE – The Republic has launched its most ambitious coral-restoration project, growing corals from fragments in “high-rise” special tanks on St John’s Island.
Once grown to a healthy size, 100,000 of these corals will be planted on degraded reefs or empty sea spaces to create new reef habitats.
The first step of this decade-long effort began at a new facility in the island’s Marine Park Outreach and Education Centre – home to six specialised tanks that can be used for large-scale coral cultivation.
The six tanks can hold up to 3,600 coral fragments, or nubbins, at any one time. To date, more than $2 million has been raised for the restoration project.
The facility is still in the works and is targeted to fully open in the second quarter of 2025. For now, there are about 600 nubbins growing in two of the tanks.
While the initial stages of the project will be helmed by researchers, marine enthusiasts will be later invited to the lab to grow corals and monitor them, said National Development Minister Desmond Lee on Dec 10, as he announced the launch of the initiative on St John’s Island.
The National Parks Board (NParks), St John’s Island National Marine Laboratory and the Friends of Marine Park community will train members of the public to cultivate corals, monitor their growth and do weeding work to remove algae from the corals, among other things.
More details on public participation will be shared when ready.
When the coral-restoration project was announced in 2023, NParks said it would take at least 10 years to complete.
At the launch, Mr Lee was joined by world-renowned British primate expert Jane Goodall, who was on a working visit to Singapore.
Over the decades, about 60 per cent of Singapore’s coral reefs have been lost to coastal development and land reclamation. Most of its remaining intact coral reefs are found in the Southern Islands.
The Republic’s waters are home to around 250 species of hard corals, which constitute about a third of the world’s existing coral species.
The reefs here serve as habitat for more than 100 species of reef fish, about 200 species of sea sponges, and rare and endangered seahorses and clams, among other marine life.
Beyond boosting marine biodiversity, restoring corals will protect coastlines from waves and storms, which are expected to get stronger amid sea-level rise and climate change.
The corals to be grown in tanks and planted in the wild include several species under NParks’ species recovery programme, which protects threatened flora and fauna and helps them survive environmental change. These include the branching staghorn coral and the flat table acropora coral.
The acropora is not a common species here because it thrives in waters with strong currents and good visibility – conditions that are rarely found in Singapore.
Coral nubbins are fragments trimmed from a colony of adult corals. However, marine biologists usually prioritise loose corals that would otherwise tumble and die when swept by waves.
Mr Lee said cultivating corals in specialised tanks is an ambitious undertaking, with conditions such as lighting and temperature as well as water quality and flow needing to be specific to each species.
To allow hundreds of coral fragments to grow in each tank, scientists at the St John’s Island National Marine Laboratory are cultivating them on vertical structures, among other methods. Coral nubbins are attached to plugs that are then affixed to a vertical frame.
The scientists and NParks staff have named these set-ups “coral HDBs”, said the minister.
Dr Lionel Ng, a research fellow at the NUS Tropical Marine Science Institute who is involved in the coral-restoration work, noted that the survival rate of transplanted corals is about 80 per cent to 90 per cent, which is on a par with the 80 per cent survival rate of corals found in the wild here.
The tanks are paired with a smart system that will send data on water quality to researchers. This allows them to monitor tank conditions remotely and be alerted if they need to intervene.
The system is a technology of Delta Electronics, a firm that specialises in industrial and building automation solutions. Delta is also one of several donors of the more than $2 million raised so far. The other donors include GSK-EDB Trust Fund, Deutsche Bank, Takashimaya Singapore and marine fuel firm KPI OceanConnect.
The launch of the restoration effort comes as existing corals are slowly recovering from the largest recorded global bleaching event caused by a marine heatwave.
Announced in mid-April by the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the global bleaching event was the fourth of its kind.
In July, areas such as St John’s, Lazarus and Kusu Islands were found to have 30 per cent to 55 per cent of coral colonies bleached and white.
With water temperatures dropping in recent months, bleached corals have started to regain colour, said Mr Lee.
NParks and NUS have been monitoring Singapore’s reefs for bleaching since July.
The findings will help identify which species are under threat and which ones are climate-resilient, and will also narrow down suitable planting sites for future coral-restoration efforts, said Mr Lee.
On whether restored corals will be able to survive future marine heatwaves, Dr Ng pointed to a research project that aims to enhance the ecological resilience of coral reefs against climate change.
“Information from that (study) will feed into this. We’ll refine our final strategies to see which species are suitable for which areas. It’s a matter of tweaking what we know of the environment and what we know of the corals to find the best match,” he added.
In her address to NParks, scientists and groups involved in the restoration project, Dr Goodall said: “We know that oceans and forests are the two great capturers of carbon dioxide (CO2) on the planet... In the oceans, we have the kelp forests and the seagrass which absorb as much CO2 as a small inland forest.
“It’s no good just protecting corals if we don’t protect kelp forests and seagrass, if we don’t protect forests and peatlands. It’s all interconnected.”
NParks launches Singapore’s most extensive coral restoration effort, tapping on technology and research to plant 100,000 corals in Singapore’s waters
NPARKS MEDIA RELEASE 10 Dec 2024
NParks launches Singapore’s most extensive coral restoration effort, tapping on technology and research to plant 100,000 corals in Singapore’s waters
- Transplanted corals will help restore degraded reefs or establish new coral communities
- Smart technology will be deployed to optimise large-scale, ex-situ coral cultivation
- Programme partners and donors include St John’s Island National Marine Laboratory, Delta Electronics, GSK-EDB Trust Fund, Deutsche Bank, Takashimaya Singapore and KPI OceanConnect
Singapore, 10 December 2024 – The National Parks Board (NParks) today launched the 100k Corals Initiative, which aims to plant 100,000 corals in Singapore’s waters over the next 10 years and beyond. Corals will be cultivated at a new coral culture facility at NParks’ Marine Park Outreach and Education Centre on St John’s Island, before being transplanted into our marine environment to restore degraded reefs or establish new coral communities. This will be the most extensive coral restoration effort in Singapore to date. Given Singapore’s limited coral cover, the programme will also scale up NParks’ existing coral restoration efforts to substantially improve the resilience of local coral communities and reefs.
NParks is working with the St John’s Island National Marine Laboratory (SJINML) to roll out the 100k Corals Initiative, which has received over S$2 million in support to date through the Garden City Fund, NParks’ registered charity and IPC, from the following donors:
· Delta Electronics (approximately S$1.7 million)
· GSK-EDB Trust Fund (S$1 million)
· Deutsche Bank (S$100,000)
· Takashimaya Singapore
· KPI OceanConnect
To mark the launch of the 100k Corals Initiative, Minister for National Development and Minister-in-charge of Social Services Integration Desmond Lee took part in a coral planting activity at the coral culture facility today.
New coral culture facility for ex-situ coral cultivation
As part of the 100k Corals Initiative, NParks is establishing a new coral culture facility at the Marine Park Outreach and Education Centre on St John’s Island. The cultivation of corals at the facility will be carried out by coral restoration experts and researchers from the National University of Singapore at SJINML. The coral species cultivated include several that are under NParks’ Species Recovery Programme[1], such as the Staghorn coral (Acropora digitifera) and Plate Acropora coral (Acropora millepora).
Serving as an ex-situ coral nursery, the coral culture facility will house six tanks that can rear up to 600 coral nubbins each. The nubbins, which are small coral fragments produced from adult colonies, will be attached to a specially designed frame that maximises the number of corals that can be grown in the tanks, and grown under controlled conditions. Once the nubbins have grown large enough, they will be transplanted onto degraded reefs for restoration purposes, or inserted into other areas to establish new coral communities. Corals-of-opportunity, which are naturally fragmented corals lying free on the floor that may not survive without external intervention, could potentially be used as a source of transplant as well. The coral culture facility is targeted to be fully operational and open to the public in the second quarter of 2025.
During the launch event, special guest Dr. Jane Goodall DBE, founder of the Jane Goodall Institute, also did a sharing on marine conservation at the new coral culture facility.
Altogether, this will aid species recovery efforts for rarer coral species, and increase coral cover and diversity in Singapore, complementing efforts under NParks’ Marine Conservation Action Plan[2] to protect the natural heritage of our City in Nature.
NParks-Delta Corals Research Programme
Established to kickstart the 100k Corals Initiative, the NParks-Delta Corals Research Programme is a collaborative project between NParks and Delta Electronics that integrates smart technology into NParks’ coral cultivation efforts.
As part of the two-year research programme, NParks will leverage Delta’s expertise in industrial and building automation to optimise large-scale coral cultivation at the coral culture facility. As the healthy growth of corals is dependent on several parameters, including lighting, temperature, water quality and water flow, smart technology will be deployed to cultivate corals under controlled conditions in the tanks, enabling them to thrive without being subject to environmental stressors such as ocean warming and acidification.
The tanks will be installed with a smart coral culture aquaculture system set up by Delta that integrates intelligent aquaculture and environment management. Designed to detect abnormalities that can affect coral growth, the system monitors water conditions using various instruments and transmits the data to researchers, enabling real-time, remote monitoring and timely intervention. For instance, if the temperature of the tanks is too high, the automated system will send an alert, allowing for a quicker response that can minimise adverse impact such as coral bleaching.
As part of the research programme, NParks will work with experts to develop a nationwide coral reef restoration plan for resilience as well. A training programme will also be developed by NParks, SJINML and Friends of Marine Park for citizen science monitoring of the transplanted corals, and volunteers will be trained to assist with coral husbandry and underwater monitoring techniques. More details of volunteer training opportunities will be shared when ready.
In all, the NParks-Delta Research Programme will provide the 100k Corals Initiative with a sustainable source of corals to be transplanted, and enable further cross-sector collaborations and research opportunities. Furthermore, it will build capacity and technical know-how in large-scale coral restoration for future conservation efforts.
Importance of coral conservation
Corals are keystone reef-building animals that support a marine ecosystem, and an estimated one-quarter of marine species depend on coral reefs to survive. They are also a potential nature-based solution to help mitigate the impacts of climate change, serving as a natural defence against shoreline erosion while providing habitats for a rich array of marine biodiversity. Hence, to safeguard this valuable ecosystem, it is imperative to scale up coral restoration efforts locally, which will contribute towards a high-quality living environment in our City in Nature.
To support the 100k Corals Initiative, interested parties can donate online to the Garden City Fund via go.gov.sg/donate100kcorals or email garden_city_fund@nparks.gov.sg.
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[1] The Species Recovery Programme was introduced in 2015 as part of NParks’ Nature Conservation Masterplan. It aims to conserve native flora and fauna by targeting endemic, rare or threatened native species in Singapore through reintroduction, habitat enhancement and protection efforts.
[2] Launched in 2015, the Marine Conservation Action Plan sets out strategies to protect, restore and enhance Singapore’s coastal and marine habitats.