Resilient Reefs Foundation

The Forerunners of Reef Restoration on the Great Barrier Reef

In early 2016, record ocean temperatures led to intense and widespread coral bleaching in the northern third of the Great Barrier Reef. In early 2017, it happened again, this time in the central third of the Great Barrier Reef. The unprecedented back-to-back mass coral bleaching events was then compounded in March 2017 by Category 5 Tropical Cyclone Debbie. In May 2017, the Reef Authority convened a Reef Summit where it was concluded that the frequency and severity of disturbances required a different approach to management. A key outcome was to permit intervention in the natural process of recovery, including reef restoration. Reef Restoration Foundation incorporated on 11 July 2017 then secured the first permit on 13 October 2017 and installed the first ocean-based multi-species coral nursery on the Great Barrier Reef at Fitzroy Island on 7 December 2017.

Today, we work at three sites that are accessed from the port of Cairns. Our original site at Fitzroy Island is dedicated to R&D. And we have nurseries at Hastings Reef and Moore Reef where our permit allows us to produce additional coral larvae at a large scale. We have stayed true to our original community-based model in the belief that a groundswell of action from our communities creates a snowball effect that can't be ignored.

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